Airbnb growth plan - a mock project

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Community Mentorship

Trust

Mock Growth Plan for AirBnB

Han Zhen Liuhanzhenl@gmail.com

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Agenda

03 Introduction and Purpose

05 Trust and Community

10 Host and Motivation

14 Solution: Project Mentor

25 Managing Risks

28 The Next Step

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Introduction and Purpose

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From Kickstarter to AirBnB, sharing economy is an influential trend. Perhaps this is a testament to how far we have come as a civilized society because so many people are willing to help and trust each other.

But a crowdsourcing company’s job encompasses more tasks than just providing a platform. I believe these companies are also shouldered with the great responsibility of nurturing a community’s culture.

I thought of this project while I was job hunting. This presentation explains some of my ideas on improving AirBnB’s growth and community experience from the product side.

I intended for this presentation to be read, so it will be wordy at some slides. Please bear with me.

Hopefully this presentation can help me land a job

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Trust and Community

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At first glance, AirBnB is a picture perfect community.

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Heartfelt and honest reviews

Beautiful homes and apartments at an affordable rate

Super hosts with personality and professionalism

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But like all fast growing startups, AirBnB has

growing pains.

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Although rarely, dissatisfaction from both hosts and guests gathers traffic on the internet.

With so much of AirBnB’s growth rest with word of mouth, it is critical to minimize risks for both guests and hosts.

Therefore, it is paramount to foster a community with a healthy collective conscience.

To accomplish this while maintaining growth momentum, I propose to start by champion an exemplary community of

hosts.

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Host and Motivation

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We are all unique individuals, therefore it is hard to pinpoint all the reasons why someone is attracted in becoming an AirBnB host. But I believe two key factors beside money are prerequisites to become a successful and happy host.

i. Thou shalt know who to choose as guests

ii. Thou shalt know how to provide proper customer service

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For some people AirBnB is an opportunity for additional income. We do not want to encourage the trend of establishing private hotels.

Travelers flock to AirBnB not only for the cheaper rent, but also for an authentic traveling experience. AirBnB needs to strive to provide hotel-like accommodation with a local’s touch.

The AirBnB experience should be different from hotels.

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A successful growth strategy for AirBnB needs to maintain authenticity and quality of local hospitality, while reducing friction between hosts and guests.

Additionally We need to design our product to market for itself.

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Solution: Project Mentor

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2 steps:1. Improve user profiles to establish accurate expectations and to

help match hosts with guests.2. Develop a mentorship program that benefits both the mentor

and the student.

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Current User Profile

Does not encourage additional information from users

As result, an alarming number of travelers have only the default information about themselves.

We can draw inspiration from dating and resume sites.

Step 1: Improve User Profile

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New features:• Additional (user picked) questions

that guide the creation of a colorful and informative profile.

• Progress bar encourages users to complete their profile

• Tooltip next to progress bar explains which portion of the profile still needs work

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Making crucial info on health issues(e.g. allergies or disability), social habits, and special demands available in user profiles will establish accurate expectation between hosts and guests.

Accurate expectation will minimize confrontations and unhappy reviews.

Because the questions are prepared internally, we can use the resulting semantic data to optimize our listing algorithm and more.

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Step 2: Mentorship Program

While supports from online community such as Ourbnb.com and /r/AirBnB are useful sources of information, nothing boosts confidence like advices from a knowledgeable friend.

An integrated mentorship program that benefits both mentors and new hosts (and is fair to other hosts) is ideal for promoting healthy growth from within.

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Mentors (let’s call them Community Champions) and students have badge ( & respectively) next to their names to distinguish these users

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Profiles have additional badges and specific review sections for students and mentors.

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Listings from students are shown under the teacher’s listings for additional exposure.

The vice versa is not true to prevent hosts from abusing this feature.

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Promote the mentorship program at the “Invite Friends” page.

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Having Icon and title distinguishes individuals, making it a valuable asset for mentors and their student(s). The additional exposure for students’ listings is also an added incentive.

This is the first step to gamify the AirBnB marketplace. If is successful, we can expand on the concept by adding badges for special accomplishments. This will drive engagement and attachment to AirBnB.

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Managing Risks

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From what I have researched, majority of issues people faces while using AirBnB originate from

Miscommunication

“I asked her to wear something revealing, so she showed up in a prophet’s toga.” -Jarod Kintz

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Miscommunication leads to:

1. Customer complaints which strain customer service capacity.

2. Bad reviews that deteriorate the community reputation

Current proposal minimizes this risk by:

3. Providing accurate expectation between hosts and guests.

4. Improving the quality of hosts through mentorship.

5. Adding another dimension to community interaction.

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The Next Step

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KPIs to determine the usage of new features:

1. User profile completion rate 2. Number of people using the Mentorship program

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KPIs to determine the impact of new features:

1. Change in complaint rate2. Change in number of referral invites

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Thank you for reading.