[Video] Q&A with Airbnb Founders

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

In November, you might remember I asked you what questions you would like the Airbnb Founders, Brian, Joe and Nate to answer in their Q&A live from the Airbnb Open in Los Angeles. You posted a wide range here in the Q&A thread, however it was clear that there were many key themes you were keen to hear more on.

I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting to receive this video and I am very pleased to share this with you, along with subtitles in English.  

A huge thank you to all of you for taking the time to submit your questions and I hope you enjoy watching. 

Lizzie 🙂

[video]

[David126]

In this context it means renting property on line rather than using the local paper, corner shop etc.

Nothin new in renting rooms.

[Jennifer178]

Hi @Lizzie, @David126, @Andrea9, @Annette33, and @Robin4, @Alice & Jeff (some of my I favorite posters) I watched the video and then came across articles from CNET, TechCrunch and Reuters about new plans to have a Host Advisory Council, live Facebook chats and other stuff.  If I was a bit more tech saavy I would put the links here but alas the 21st century is not my friend. I just typed Airbnb into the search thing and there they were.

I embraced the instant book stuff a while ago but still have about 50% of guests contact me first.  I do believe my listing info (what gets read) and price discouarges the type of guest with whom I would not be a good fit.  As far as matching, since people do not read all the well thought out and thorough details we provide, I do not see the point of even addressing this.

I used to read Host Voice but tend to forget about it. If they can put a phone number on their page in other countries, they should be able to everywhere. Hire more people to answer the phone.  Having said that, I do have many phone numbers, email addresses and twitter IDs for mutliple people at Airbnb.  I have been culling this for a while. I have always had excellent communication and amazing follow-up from customer service.

If I can have this experience, why can't others? People just want to feel like they are not abandoned. If they insisted on making new hosts read a training manual and sign-off at the end that they have read and understand the basics, maybe there would be less crying for a way to contact them. Or the same basic questions being asked all the time. Well educated people are more independent and successful.

Sorry for the rambling.  Long day.  Thanks, Jennifer

[David126]

@Jennifer178

https://www.cnet.com/news/airbnb-hosts-advisory-council-chesky-business/

And various others.

I agree with everything you said so I guess that is it!

The proof will be in the pudding.

[Jennifer178]

@David126, Great minds and all that stuff.

[Helga0]

Interesting video. I see it as quite reassuring that the three think about the future of the company and I don't think that their main drive is the money. It's creating something and considering the powerful tool they shaped, there must be serious peasure in shaping aspects of the world. 

the impact and the reach is different, but the way they shape the future of their company is not different from international companies I worked for 20 or 30 years ago. It looks normal, not frightening to me 

the matching algorithm got quite good over time - I have most guests now via IB and most fall in a few categories, that are good for me. not only bringing in money and doing no damage, but a pleasure to meet. Tonight I have someone outside that field, a friendly fellow, but the drifting sounds of football matches from the other room made me think earlier, that it's rare now that I get football fans. 

I would prefer however, if the host could feed some basic info to the matching algorithm, as well as that guests should be able to. I have lost a few types of guests too, that were interesting. Not to give me more bookings, but to keep up the variety. The algorithm seems to have determined that vegans are very happy in my place, which is all well and good, but I love cooking meet once in a while. 😉

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for your comments. It is really interesting to hear your thoughtful overviews on the points discussed during the Q&A. I think it is great for us to discuss this here and I hope we can continue this a little further. 🙂

It is really useful to hear your feedback as well, the team will be really keen to hear this so I will certainly pass this over to them.

This is the first time we have had held a Q&A through the CC and I have to admit there are certainly things we can work on, however I think there are many positives we can still take from this and next time we will improve it further, which means I will ensure the answers are fed back to you much faster! 🙂

Thanks again.

Lizzie

[David126]

@Lizzie

You could also mention as an example the thread yesterday about changing the way reviews are listed and giving sort options.

It has been a common comment on here that bad reviews will drop off and be buried by the better ones. Now not so.

The guidance now would be to fight every bad one, are AirBnB staffed to cope with the additional load? 

[Kelly149]

@Lizzie One thing I noticed was the comment like "we are the hosts for the hosts" or similar...

now if only someone could create a star rating for corporate 

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