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· Posted on
February 21, 2024

Airbnb is showing its hosts some love with new features... but plz no more anti-party tech

With travel back big-time post pandemic, Airbnb has now shifted its focus to its 4 million Airbnb hosts.

What's the key learning?

  • Airbnb invested heavily in holiday makers and “work-from-anywhere” employees, but it was pretty tough going with its revenue declining 72% in 2020.
  • Since post pandemic, Airbnb shifted its focus to its 4 million Airbnb hosts by rolling out an anti-party technology and releasing a new range of features such as better onboarding, payment features, and insurance tools.
  • Marketplace businesses are some of the most valuable businesses globally but also some of the most challenging and complicated to start.

👉 Background: Airbnb is the OG online marketplace for short-term rentals, which launched back in 2008. Since then, it has grown to over 12.7 million listings globally.

👉 What happened: During the pandemic, Airbnb invested heavily in holiday makers and “work-from-anywhere” employees. But it was pretty tough going… with its revenue declining 72% in 2020.

👉 What else: But with travel back big-time post pandemic, Airbnb has now shifted its focus to its 4 million Airbnb hosts.

And this is all part of managing the supply and demand of a marketplace business.

What's the key learning?

💡Marketplace businesses are some of the most valuable businesses globally but also some of the most challenging and complicated to start. Think: Airbnb, Uber, Amazon and even Airtasker.

💡These businesses need to bring together two different groups of people: those who have something to sell (ie hosts) and those who want to buy it (ie holiday makers or business travellers).

💡On top of that, Airbnb also needs to create a platform that makes it easy for hosts and travellers to connect with each other. While in the past, they may have been invested heavily in the travellers side of its marketplace, the pendulum is swinging back to investing in hosts.

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