Start your travel diary!

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

Start your travel diary!

Thanks for helping to shape the future of flexible living on Airbnb!

 

We'd like you to "take us with you" on your journey living on Airbnb. To help us step into your shoes and understand the key moments that impact your guest experience, you’ll create a digital diary using a third-party app called dscout, capturing content and answering questions along the way. Each entry should take you roughly 10-15 minutes.

 

By now you should have received an email invitation to join dscout. Please let us know via LiveAnywhere@Airbnb.com if for any reason that’s not the case.

 

How to use dscout: 

  • Search for an email  from participate@dscout.com where you’ve  been invited to the research (what dscout calls a "mission"). In the email, you’ll see a unique link to set up your account.
  • Next, download the dscout app onto your smartphone from Google Play or the App store.
  • Use the account information you just created to sign in. 
    1. Note that you must have an iPhone (running iOS 13 or newer) or an Android device (running 6.0 Lollipop or newer) to download the dscout app. If you don’t have a smartphone that supports dscout, please let Sara know, and we will figure out other arrangements.
  • Then, create your profile in the app. We would love for you to fill out as much as possible, including your age, location, and a profile picture of yourself!
  • Once you log in to the dscout app on your smartphone, look out for the “Live Anywhere on Airbnb Diary” mission on the 'Invites' tab, which contains additional details about the project.
  • Accept the mission, read the instructions, and select 'add entry' so you can open the set of questions you will need to answer.

 

When to submit diary entries (or “missions”):

  • You’ll submit an entry ASAP when you sign up for dscout. Please complete this “Introduction” mission by Monday at 10am EST.
  • Once you’ve completed the Introduction mission, you can start with your routine entries. 
  • You’ll submit diary entries at key moments of every stay
    • After completing your booking
    • After checking in
    • Mid-stay
    • Before checking out
  • If you've already booked your first stay, you can go ahead and submit that first booking entry!
  • (Optional) There’s a mission called “additional feedback” where you can provide any additional details throughout your journey. Please be sure to let us know  if you have any standout experiences! For example:
    • Customer service issue
    • Trouble finding a place to book
    • Issue with the quality of the home
    • Magical moment with the host or home

 

Who should submit diary entries:

If you’re embarking on this journey with multiple people, feel free to fill out the diary entries together! If travel companions have moments where they’d like to submit their own entry, they can feel free to do so from your account.

 

Who you should go to with questions:

  • If you have questions about the diary study, feel free to ask in this community space so everyone can benefit from seeing the answer
  • If you have a personal question, feel free to reach out to liveanywhere@airbnb.com
  • If you have a technical question please reach out to help@dscout.com

 

The primary purpose of the digital diary is for us to learn about your honest experience living on Airbnb. In the future, we may want to publish a few video clips externally; however we will reach out to you individually to review the content before we do that.

23 Replies 23
Ben4139
Level 3
Oaxaca, Mexico

Thanks Sara,

 

This is a duplicate to a message I left... somewhere (?!)...

 

Trying / wanting to proceed with the first entry, especially as we are on a short stay of 1 week.  I would still like to proceed and go through the feedback cycle, but am not finding WHERE to do this.  DScout has a structured interview for the intro part, but subsequent parts seem to be "blocked".

 

As this may be a technical issue, I shared the topic as well with DSCOUT technical help link.

 

Any guidance on how/where to start?

 

Thanks

Ben (and Peta)

Stephanie2009
Level 4
Chattanooga, TN

Hi Sara! I also sent this in an email, but realized it may be better suited for here. Pete and I recorded our introductions but when we went to upload it, realized it was way too long. Is it possible to see the time constraints before we record? As far as I could tell, I couldn't see it anywhere within the app or prompts. We will rerecord one this morning, but I emailed the original (~8 min) just in case! Thanks!

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

Hi Ben and Peta! (@Ben4139)

 

Thanks for flagging this issue. It's been fixed and everyone can record all their entries now!

 

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

@Stephanie2009 Thanks for flagging this. Dscout actually has a maximum of 2 minutes on every video! I'm sorry that's not clear. 

 

If your video(s) are ever longer than 2 minutes, I recommend emailing them exactly like you did!

Lindsey310
Level 3
Chesapeake Beach, MD

Hi Sarah, 
I'm not actually seeing an email to join Dscout. Can you check on that for me?

Thanks!
Lindsey (and Anna and Bev)

Lindsey310
Level 3
Chesapeake Beach, MD

@Sara387 tagging so you see this. 🙂

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

Hi @Lindsey310!

 

An invite was sent to your email. Search for an email from participate@dscout.com. It might have landed in your spam or promotions folder.

 

You can also try joining using this direct link: https://app.dscout.com/scouts/sign_up?sign_up_token=4b4HqCNthta27NZOC27mqeH8

 

Let me know if you're still having trouble!

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

@Stephanie2009 How did you record/upload your video? 

 

I'm reviewing it now, and I'm actually able to watch the full 4 minute video on dscout even though the limit is supposed to be 2 minutes. I'm thinking maybe if you record the video in a different and then upload you can make it as long as you want.

Lindsey310
Level 3
Chesapeake Beach, MD

@Sara387 Thanks, the link worked! 
And @Stephanie2009 I was just able to upload something closer to 3 minutes, but I did record it and uploaded it. In case that helps. 

Lindsey310
Level 3
Chesapeake Beach, MD

@Sara387 Can you confirm that you can see our intro video on Dscout? I keep getting an error message but want to make sure you can see it. 

Thanks!

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

@Lindsey310 it says your video is processing. Let's give it 30 minutes to see if it uploads. I'll check back in to let you know whether it does!

Stephanie2009
Level 4
Chattanooga, TN

@Sara387 I recorded it on my GoPro. 🙂 The first time though, it was closer to 8 minutes and it did not allow me to upload it, but it would allow me to select about half of it...so perhaps the limit is ~4 minutes?

Sara387
Level 4
Austin, TX

@Stephanie2009 That's a bummer. Would you mind emailing me the file at sara.sodine@airbnb.com? 

 

Thank you!

 

To everyone else—I'm going to figure out a solution to allow you to upload longer videos. If your video is too long to upload to dscout, please email it to me at sara.sodine@airbnb.com for now! 

Lindsey310
Level 3
Chesapeake Beach, MD

@Sara387 did mine finally upload? I tried two different times, but I can't tell if it worked. Will email to you if not.