When a host provides Airbnb a great idea!

Marcus0
Level 10
Berlin, DE

When a host provides Airbnb a great idea!

Hi Airbnb hosts,

Airbnb allows for anyone to write to them if they have a great idea for the platform.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback 

I went through an experience a few years back where i left a detailed idea that would help efficiencies with host/guest relations.

Within 6 months, Airbnb implemented the exact idea globally.

When i enquired if my idea that they implemented came from my submission, i was told, it was from collective feedback.  Ok, .... fair enough.

Wouldn´t it be great (and encouraging) if Airbnb provided a place where hosts could submit and be rewarded for things like major bug detections or great ideas?  Right now, if you submit information into the "Give product feedback" it´s a black hole.  You don´t get a confirming email or notification of your submission.

 

2 Replies 2
Christine1081
Level 4
Humboldt, TN

Having worked with a global company before, I can probably put money on the fact there were multiple submissions like yours in their box. Great minds think alike. So it makes it hard to nail it down to one person with the scale they have. Kudos to you for being professional enough to understand that...and just know you did good for the greater community of airbnb host. I do think a more aggressive rewards program might be nice but having played the hotel and airline points system for years, it is hardly worth it sometimes. 

All in all-go airbnb!!

Christine Warrington
Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

@Marcus0 , I have also worked for a large corporation, and there is another major point to consider. 

 

Large technical corporations have the yearly goal of increasing their patent count.  If they admit that an idea is yours instead of theirs, they would not be able to patent it.  They have teams of patent lawyers whose main job is to evaluate new patent ideas coming from within the company, investigate whether the ideas have any merit and whether they have already been filed, write the complex verbiage for the patent filings, and take the ideas through the various approval processes.  It is mind-blowing the seemingly trivial ideas that are put through the patent process in order to increase patent counts.

 

Once a patent has been filed, it has the potential of being monetized.  The real money comes from scouring the competition to see if anyone else is using the idea and not paying for it.  They have another team of lawyers whose job it is to do the scouring.  Lawsuits are constantly being filed to address patent breaches.  There’s a lot of money involved here; this is is Big Business at its finest.

 

I would be astounded if you were ever given credit for an idea you submitted.  The initial response would be how wonderful your idea is, and that it would be submitted it right away.  When you inquire further at a later date, you will be told that the idea has already been  “collectively” thought of, as has been eluded to above.

 

However, the first filing for patent idea always wins the war (no matter who really thought of it first), so one thing you could do if you were really hot and ambitious about one of your ideas is attempt to file a patent yourself with the help of a patent attorney  The patent idea would have to be generalized in some way to apply to all short-term rental listing processes, or calendar/scheduling processes, or reservation processes, or whatever else best fits your idea.  Who knows, you might even glean another source of income as a result. 🙂