Travelers' Perceptions of the Value of their Short-Term Rentals Before and After their Stays
Before booking a place to stay, travelers compare the Airbnb places with hotels that offer similar experiences in terms of 3 characteristics - the comfortability of the interior environment, the properties' accessibility to travelers' desired activities and places in the city, and the sense of safety that the places offer. When all three of these conditions are met for travelers, they are more likely to choose Airbnb if the place is cheaper or if the Airbnb provides more privacy for a large group such as through the rental of an entire apartment.
In addition to the three characteristics above that travelers look for before they book a short-term rental, a fourth characteristic exists that determines whether travelers feel they have gotten a good value from their Airbnb after they have stayed there. This fourth characteristic is the added face-to-face interaction that travelers can have with their hosts, especially for private rooms and shared rooms. If this interaction is positive, people will feel like they received a bonus from the experience by gaining a greater sense of safety and support, making the price a greater value than they expected. If this interaction is negative, people will feel that they received less value from the experience than they expected.
A fair description of what each short-term rental has to offer sets travelers' basic expectations of their lodging experience and is the first step toward building mutual trust between the host and guest. Travelers tend to book an Airbnb place if the price is lower than a hotel that offers a similar quality of environment and amenities as the Airbnb listing. On the other hand, an incomplete description of an Airbnb place might make people hate the Airbnb place right after their arrival if the place does not match the quality and characteristics they expected to find or if the place presents unexpected and unwanted surprises. Once guests find out these untold facts about the places they stay at, they usually lose trust in the hot, and the experience becomes disappointment.
“The description is correct.” “The room looks bigger than the picture… I highly recommend it!”
“They have a cat and didn’t mention it… My boyfriend is severely allergic to cats and we left right away.”
Evaluation of Airbnb's Current Product:
Need
Provide adequate information so that travelers know what to expect
How is Airbnb currently addressing this need
Reasons for Airbnb Score
Airbnb's current product reviewing system offers an "accuracy" scoring section. Travelers can see it right away.
However, the product fails to provide important review information efficiently. Travelers needs to go through long reviews to find import information. In addition, it doesn't provide a place for travelers to communicate their expectations about their lodging arrangements and interactions with their host before booking. For example, a traveler might want a close relationship with their host versus a distant relationship which would include more privacy.
When travelers search for places that fulfill their basic needs, they will compare hotels with Airbnb properties. When listings have the same level of quality across travelers' basic needs, travelers tend to choose whichever rental has a lower price.
“All I need is a place to crash in.”
Evaluation of Airbnb's Current Product:
Needs
Accessibility to desired activities
How is Airbnb currently addressing the needs
Reasons for Airbnb Score
Travelers have different definitions of what makes a rental accessible to desired activities based upon their own interests while traveling in NYC, such as wanting to explore local art and food scenes, enjoy exhibitions, or experience the lifestyle of Upper Manhattan. Yet, all of these activities require travelers to have access to public transit, shared ride, or parking if they drive.
However, the current Airbnb product fails to provide travelers with a way to filter listings by their accessibility to these kinds of activities. For example, filters are not available during the search process to exclude listings that are too far away to walk to local transit, gain access to free parking or catch a shared ride with a service like Uber or Via.
Travelers have different expectations of the comfortability of their lodging. Some people look for 2-star hotels and some look for 5-star hotels. However, the current Airbnb product fails to fulfill travelers needs by not providing clear categories during travelers' search process that indicate different levels of comfortability.
A sense of safety is important for all travelers. Travelers’ sense of safety comes from the Airbnb hosts, the location of the rentals, and the security systems of the houses.
The current product causes some barriers for travelers to feel confident that their rental is safe before they visit it. In contrast to travelers staying at hotels, Airbnb travelers can only know hosts' credibility through Airbnb, instead of multiple online sources. Airbnb currently provides travelers with very limited information about its hosts through reviews and hosts' profiles. Additionally, the travelers can only see partial information about the hosts on their profiles. This limited access to information becomes an even bigger barrier when some pages only have very few and short review, let alone some people are too nice to leave bad reviews when their names are shown publicly. In addition, security systems of Airbnb houses are not indicated on the page either. These information barriers prevent travelers from feeling safe when they choose Airbnb properties online.
Help from a host not only makes travelers immediately get familiar with the neighborhood, but also initiates a good business relationship between the travelers and their hosts. Useful opinions, thoughtful help and supportive conversations make travelers feel supported, and in result, relieved while they are traveling in an unfamiliar place.
A responsive host that builds good business relationships with travelers responds to travelers’ messages and solves their problems quickly.
Evaluation of Airbnb's Current Product:
Need
Find responsive hosts to build a good business relationships with travelers
How is Airbnb currently addressing this need
Reasons for Airbnb Score
The current product is doing a good job of linking hosts and travelers together through hosts’ guidebooks, a messaging system. It also gives hosts basic instructions on how to host travelers and encourages hosts to be responsive through the Superhost Program.
All the top 10 Airbnb properties make people feel they had received an exceptionally valuable experience from their short-term rentals. Among these top rentals, some properties had reviews with repetitive comments such as “the best experience”, “!”, and “love.” People keep returning to these Airbnb properties run by friendly hosts that make travelers feel welcome, safe, and connected to locals.
A warm and hospitable host is not just simply a responsive host in that they build friendships with travelers. Travelers not only feel safer with support from hosts whom they can trust, but they also experience and understand local culture while staying and talking to these hosts.
A warm and hospitable host is someone who:
- keeps in touch when travelers are exploring locally
- can have fun and enjoyable conversations with their guests
- shares their personal collections such as CDs and books with guests
- prepares a customized experience for travelers, such as setting up a Christmas tree during the holidays or leaving a welcome note for travelers upon arrival.
"When I was lost in the city I messaged/called John and he was available!"
“We have stayed in many fine airbnb but Marc & Carol’s place goes straight to the number 1, I will miss our heated debates with marc about football taking a line from a certain tennis player.”
Evaluation of Airbnb's Current Product:
Need
Help travelers find warm and hospitable hosts
How is Airbnb currently addressing this need
Reasons for Airbnb Score
The Supterhost program separates responsive / warm and hospitable hosts with other hosts but fails to separate warm and hospitable hosts with responsive hosts. Places with warm and hospitable hosts that thrill travelers are not listed on the landing page, either.
As a matter of fact, posting warm and hospitable hosts and their places can not only help travelers find fantastic places, but can also educate other hosts on how to be a better host.
