You and I seem to travel in the same way, but I know many people - even of roughly my generation, late 20s/early 30s, who literally don't know the right tools or communities to plan a trip like that. Its guidebooks, maybe some YouTube videos, and mostly things like Pinterest boards that get used to plan a trip. No trips to the local destination's subreddit, certainly no use of Google Translate to read some local media/magazines, etc.

For a lot of people, "tourist trap" doesn't register as a thing - those are just the things you _do_ when you go to whatever place you're going to.

If Airbnb becomes the safe, convenient, well-marketed way to discover reputable but not stereotypical local experiences in a marketplace that takes your credit card, they could do well IMO.

'Something like Groupon to find something to do' is the pitch though, because actual Groupon isn't the ideal place to find things which are interesting to experience on holiday. (And in many of places asking locals meets with either utter bemusement or a commission-paying introduction to a standard tourist activity)

AirBNB aren't the first people to try this, but they're pretty well placed brand-wise to sell the 'real local experience curated by ordinary local people' image. And yes, in practice it'll leverage that to sell standard tourist activities and some customers will be delighted, just like they use AirBNB to find ideally situated self-catering holiday apartments run as businesses rather than airbeds in suburban spare rooms