Seeking hosts for an academic research study (interviews; 45-55 min; USD 25)

Greetings fellow members,

I am a researcher at the Indiana University, Bloomington. I am looking to conduct phone interviews with Airbnb hosts to learn how they manage their Airbnb and how they use or want to use technology (e.g., smart/IoT devices) in their Airbnb, their concerns and their needs. Goal of the research is to identify design solutions that would meed the needs of hosts while respecting the security and privacy of both hosts and guests.

The interview would be conducted over phone and takes about 45-55 minutes. You’ll receive a USD 25 Amazon Gift card as thanks for your time and thoughts. If you are interested in participating, please fill this signup form: https://forms.gle/7V8QbkMCsRXUkFUt7

I’d be happy to share back the results from our study in this forum.

I am looking for English speaking hosts, based in or outside US. Hosts outside US are also eligible and welcome to participate in the study.

Thanks,
Shri

Edit: Updated to add that non-US hosts are also eligible to participate, and that the compensation is through an Amazon gift card.

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Are you actually at the campus in Bloomington?

I am not on campus this semester, but I’ll be for the next semester (starting Jan 2020). Are you based in/near Bloomington?

No but I’ll be there in Oct and I have friends employed on campus and connections there for about 30 years. So just wondering. I’d be happy to help with genuine research being a former teacher and working on grad stuff in the past myself. As you can understand we get a lot of requests here and not all requests are legit.

But this link doesn’t seem to work.

Fixed the link. It had an extra period :man_facepalming: Thanks for pointing it out!

I totally understand. We are security and privacy researchers at the School of Informatics and we got approval for our research from our school’s human subject studies review board (IRB). I have been trying to engage with Airbnb guests and hosts. I have been somewhat successful in recruiting Airbnb guests, but reaching and engaging hosts have been difficult. Thank you very much for offering to help with our research. I’d greatly appreciate any help/tips on connecting with Airbnb hosts. I am happy to discuss more about our study, either here or on messages or over a call.

Thanks,
Shri

First page of the link and the confirmation email both indicate 50-60 minutes but the $25 is the same.

Hi @Militaryhorsegal! The signup form reflects an earlier time estimate. I updated it to 45-55 minutes. The interview times vary based on the individual, and recently they have been on average closer to 45 minutes. We offer a fixed compensation ($25) for each interview. Thanks!

Are you looking for US hosts only?

Good point. @shri this is an international, English language forum so if you only want US hosts you should specify same in the title.

@KKC @Malagachica Non-US hosts are also eligible and welcome to participate in the study. I edited the original post to make this clear. I am not 100% sure how the Amazon Gift card works with international Amazon users, but we can figure that out. I am open to using alternate means of payment as well.

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I want to let everyone know I’ve done my interview and my Amazon credit is on my account. Some here (and rightly so) are skeptical of the many appeals we get from academics doing studies and also insisting that we be comped for our time. So I can vouch for this study. Just don’t talk as much as I do. :wink:

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I think I am scheduled for next week.

I’m interested in participating in the study.

(Sorry for the late comment.) Thank you very much @KKC for taking the time to participate in the study, and putting in a good word here!! Much appreciated!

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Thanks @Militaryhorsegal for taking the time to share your thoughts!

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Hi @RebeccaF! Thanks for your interest in the study. There are still a few more slot in the study. Here is the signup link: https://forms.gle/7V8QbkMCsRXUkFUt7

@shri

Signed up as well. I sent twice as i wasn’t sure the first one got through (used a mobile device which was playing up)

Thanks @Daniel_Lin! I sent you an email to schedule a phone call.

All the current study slots are full. I am not recruiting new hosts anymore. I have some of you scheduled for this week, and I am looking forward to talking to you. But I am not seeking more volunteers.

Thank you so so much to everyone who expressed interest in the study, and gave their valuable time and shared their experiences and thoughts. (Apologies if you signed up, but we couldn’t accommodate you in the study.)

It might take 5-6 months for the study report to be public (research publication cycles are slow!). I’ll be sure to share our research report here. I suspect many of our findings may not come as a surprise to the folks here. But I hope that the paper will bring some awareness among the research community to how hosts use smart home technology and what researchers and designers can do to improve that technology.

Thank you again for being so welcoming and helping with our research!!

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