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Brian Chesky has a BA in design, not business - he reportedly liked to draw and design shoes and toys as a child, moving on to architecture and design.
He is all about the optics, the flash, the pretty pictures, the constantly changing visuals and redesigns, the superficial wow 'em factor.
Can I suggest putting up a picture or two of the amazing view with the caption “Amazing View”. And in the description as well. Just an experiment to see if it really picks it up if you do what they say.
Mine doesn’t mention the Amazing (Sea) View but does mention that it is “Ski In Ski Out”. It hasn’t snowed here since the last Ice Age. The nearest ski resort is about 80 km and 3 hours drive away.
OMG. Do let us know how many inappropriate requests you have to decline on a daily basis from guests who anticipate a short ski to the lift.
It’s like the “Opportunity” I have been remiss in not providing, despite the fact it has been sitting on that page for years- that I should provide Heat. “Let guests know how they can warm up their space”. I live in the tropics.
And “Sun” isn’t one of the types of heat to check off on the amenities list.
If filters where used and thus useful there would not be categories.
am aware
I made a comment to that moderator that she shouldn’t be a shill for ABB and defend such a stupid rollout with insane ideas (i worded it more politely). her telling you to take the pool off your listing was incredibly idiotic.
That part of my comment was removed last night. ha. I must have a strike now.
Brian Chesky has a BA in design, not business -
He is all about the optics, the flash, the pretty pictures, the constantly changing visuals and redesigns, the superficial wow 'em factor.
i don’t believe you need to go to uni to be good at business. his little startup has turned into a huge success.
I 100% agree with your second point, he is steering the company by vanity, even putting himself in that video is so cringe. and something i wouldn’t say on the official forums, but he’s creepyAF.
Although I am now banned from the CC, I’ve been reading it and appreciating your responses. I also called out that mod Emilie on another thread on another topic for her tone deaf responses (I’m actually thinking she’s a bot, not a human) and got banned within a couple of days.
I didn’t mean to imply that someone who is a design major couldn’t also be good at business, but that design is definitely his field of interest (although now I’m sure his field of interest includes staying rich) . And he didn’t start Airbnb alone- he had partners. Maybe they were the ones who had a better head for business. Group start-ups often are composed of individuals who each have a different field of useful expertise or interest.
Yes, I find him repugnant, I’m not sure creepy is the word I would use. With his “Aw shucks, I can so relate to all you hosts (even though I’m a billionaire). See- I’m wearing jeans, a hoodie and skateboard shoes, see how humble I am” persona.
He had a fine vision to start with and probably did care about his hosts. Certainly CS was good to hosts in the beginning and was supportive to them. But money corrupts and becomes the goal in itself.
After playing with the new system a fair bit, I’m amused with it from a guest perspective. I enjoyed looking at the various experiences and homes to go along with them. AirBnb may get an initial flurry of activity, but I think I’m like most and wouldn’t visit a place because of the lodging (unless I had the money to stay at that Kellogg house in Joshua Tree!).
But I noticed that Canada is not included in the selections when clicking on the “where are you going?” category. And we’re the second largest country on earth. Why not have a North America category that includes Canada? (Hey Airbnb! We’re that area on your map between Maine and Alaska.)
So I clicked on “design” and noticed a place in Canada I’d never heard of. It simply says “Lunenberg, Canada”. I thought I’d click on it to see where this place was - thinking it was the style of the prairies (mid-country), but it is in Nova Scotia on the far east coast 4000 miles away (6600km). For me to get there would take a week to drive.
For them to lump the entire large country into one category (Canada) makes no sense to me. Why not say Lunenberg, NS, Canada, similar to noting the state a house is located in a USA listing?
Okay… enough Canadiana and back to hosting…
As a host I’m not happy with the new format, though I think there is a place for it. Most guests know where they want to go when they go to Airbnb. THAT should be reflected in the home page. ONLY if someone is looking for ideas should they be directed to what the new format shows. For instance, go back to the old format, but have an option to click on IDEAS for some inspiration.
If they don’t change back I think Airbnb will lose traction in the rental market because there are too many clicks to get back to finding a place in the area you want to go to - which is what travelers are expecting. Perhaps, with the world opening up again, people are keen to look for a different adventure, but I suspect it will quickly go back to knowing where you’d like to go.
Our listing also does not show up in applicable categories - even when using map mode and zooming in (it says there are zero choices). I changed the wording a little to see if that makes a difference - time will tell.
As well (and this proves my point in the Canadiana portion of my musings) the morning after the intro I got an inquiry from a group to stay and wanted to know how far away we were from Calgary airport. Uh… 8 hours. There were many questions and back and forths until I realized (from comments on here) that we likely came up in a much wider search area than she was targeting. It wasted about an hour of my time answering questions about her many travel plans. I don’t mind spending the time when I know the guest is serious about staying with us.
Not happy at the moment - but maybe if they decide to travel to a different area than originally thought I’ll get a booking from it. In the meantime I’ll likely go back on just to look at a few interesting homes in the various new categories - without the intention of going.
I added ‘amazing view’ to many of my photo captions. Lets see if that works. I noticed they took off the RV/ camper section, and now its called camping. So I think they are tweaking it. It seems that “amazing view” must include ocean… to be featured or high on that group rhythm.
I think you’re on to something, Canadian. I wonder if Airbnb is failing to read the room.
Looking at the new-ish site design plus Chesky’s recent comments about work-from-anywhere lifestyle, I think the company is focusing on a location-flexible worklife that may be common in tech jobs and aspirational for some, but not reality for many.
This month alone, I’ve got guests or potential guests who are, variously, visiting nearby family, doing on-site testing for a foreign service job, and going to nearby tourist sites. None of that fits the nomadic live and work anywhere paradigm.
Airbnb may have done research, however, that shows greater profit from actually narrowing their target demographic to those with work and travel flexibility and the requisite income to sustain it. I’d love to see their number-crunching.
For the past few months I felt something was up when notifications for updates to amenities, particularly for things like a desk (is it in a private area?) etc. kept popping up.
Maybe Airbnb is just keen to keep making changes, even though their platform was already working. I remember when the other sites kept making changes to be more like Airbnb. Now it’s looking like maybe Air has gone too far.
They should be offering carbon offsets for that category of travel, would complement the marketing plan.
Alternatively, there may be some theory of marketing that you should just keep announcing “new” things, regardless of what they are.
Here are numbers cited in a recent Canadian publication review with Chesky – half of Airbnb stays are longer than a week and 20% of stays are longer than a month.
So they’ve got some data.
It’s interesting to me that in the work-from-anywhere discussion, retail and physical workers who are tied to work locations are simply – invisible. In the US, about 43% of the workforce is classified as “professional.” Some of these occupations, such as in-person health care, in-person education and finance work in brick and mortar banks, aren’t done remotely.
This update is basically Chesky creating a search programme which caters to people exactly like him- free to travel anywhere at any time, having their fantasies to stay in a castle, a private island, a luxe treehouse, and seemingly for whom money is no object, laid out in front of them in full technicolor. Hosts and their needs, or their distress at not appearing easily any longer, are not at all part of the equation.
That the feature they have now pasted at the top of my listing, “Dedicated workspace”, which no guest has ever mentioned in their reviews, when I don’t cater to digital nomads and even say in my ad that internet in this area is not necessarily reliable and may not be as fast as one might be used to, tells me that their algorithm is programmed to pick out anything in your amenities list or guest reviews or listing wording or photos that would be attractive to digital nomads, regardless of whether your place is a good fit for that, or whether those are the type of guests you normally get.
An interesting article that relates to the demographic that this update is aimed at.
I’m sure you have but just in case have you updated the app?
I believe updates are automatic. Do you see the same icons on your cell as a desk top?
I dont!
two of my listings have completely disappeared under the categories…
I don’t allow my cell or computers to do automatic updates but it’s still a good idea to check for them.