Amazon Prime executive Joins Airbnb (today's news)

Saw the news today that the guy who made Amazon Prime into what it is has joined Airbnb: (Greg) “Greeley helped create and grow Amazon’s Prime business, which launched in 2005. While Airbnb does not have a loyalty program near the scale of Prime, it has similar aspirations. Last month the company announced new perks and rewards for home renters and hosts in a bid to encourage more loyalty and spending among its top users.” Reuters also said it was looking for a CMO and a CFO…def all steps to go public. I’ve let my mind run wild since reading this and come up with all crazy kinds of ideas.

Such as – AirPrime…an annual fee to stay in classes of properties, fees are by class and the hosts all have to decide which class they are in based on the requirements Air sets for each one…with guarantees on what guests should expect. That’s one, for example. Others?

Reuters story

So like a subsciption service…wouldn’t that just basically be like a timeshare, shared amongst a set of airbnbs? I doubt it would happen but it would get pretty crazy! And they are trying to kind of classify every type of listiing. As a traveler, that woud actually be pretty cool. Not so much as a host.

If its run how Amazon merchant fulfilled is, then we can expet more fees and much less power overr decisions.

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I just made that circumstance up, mostly because I read that they believe the homes have too much inconsistency for guests. What Prime did was simplify and therefore people buy more because it’s easier. Hotels have a points/repeatable booking incentive…I think the focus on rooms like my listing are going to be a minor item for them…money is bigger and fees are bigger with whole house rentals. But that’s just my opinion, others here can probably guess more accurately.

I bet they put together some kind of loyalty program or points earning system.

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They are rolling out a Superguest program. That’s already been announced, what’s unknown is what it entails.

Yes I saw that and the discussion here on the Superguest program. My post was more about the fact that it’s Amazon’s executive for Prime that’s coming over. Most executives solve problems they know how to solve so I would think a lot of how Amazon manages vendors/sellers will be considered in the plans and changes. I think it’s fun thinking about what might be coming down the pike.

Have fun!..

What’s coming down the pike concerns me! Any recent changes don’t appear to be helping hosts, they have just made us harder to find.

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It’s a clear case of winners and losers. There will always only be one first page of search results. You may go down in search but someone else goes up. Those that go up are also hosts.

What I think is happening (without hard evidence, just my imagination) is hosts that don’t conform to their wishes go down. No instant book, no flexible cancellation, you cancel on someone, you give or get reviews below 5 star…you go down.

I wouldn’t call it fun. Nerve wracking maybe??