Building a Standout Guest Experience

Hal Conick
2/16/2026

A New Yorker at heart, Karen Piscitelli would visit a North Carolina cabin her parents built in retirement and wonder: “What do people do around here?” After her dad passed and her mom moved away from the cabin, Piscitelli turned it into a vacation rental property, commuting from New York to make it more guest-friendly. She updated the furniture, bought a bigger bed, and added a fire pit. But outside the property, Piscitelli wondered how she could give guests more options for experiences.

Slowly, Piscitelli made connections with local businesses through the local chamber of commerce. She created a list of things to do locally—go apple picking, see a waterfall, visit a specialty shop—and gave them to guests, who loved her ideas. In the cabin’s guestbook, guests would write page after page of amazing stories about their stay and the things they did.

Piscitelli got an idea: Create a company that connects vacation rental guests with local curated experiences, giving guests across the country access to local experiences. Now, she serves as founder and CEO of the platform Explorabout, which is currently building out its platform to connect guests to experiences through a property’s page. Through her company, property managers earn commissions when guests book experiences, and property managers can provide guests with a local experience without all the effort.

Others have noticed what Piscitelli noticed: People love unique experiences. Guests want to experience the local areas they visit, but they also want their trip to be special. Piscitelli keeps the guest book from the North Carolina property as a reminder that thoughtful experiences create long-lasting memories.

“I still get goose bumps when I read it because experience is the heart of the memory,” Piscitelli says. “I realized then that the bigger and the better the experience, the bigger the memory. You’re creating guest value by enhancing their stay.”

A Growing Market

Curating experiences for guests has always been part of the vacation rental industry, especially in destination cities. Those traveling to Park City, Utah, to ski could likely book lift tickets through their property manager, perhaps even rent skis or a snowboard.

Now, experiences are everywhere, whether in a destination city or Anytown, USA. And their spotlight has grown since Airbnb rolled out its Services feature in May 2025. This new feature allows guests to book professionals—like private chefs and massage therapists—to come work at the property. In the past, these experiences were typically seen more in upscale rentals. Now, every traveler has access.

Even before Airbnb’s service launched, Michele Fitzpatrick, CEO of property management platform eviivo, said that 40% of her customers regularly host experiences. And they don’t have to be extravagant experiences to add value. One of her clients was able to add 30% to her average daily rate because her home-baked cookies—and the ability to take the recipe home—became an experience for her guests. “They were very, very, very good and very special cookies,” she says.

A 2024 report from McKinsey and Co. confirms that travelers have a growing interest in experiences. It found that the experience market itself is worth $3 trillion, and between $1.1 trillion and $1.3 trillion of the spending comes from travelers. In a report from Boston Consulting Group, which predicts the leisure travel market will grow three times bigger by 2040, a co-author of the report said an important element is younger travelers seeking more experiences.

 “Traditional beach and city getaways haven’t lost their charm,” says Dennis Utzerath, a BCG partner and a co-author of the report. “But more and more, travelers are prioritizing meaning, convenience, and personal fulfillment alongside relaxation.”

About two-thirds of travelers say that experiences play a big role in what destination they choose, according to the 2025 U.S. Experiences Traveler Outlook report from travel experiences company Arival. Sightseeing tours and local attractions play a significant role, the report finds, but so do local specialties, special interest tours, or unique culinary experiences (like those special cookies).

No matter what people are looking for, experiences are about selling a memory, according to Jodi Cleer, chief marketing officer at vacation rental company I Love Vacations. This can mean offering concierge services, hiring private chefs or nannies, or even decorating for the holidays when guests arrive.

But it can also mean simple things, such as ensuring it’s easy for guests to rent an umbrella at a nearby beach, helping guests find local tour groups, or giving guests options for activities on rainy days. It’s beyond lodging, Cleer says, as the best experiences are an extension of hospitality.

The Opportunity and Challenge of Adding Experiences

While experiences can offer property managers a rich new way to improve guest satisfaction, they can create some avoidable pitfalls. Here’s what to watch for when adding experiences to your brand.

Find the Right Partners

Like the ventures run by Piscitelli and Fitzpatrick, there are many companies that help property managers offer experiences as a third party. For those who want to forge or create their own experiences, they’ll have to find their own partnerships with local businesses or create their own experiences.

No matter the partner, the quality of the partnership will largely determine the quality of the experience. When property managers forge their own partnerships for local experiences, it’s important to find reliable people whom they can trust to deliver. If a chef doesn’t show up at a scheduled time, Cleer says that it now falls to the property manager to fix it.

“You’ve got to follow through with that, and that can be a little bit challenging when expectations are not met,” Cleer says. “You need to have alternatives ready to go.”

And when partnering with a third-party service, it’s important to think about commission—how much do property managers receive? Are those providing the experience getting too much commission taken? Airbnb takes a 20% commission for every experience, and Piscitelli says that no one should go above that rate. Her company has guaranteed tour operators that they’ll never go above 20% commission and gives property managers 40% of the commission share.

There are also larger companies that offer concierge and curated experiences. Cleer says that her company works with Epicurate, which has an online menu of experiences for guests. When guests book an experience, they get a percentage. “That’s a real hands-off way for us to do it,” Cleer says.

Finding a partner who can help is likely the easiest way to start with experiences. Recently, Piscitelli met with a client and helped them build experiences on their website. “We just gave the code, and they put it on their website,” she says. “That’s how simply it is; we do all the work.”

Liability Concerns

Only property managers who offer their own experience have a true liability concern. Fitzpatrick says that they should think of protecting themselves legally as they would by having liability insurance on their property.

“You do a massage, you put the wrong oil on somebody’s body and they’re allergic, then they die on your table,” Fitzpatrick says. “All of a sudden, you’ve got a big issue. You need to look at the fine print of your insurance. And even when you’ve checked that your insurance covers you, you should use a disclaimer. You have a responsibility to make sure guests know what the risks are.”

When delivering experiences through third parties, there’s less risk of liability—those offering the experience should be covering liability. But even when working with local partners, Fitzpatrick says that poor experiences still reflect upon the property. And that comes back to why good partners are so important.

“You have to be very diligent when you choose the partners you’re going to do business with,” she says. “You have to make sure that they know what they’re doing, that they have insurance, that they are covered. And even though you are no longer the one delivering the experience, you have to make sure that you still put the information in front of the guests and get a disclaimer for yourself.”

Social Media Inspiration

Social media can be a powerful tool for showcasing experiences, especially in the US market. Numbers from Statista show that 40% of US vacationers used social media platforms to plan their travel in 2024, compared with about 10% of European travelers. These numbers are far higher for younger travelers—84% of Gen Z travelers, for example, said social media can be “influential” for inspiring ideas for their trips.

In the Unpack ’25 report from Vrbo, Expedia, and Hotels.com, it found that TikTok and other social platforms have inspired people to take trips in search of specialty goods, like Dubai chocolate. The report found that 39% of travelers visit local grocery stores and 44% shop for local goods they can’t get at home for their trips—coffee tours in Costa Rica, tea tastings in China, and matcha tastings in Japan are some of the more popular experiences, according to the report.

It’s exciting for younger travelers to have a story to tell both on social media and when they come back home from their trip, Fitzpatrick says. This is an opportunity for vacation rental brands to appeal to travelers, especially young travelers, well before they book a trip—then inspire other potential guests after a trip is over, via the guest’s social media posts and the stories they tell friends.

“If you look at our social media, most of it is travel inspiration,” Cleer says. “While you’re here, eat at this restaurant, go on this hike, this is our partner for e-bikes, this is our partner for helicopters. This is what your itinerary should be if you only have two days. No one’s going to follow an account that’s trying to sell you stuff all the time. You get more followers by providing an insider look at the local area.”

Improving the Business Through Guest Experiences

Direct return on investment is hard to measure for experiences, but it does bring rewards. Property managers who provide guests with great experiences can improve guest satisfaction, Piscitelli says, while Cleer and Fitzpatrick both say that great experiences tend to bring in better reviews and better word-of-mouth marketing.

New technology, adopted to help with experiences, may also help managers improve operations. For example, Fitzpatrick says that she’s found experiences useful in working with new artificial intelligence tools, including a chatbot that can respond to guests in different languages, a tool helpful far beyond experiences.

Experience is also an opportunity to improve overall hospitality, Cleer says. One example she saw was improving back-office logistics through working with guests to ship packages to the property. The packages couldn’t be shipped directly to the property itself before their arrival, as other people were staying there, so Cleer’s company had to find room in the office to store the packages. They then had to find a way to ensure packages arrived at the property in time for the guest. “It took quite a lot to orchestrate that,” she says. But now, they know that this is an experience and perk they can provide for guests.

Making that extra layer of hospitality part of the guest experience can also welcome some great feedback. Once providing an experience, Fitzpatrick says that property managers must pay attention to the reviews and feedback to ensure guests are satisfied.

First Steps Toward Creating Better Experiences

For those looking to add experiences, Cleer says that they should start simple, start small, and not over-extend.

“Don’t try to do everything,” she says. “Pick a few things and do them well, and then once you’ve mastered and found those few things, then you can start adding. When you go crazy and try to offer the moon, you’re going to fail. It’s better to do it small and right than do it big and wrong.”

A vacation rental manager who adopts a concierge service should ensure the service is scalable. What amount can the company afford to pay? What kind of training can staff give to ensure the service is integrated with operations? What resources can be used to ensure the service works? She suggests potentially starting with a third-party partner for experiences until managers can get comfortable with the process of offering their own experiences.

It may also take time for property managers to find their vision and bring it to life, Piscitelli says. And Fitzpatrick agrees but said that even starting small—like her client offering cookies and the recipe—can yield big rewards.

Rewards can also come from finding unique experiences that property managers can control, Fitzpatrick says. Another of her clients allowed guests to tour a studio where the movie “The Matrix” was filmed, a studio he owned. Look to the local community to find partners whom you trust, or perhaps other assets you control, then use those to offer guests a great experience.

“Take things you know well, take things you can do, things you know work,” Fitzpatrick says. “Start with that and get the feedback, get the reviews. You don’t rush here—you eat an elephant a bit at a time. If you find your audience, keep growing.”

It’s important for vacation rental managers to allow guests to book experiences upfront. People want to be able to plan to book the best restaurants, experiences, and times for their trip, so building a process that allows people to book experiences as they book their property will help the planners of the world. Managers can even call attention to experiences that tend to sell out or book fast, like dinner reservations or popular tours. Working to help guests plan upfront will also likely increase conversions, Fitzpatrick says.

“If you can sell your experience upfront at the time of booking, it gives you brand differentiation and better conversion,” she says. “You’re more likely to get a booking because you do something special.”

What the Future Holds

Experiences are poised to grow in the coming years, whether vacation rentals adopt them. Airbnb may have put the spotlight on experiences like never before, Fitzpatrick says, but it’s up to property managers to create experiences that please their guests.

At Fitzpatrick’s company, they’re trying to help property managers by creating a booking engine that can help companies better synchronize stays and experiences. This allows property managers to create custom pages for guests, allowing the guests to easily order more experiences directly from the property manager’s booking platform, before and during their stay.

For experiences to grow, Piscitelli says that property managers will need to invest in the technology to ensure it works well on their side and for guests. She estimates that only 20% of tour operators are digitized, and many property managers are also still playing catch-up on the digital side. “But I think it will evolve quickly,” Piscitelli says. “This is very exciting that we have the prototype, because I think that there’s a huge opportunity.”

One of the keys to creating great experiences in the future, according to Cleer, is keeping the sense of hospitality that guests expect from staying on property. Gone are the pandemic-era days of less contact, she says. Instead, property managers offering experiences should work to learn about their guests before they arrive to provide the best possible hospitality.

“You learn what they like, why they are there, and then, because you have made that extra step to figure out who the guest is, you can cater to the occasion,” Cleer says. “People are craving more personalization.”

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