Landing UGC Airbnb and Travel Deals

Many of you have been looking to break into the Airbnb & Travel UGC space.

In this blog post, we’re going to be breaking down the entire process to land your first Airbnb gig.

Much of this post was inspired by a conversation that we had with Chelsea Greber, one of the experts in this space.

Landing Airbnb Gigs: The Process

Landing UGC deals with Airbnbs might seem overwhelming at first, but it’s quite simple when you break it down into individual steps. 

Here is the 5 step process that we’ll be breaking down today:  

1. Create your travel portfolio.

2. Identify and research listings to pitch.

3. The pitching process.

4. Film and deliver.

5. Update portfolio, refine your process, and repeat!
   
   

Creating your Travel Portfolio

You likely don’t have a travel portfolio yet… that’s fine. 

This is usually a bit harder than creating your typical portfolio because you can’t just use products that you already own.

In order to get started, we recommend booking a nearby Airbnb or wait for an upcoming planned vacation.

Before your trip, research and study some of the top travel creators. See how their portfolios are structured and what type of videos and images they’re including.

Identify and Research Listings to Pitch

After you’ve built your portfolio, it’s time to find some Airbnbs that you’d like to create content for.

I want to set some expectations here… 

Those immaculate listings with the 5 star ratings that are fully booked up…

It’s going to be unlikely that you land those are your first gig. 

Here’s what you should be looking for in a listing:

• New (minimal reviews)

• Lots of potential, but images need improvement

• Identifiable problem that you could solve

Study the top listings in the area and ask yourself, what do the top listings have in common that newer listings might be missing.

Let’s say you’re checking out lake houses.

You notice that the majority of the top listings have pictures of people paddle-boarding or doing water activities.

You identified a pattern, and now you can use that as one of your pitching angles…

The Pitching Process

Once you’ve done your research and identified an angle, it’s time to prep your pitch. 

You want to make these short and sweet, and specifically incite a bit of “pain.”

What is their listing missing, what could be better? 

Check out their social media accounts - how can they improve? 

Present the problem, irritate it a bit, and present the solution (you!). 

You can pitch directly through the Airbnb app, but I recommend checking out our full interview with Chelsea.

She breaks down the pitch method as well as a ton of things to avoid, such as: 

• Not using the word “Instagram”

• How to get around not being able to send your email address on Airbnb

• How to avoid getting flagged by Airbnb

• And more!
  
  

Film and Deliver

Or should we say, film and over-deliver.

Do your research ahead of time and figure out what videos and images are performing best for Airbnbs.

Deliver what was agreed upon (and maybe even more).

Our goal with this first collab is to build our portfolio and ideally land a testimonial.

If you can secure a testimonial, it will set you up for success in your future pitches.

Update your portfolio and Repeat

Using the content that you made from this trip, and the potential testimonial that you secured (because you over-deliver) update your travel portfolio.

Continue to test different pitch methods and see what works best for you.

It’s all about testing, refining your process, and repeating.

As you get better at this process, you’ll be able to charge more, and land more lucrative stays with Airbnbs and hotels.

Summary

• Start your Airbnb UGC journey by creating your travel portfolio

• Do your research before pitching

• Keep your pitch short and sweet!

• Rinse and Repeat, while updating your portfolio