What is AirBnb about? Belonging or Lodging

[Susan990]

How was it possible that the founding duo have, as the press reported "disrupted an industry" with not a shred of educational experience nor work experience in that industry?  Should it be any surprise that  AirBnb has drifted very far from the shores of it's own Origin Story?  Let use revisit the tale of where it all began.

As described in the hardbound book they sent to me -- The San Francisco Chronicle  reported that the Architectural Convention was sold out and hundreds of attendees had no place to stay because every single room in the city was booked.

These convention attendees were working professionals who where there of necessity and needed a place to Live while they Worked.  The conventional lodging providers could not meet the need--which spawned the idea of offering a "lodging alternative"--i.e. air mattress on floor, coffee and pop-tart to go.

The press reported that " an industry (short term rental) STR had been disrupted" overnight by young entrepreneurs searching for  their Big Idea and they found it.  That big idea has since died on the vine of ignorance and greed as AirBnb founders still dwell in denial of it's origins and the foundation upon which the now stock holding empire was built.

I remember that Christmas drawing a sudden connection with the tale of the Holy Family traveling to Jerusalem to "pay their taxes", with infant child on  donkey.  All the Inns were full but they were offered floor space in parking garage--the underground cave where the all terrain vehicle - said donkey - was housed, straw bed included in rent, the manger re-purposed as crib for the Kid.

My own "two guesthouse start-up" was busy providing an alternative lodging service to the single working professionals who travel to my town to work on projects at the data storage center and construction workers building solar power plants in the high lonesome desert plateau. 

The start of 2022 AirBnb inexplicably and without warning removed the Monthly Stays Platform.  This product was created to serve the needs of the traveling worker community always desperately seeking  a place to live in places where there are n hotels, no resorts, no furnished rentals for a few months contract time.  It represented the second disruption of an industry ( Long Term Rental) LTR - Monthly Stays was just getting discovered and producing high occupancy rates between 80% to 95% depending on how the Host managed their calendar.  Then COVID hit and it went viral.  STR listings were closing  down--LTR listings were booming.

....see part 2 of 2 next.

[Susan990]

Nothing prepared the Airbnb Host community for what was to come in the new year.  First came the Winter Release and the Monthly Stays platform is gone -- replaced with Flexible and Experiences - two kinds!

I remember CEO Brian Cheskey announcing "I am bullish on Experiences".  A person might think he is peddling  Stocks.

Then the Summer Release -- let the no beta testing rollout nightmare begin.

CEO Cheskey announced his mission accomplished - "creating an end-to-end travel platform that will handle every part of your trip."  So.... now AirBnb is a travel agency?

But wait there is more.  The redesign of the entire platform looks exactly like Hopper  A.I. right down to the graphics and the logo color.  So now AirBnb is selling our browsing data?  Is that more lucrative than booking fees?  Do the stock holders approve?  Just asking.

The 2022 new look of the front page, all eye candy entertainment places which look more like "Tax" shelters than booking bait--  but for who or what? Why the new global world traveler presumed to exist in vast numbers hungry for travel but who does not know where to travel to or when to travel there and would really appreciate some creative suggestions.  Hope that bet works out for ABB.

Hate to break it to you but anyone with that kind of coin does not rent vacation places - they buy them.  And when it comes to the travel part they do not call  Airbnb - they call the hangar and say "pre-flight the 6 seater for Saturday".  Just saying.

Is it time for the leadership at AirBnb to touch down on planet earth and remember what this business is made of and why it exists?  The pre-dominant profile of Hosts are Women age 60+ who are seeking an income stream to supplement the household.  The pre-dominant Guest profile are limited funds budget seekers of affordable alternatives to commercial lodging which meet the needs of their working and leisure life.

Those old stats are where it all began and I contend are still the meat and potatoes of the platform.  That core baseline product which serves a need as opposed to exploiting a need is the essence of its strength and value in the market place of life everywhere all the time.

A western homily which I believe hails from Texas is wise on this subject ~~ Always leave the dance with the one that brung yah.  It seems AirBnb forgot who and what brought it to the dance.

[Lenore22]

100% Agreed.

Everytime I open Airbnb in a new browser, I just get confused. "Why is it showing me places in the desert? I hate the desert. Why is it showing multi-million dollar lakehouses in Tahoe? When I go to Tahoe, I want a ski place. If I wanted a dream house, I would go to the beach. Oh that's right... I was looking for a pet-friendly place to stay near my mom's house in San Diego... Maybe I should just look at hotels..."

I totally agree. It feels like they are actually making it harder for us to find what we are looking for, by having to navigate around their home page to enter what I'm actually looking for.

It can be fun to see these different places, but ultimately, it's just a distraction from the place I actually want to book. And I worry that other users are in a similar boat.

It would be like going to an airline to book a flight and they just list all kinds of flights to Paris or Trinidad and do I want to travel for a week, a month or a year. Nope, I know where I'm going and when, I just need to know how much and what flights are available... Stop wasting my time & attention!

[Susan990]

@Lenore22  You are so right in your analysis and description of what they have done to what was the most user friendly platform for lodging simply because it was not commercialized and it was homey and friendly to use. And you could communicate with the owner or manager as a human being not a robot .

[Gordon0]

>>I remember CEO Brian Cheskey announcing "I am bullish on Experiences"<<

I read that, possibly in a Freudian way, as something very different @Susan990. And it made perfect sense (I'm seeing barns in the middle of nowhere today on my landing page). 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Well, I understand they want to attract new users and make as much money as they can so they are experimenting. But, too many non-well-thought experiments (could) have the opposite effect. When people are using some service/stuff/application/brand.... they appreciate it when is simple to use and has a continuous level of quality without constant changes, it wastes their time and patience.

It is like going out and then returning home late and tired only to find out someone rearranged your entire home and you can't find anything anymore.

I think it is cool ABB decided to sort all kinds of unusual, crazy, luxurious properties but... the way they are presented is wrong and confusing for users. It should be a filter or even better keyword search for them, without default random days and random area.   It is confusing to users who are already exhausted from planning the trip, researching about the cities, flights, luggage, transfer from the airport...

Btw, July is the top season here and I don't remember ever having 2 + 3 available dates in a city full of tourists. Hosts in my neighborhood are all on Booking.com and they are 100% full, saying how this summer they got more bookings on B.com then on Airbnb.

[Rhonda301]

I’m in the middle of July and booked

 but after that nothing. I took my time listing in other platforms since we are new. Now im bummed. 

[Susan990]

Much thanks for your detailed reporting.  Hopefully this information will make its way back to ABB HQ such that they can reclaim their own market quickly and apologize to" the Base"  for what they have done. Always remember what George Bush said while in office- to keep his base protective and loyale  " Remember to always leave the dance with the one who brung yah"  As he held hands with the Saudi Prince.  But that was then and we are just trying to stay in business with a company we bet on being their for use along the road to success. 

[Pat271]

Although the recent changes to the Airbnb interface needs to be rethought, “Going back to our roots” would not be wise either. If that were the solution, we would still be churning butter, scrubbing clothes, and poking the keys on a teletype machine. Innovation is good, and the pioneers of industry must constantly examine the current world around it to determine need.

By the same token, the world needs step out of its comfort zone occasionally, and not get set in its ways. It’s natural to reject the unfamiliar. Again, not saying that Airbnb is on the right path, only saying that innovation is necessary and inevitable, and both companies and their customers need to be flexible and adaptable to change.

[Rhonda301]

Articles I see though expresses the confusion of the guests.  We express the confusion of the hosts. They are missing the boat I think of both sides are confused. 

[Mark116]

@Pat271  I can't really see the "Summer Release" as an innovation.  It was an arrogant, naval gazing exercise in branding at the expense of the actual business.  Generally, "innovations" that make your business more confusing and your most popular products more difficult to find are not going to succeed and that is where Airbnb currently is sitting.  The new format makes the niche, super expensive, weird listings easier to find, but for that to succeed it must be true that the majority of users want and will book giant potatoes and $11K a night villas and all the other unique stuff that is now front and center.  I simply do not believe this is a correct understanding of the travel market or of Airbnb's customers.

Our views have not rebounded, and that means that we cannot list on Airbnb after the end of the year.  We're content with the $$ we have made so far for 2022, so if we don't get more fall bookings, its fine, but we cannot continue with 2-5 views a day into next year.

[Pat271]

I guess stating it 2 times was not enough. Again, Airbnb needs to revisit and revamp the new design. But it will ultimately be in everyone’s best interests for that revamping to move the product forward, not backwards. 

[Rhonda301]

We haven’t had any new bookings and we are most likely ending AirBNB soon or go with others. They won’t respond to the damage reimbursement except to ask for more documentation the same already provided so we are dead in the waters after launching mid May.   

The website is weird now. I looked for a listing never to find what I wanted only random stuff not related to my interests.  Be been a guest for years and years. I do t see value anymore and my rose color glasses broke. 

[Ted307]

@Susan990 

Our bookings are still down since the "Update". We de-listed while we installed A/C and took some new photos for a couple of weeks. When we re-listed we had one of our regular guests book 2 trips to our place, and that seemed to give us a boost since we got a last minute booking for this weekend, the first AirBnB new booking since the Summer disaster. But, we also lowered our rate $10/night and our cleaning fee from $60 to $20-$30 using the silly lower fee for a shorter stay new function that Air is pushing. 

I look at this "Update" the same way I do the supermarket moving the product I am looking for. When I went to Costco the other day I was looking for potato salad that we always get there, but it was moved, so I just did not buy it. But, most consumers look all around for what they want, spend more time in the store and see more stuff to buy, so they spend more. Air BnB seems to believe that we are now depending on them, they spent a ton of money to capture this market, and now they want to monetize their brand. Even though we individual hosts may be the majority of the hosts, we are not the largest number of listings -- I am pretty sure small hosts like us are not where the majority of their money comes from.

[Susan990]

@Ted307  Much thanks to you for your astute comments and analysis. I concede your point well taken but I still struggle with the final analysis that what matters and what succeeds is a Majority vs. Minority numbers game . And that success is measured in dollars vs. yield. 

The lodging products  that we mom and pop places have created is impossible to reproduce and if you cannot reproduce it at scale and distribute it globally then what you have is irreplaceable and therefor priceless. 

 The inventory of AirBnb properties created over the years is all of that. And now with cat out of the bag that AirBnb is playing every visitor to the site like an Amazon  or Costco shopper the entire platform has just destroyed the myth and the magic that once was the brand called  AirBnb.