A Concierge for your Airbnb

[Roland393]

Hi there,

I am Roland, an entrepreneur at UC Berkeley. I run a technology company that is building a high-end concierge service, and I'm curious about its application to Airbnbs.

I am an Airbnb host myself (in my hometown Hamburg, Germany) and would be curious to learn about your take on this idea.

The Wing concierge service allows your guests to get anything they need done. This can range from daily activities, such as food delivery and dry cleaning, to scheduling upcoming events, such as reservations, booking luxury transportation, and providing travel advice. We have connections around the world to ensure that customer requests, no matter how difficult, are handled.

Would you be open to offering this concierge app as part of your listing to improve the guest's experience (and ultimately potentially the rating)?

Here is some more information: https://Getwingapp.com/airbnb

If you are interested in trying it out, I would love to start a FREE pilot with you to discover together what opportunities we have and if my idea works as well as I think it will.

DM me and/or post any questions to this thread - happy to hear from you

Have a great week,

Roland

[Marie82]

@Roland393 a few months ago ur offering with adding a big plus in some listings and destination. But not sure right now if it is a good time for it. Many homeowners are struggling with bills and guests cancelling and all travel restriction around the world.

[Roland393]

Hi Marie!

Thanks for your feedback 🙂

There will be better times again, for sure. In any case, we are exploring opportunities to actually provide cashback for hosts. Hence, you would not have to pay but would rather GET money by using it 😄 

Best,

Roland

[Melodie-And-John0]

And when do I receive my first check @Roland393 , I keep looking at my account, no money!   Ha, just joshing you!   I think people might use this but not this people!   Im local and rural and I still have a better chance of finding something useful on craiglist and the local diner counter than any more apps and directories.  I wish you great luck, JR 

[Roland393]

Hi @Melodie-And-John0, I agree - in rural areas, there will probably not really be that much that a concierge could do. It could still be used to have your guestbook and additional information be interactive, but that will probably not be a good enough value proposition 🙂

[Anonymous]

@Roland393   Looking at this from a guest perspective:  if this was the kind of service I wanted, why wouldn't I just download the app directly?  Airbnb hosts are generally not expected to provide digital services to their guests, and I'm just not seeing the benefit of adding an extra middleman to the process of something that's already very easy to do, such as ordering a pizza or an Uber (or whatever "high-end" version of those things you prefer to foreground).

Long before the pandemic struck, hotel chains had been quietly doing away with concierge services because guests preferred to use the smartphone apps made their function redundant. There is still a small core of guests - mostly of an older generation - who prefer luxury hotels because they have staff fulfilling their every whim. But I don't see a lot of overlap between those guests and Airbnb users.

[Roland393]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your feedback!

Let me try to explain the value from my perspective:

Of course, guests could download the app directly - if they knew about it - and benefit from the service. However, we are seeking to also provide information specific to the Airbnb itself similar to a guest book (e.g. "what's the WiFi", where the trash needs to be put, the nearest post office, etc.) to make it as appealing as possible.

You are right that ordering food, making restaurant reservations, finding experiences, etc. is no rocket science! However, researching, filling out forms, calling places, etc. takes time - and if this app can save you 2 valuable vacation hours, wouldn't that be nice?

The fact that people move from in-person concierges to digital alternatives actually makes me think that there is an opportunity to help shape this shift.

Of course, I don't believe it's for everyone! Some people just love scrolling through Yelp reviews or reading about several restaurant descriptions before they decide where to go. However, if we can offer a valuable service only for the people who prefer convenience in this area, this would already be great.

Cheers,

Roland

[Anonymous]

@Roland393 How does your app go about learning all the particulars of a user's unique tastes so that it can provide reliably pleasing results?

Scrolling through Yelp reviews does sound tedious, but not nearly as tedious as manually entering all the data that would be necessary to train a bot to anticipate my preferences.

Where do I get sent if I ask the app to book me a table in Berlin? 

[Roland393]

@Anonymous The app will learn "on-the-go". Hence, this only works if you use it for a prolonged period of time by inputting certain requests.

In the Airbnb scenario, it would be in the same place as the host it - just getting to know you! Hence, your request would either specify what type of food or other preferences you're looking for. Otherwise, it would be simply a suggestion based on the best judgment.

Wing is only operating in the US at the moment, so Berlin is out of scope until we expand 🙂

Viele Grüße

Roland

[Helen3]

If people wanted that sort of holiday they wouldn't be booking my Airbnb 🙂

We already have local  apps that handle food bookings, deliveries, tourist, transport  and event bookings.

And guests get a personalised online and printed guide book recommendations and home information from me.

However your biggest barrier is your assumption about guest behaviour when travelling. People LIKE looking through restaurant booking sites and reading the reviews. They LIKE searching and finding hidden spots and great things to do.

In answer to your questions, your  app doesn't not add value to my guests or my business.

There are lots of concierge services about - the trick for you is identifying what you offer that others don't.  I agree you should be marketing this to the guests likely to use your services directly.

[Roland393]

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me, @Helen3! I appreciate your feedback!

Have a great week,

Roland

[Helen3]

That's okay my bill's in the post 🙂

[Ann72]

@Roland393  Your answer to @Anonymous's response made me think that a good way to start tailoring your app to a specific Airbnb would be to import the host's guidebook.  But then the hyperlinks would be as available to the guest as they would be to your team.

I can see that somehow you would have to interface with the hosts to get their listing details.  But I feel the traveler should have the app.  When a traveler with your app books a place that's registered with your app, it would be easy for the traveler to choose places from the guidebook and ask for tickets or reservations or what have you through your app.  I can see how that would be convenient.

My guests this summer have asked me to find them sailing lessons, biking trails, beaches, and the like, and while of course I've done it (all of this is in my guidebook, shared below), I'm not a travel agent.  The peninsula in Maine where my listings are doesn't have "high end" services per se, but there are certain restaurants that need to be booked far in advance, and a special pizza place that requires you to call at 8:30 am sharp to book a time slot for your evening pizza - and this is only available once a week!  Kayak, sailboat, and bicycle rentals, fishing trips, and other activities can also fill up.

I neither want to be a travel agent nor to sell additional services to my guests, but if there were a more passive way for hosts to be involved, such as registering listings with your app, and then keeping me out of it, I tentatively see its benefits.

https://www.airbnb.com/s/guidebooks?refinement_paths[]=/guidebooks/45126&share_channel=copy

[Roland393]

Hi @Ann72!

Absolutely, we will work with all hosts to implement their listing information into the respective account.

Honestly, we haven't thought so far as to engineer a play where users book Airbnbs through the app that are also supported by the app. But down the line that would surely be super convenient! 🙂

I'm happy to hear you see a potential value!

[Ann72]

@Roland393  I didn't mean that, about booking through the app, but it's an interesting idea!

I only meant that a traveler using your app might be able to find or add the chosen listing to their account, complete with the host-generated guidebook.  Then they could create a list from there of things they want to do and have Wing organize it.