Post by High Priestess on Apr 20, 2016 15:34:03 GMT
Andrew and I were at Airbnb for this product launch today - along with Peter Kwan, Jordie, Nathalie and her husband Gilles from Paris, Till Zieger from Stuttgart, Florian from Frankfurt, Cuneyt from Cologne, (I also met INge and Hildegaard from Germany) TEssa from the UK, and a few others I knew locally. Here are some notes ----
The actual presentation by Brian Chesky was only 1 hour long -- whereas we had been told the event would be 9am to noon today. Brian was the only person who spoke. He showed slides like you see in the article above....and "Don't just go there, live there" was considered to be the slogan for this whole enterprise. He began by showing photos from his parent's trip to France, and showed some of the problems of tourism -- that tourists go to all the same places, and see the same things with hundreds of other tourists and tour buses there. He then contrasted this with how much better and more fun it could be if you actually were able to experience the "real" city by avoiding the standard tired old tourist spots and going to lesser known places that only the locals knew, which your host knew.
He talked about how "we have new apps" and the new Airbnb app, which is launched today, emphasizes 3 things: (1) matching guests to hosts/listings better, (2) neighborhoods (3) guidebooks. He didn't elaborate in the talk about what better matching meant, but from my talks to Airbnb employees later, it seemed that this meant adding search parameters so guests could have more search tools to use. For neighborhoods, he said that "we highlighted 691 neighborhoods in 25 cities" Obviously 25 cities is a very very tiny fraction of the 34,000 cities around the world that hosts are in, but they are starting to add neighborhood data, with photos, so guests can get a better sense of neighborhoods. Guidebooks -- an assimilation of recommendations by hosts. For instance, for Paris, Tripadvisor's first five tourist recommendation is one of the "standard" tourist spots in Paris, but hosts' recommendations were entirely different, for instance the March des Enfants is on the host list but not the Trip Advisor list.
Brian ended the talk with a teaser -- "What if Airbnb did go beyond the home? This November we will find out." I believe they are going to launch a new version of the "Magical Trips" tours in November, where hosts create unique "tours" for guests.
Overall, many of us were not so excited about the new "product" particularly because it's really hard to say much about it when we haven't had a chance to try it or see how it works. THis matching -- will it work? Guests presumably will get more filters to use -- for instance they can specify if they want a neighborhood that has nightlife, or one close to public transit, or one that is "family friendly" or "walkable" -- and some other selections. An Airbnb employee tells me the search is more about where listings are on a map than having to do with the hosts' listing description. So it would be much about location -- yet that seems limited to me. For many guests location will not be most important. Other aspects of the listing might be more important...
During the middle of the day, Andrew and I and Cuneyt (from COlogne) walked from Airbnb HQ to Bernal Heights to see CHip Conley's house, then over to the Mission District -- ANdrew had the shoes for a great walk....
Other notes:
I noticed that security has been increased at the Airbnb HQ. They used to have no guards, and just a check in desk by the front, staffed by a regular ABB employee.
NOw the check in desk is staffed by TWO security guards (but maybe just for this event?) and there is another security guard by the elevators. One can't get to the elevators now without passing through a turnstyle where you have to pass your card over the magnetic detector to get in ---- just like at a subway station.
A blog here announces a webinar hosts can join to find out more...and there is a new feedback form
blog.airbnb.com/sharing-your-unique-hospitality-with-well-matched-guests-en/?_ga=1.228412765.1980082335.1460994663
Till Zeigers' post about it:
community.airbnb.com/t5/The-Living-Room/Bericht-vom-Treffen-im-Airbnb-Hauptquartier-in-San-Francisco-am/m-p/71884#U71884
Something we marveled about -- and laughed about it too. -- it is indeed striking to me, that Airbnb would pay to have hosts and guests flown in from around the world (Till Zieger reports they came from 8 countries -- I met 2 from France, about 10 from Germany, 2 from Beijing China, and I heard there were folks from Australia ---) , at last -minute notice (as Olivier reported, they were asked to come only 7- 10 days ago...) all for what amounted to a one hour meeting. And it wasn't even really a "meeting" -- it was simply a one hour presentation by Brian Chesky. Many members of the press were in attendance.
I marveled with Andrew and Till about the expense , all to obtain a roomful of people -- we laughed that Airbnb could have gotten a roomful of people simply by having its own employees in there, or inviting only local hosts from San Francisco.
I do think that a big part of their reasoning, in inviting hosts from around the world, was to try to get the hosts to get the word out in their host communities. They selected hosts who are active in host communiites -- though they may have selected others who were not so active. Now I would have thought they would invite David Salmon or Clare Shaffer , who are very active on the Community Center. ANyhow, I do think they expect us to be salespeople for the new product, somewhat as they wanted the Launch Pad Hosts to be salespeople for the new Community Center.
Overall, many of us were not so excited about the new "product" particularly because it's really hard to say much about it when we haven't had a chance to try it or see how it works. THis matching -- will it work? Guests presumably will get more filters to use -- for instance they can specify if they want a neighborhood that has nightlife, or one close to public transit, or one that is "family friendly" or "walkable" -- and some other selections. An Airbnb employee tells me the search is more about where listings are on a map than having to do with the hosts' listing description. So it would be much about location -- yet that seems limited to me. For many guests location will not be most important. Other aspects of the listing might be more important...
Article about this:
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160419006571/en/Airbnb-Launches-Products-Inspire-People-%E2%80%9CLive-There%E2%80%9D
Film shown:
(deutsche version)
(English version)
(ENglish version with English accent -- much nicer than the American English version....)
(french version)
(I like the sound of all these better than the American English version....)
The actual presentation by Brian Chesky was only 1 hour long -- whereas we had been told the event would be 9am to noon today. Brian was the only person who spoke. He showed slides like you see in the article above....and "Don't just go there, live there" was considered to be the slogan for this whole enterprise. He began by showing photos from his parent's trip to France, and showed some of the problems of tourism -- that tourists go to all the same places, and see the same things with hundreds of other tourists and tour buses there. He then contrasted this with how much better and more fun it could be if you actually were able to experience the "real" city by avoiding the standard tired old tourist spots and going to lesser known places that only the locals knew, which your host knew.
He talked about how "we have new apps" and the new Airbnb app, which is launched today, emphasizes 3 things: (1) matching guests to hosts/listings better, (2) neighborhoods (3) guidebooks. He didn't elaborate in the talk about what better matching meant, but from my talks to Airbnb employees later, it seemed that this meant adding search parameters so guests could have more search tools to use. For neighborhoods, he said that "we highlighted 691 neighborhoods in 25 cities" Obviously 25 cities is a very very tiny fraction of the 34,000 cities around the world that hosts are in, but they are starting to add neighborhood data, with photos, so guests can get a better sense of neighborhoods. Guidebooks -- an assimilation of recommendations by hosts. For instance, for Paris, Tripadvisor's first five tourist recommendation is one of the "standard" tourist spots in Paris, but hosts' recommendations were entirely different, for instance the March des Enfants is on the host list but not the Trip Advisor list.
Brian ended the talk with a teaser -- "What if Airbnb did go beyond the home? This November we will find out." I believe they are going to launch a new version of the "Magical Trips" tours in November, where hosts create unique "tours" for guests.
Overall, many of us were not so excited about the new "product" particularly because it's really hard to say much about it when we haven't had a chance to try it or see how it works. THis matching -- will it work? Guests presumably will get more filters to use -- for instance they can specify if they want a neighborhood that has nightlife, or one close to public transit, or one that is "family friendly" or "walkable" -- and some other selections. An Airbnb employee tells me the search is more about where listings are on a map than having to do with the hosts' listing description. So it would be much about location -- yet that seems limited to me. For many guests location will not be most important. Other aspects of the listing might be more important...
During the middle of the day, Andrew and I and Cuneyt (from COlogne) walked from Airbnb HQ to Bernal Heights to see CHip Conley's house, then over to the Mission District -- ANdrew had the shoes for a great walk....
Other notes:
I noticed that security has been increased at the Airbnb HQ. They used to have no guards, and just a check in desk by the front, staffed by a regular ABB employee.
NOw the check in desk is staffed by TWO security guards (but maybe just for this event?) and there is another security guard by the elevators. One can't get to the elevators now without passing through a turnstyle where you have to pass your card over the magnetic detector to get in ---- just like at a subway station.
A blog here announces a webinar hosts can join to find out more...and there is a new feedback form
blog.airbnb.com/sharing-your-unique-hospitality-with-well-matched-guests-en/?_ga=1.228412765.1980082335.1460994663
Till Zeigers' post about it:
community.airbnb.com/t5/The-Living-Room/Bericht-vom-Treffen-im-Airbnb-Hauptquartier-in-San-Francisco-am/m-p/71884#U71884
Something we marveled about -- and laughed about it too. -- it is indeed striking to me, that Airbnb would pay to have hosts and guests flown in from around the world (Till Zieger reports they came from 8 countries -- I met 2 from France, about 10 from Germany, 2 from Beijing China, and I heard there were folks from Australia ---) , at last -minute notice (as Olivier reported, they were asked to come only 7- 10 days ago...) all for what amounted to a one hour meeting. And it wasn't even really a "meeting" -- it was simply a one hour presentation by Brian Chesky. Many members of the press were in attendance.
I marveled with Andrew and Till about the expense , all to obtain a roomful of people -- we laughed that Airbnb could have gotten a roomful of people simply by having its own employees in there, or inviting only local hosts from San Francisco.
I do think that a big part of their reasoning, in inviting hosts from around the world, was to try to get the hosts to get the word out in their host communities. They selected hosts who are active in host communiites -- though they may have selected others who were not so active. Now I would have thought they would invite David Salmon or Clare Shaffer , who are very active on the Community Center. ANyhow, I do think they expect us to be salespeople for the new product, somewhat as they wanted the Launch Pad Hosts to be salespeople for the new Community Center.
Overall, many of us were not so excited about the new "product" particularly because it's really hard to say much about it when we haven't had a chance to try it or see how it works. THis matching -- will it work? Guests presumably will get more filters to use -- for instance they can specify if they want a neighborhood that has nightlife, or one close to public transit, or one that is "family friendly" or "walkable" -- and some other selections. An Airbnb employee tells me the search is more about where listings are on a map than having to do with the hosts' listing description. So it would be much about location -- yet that seems limited to me. For many guests location will not be most important. Other aspects of the listing might be more important...
Article about this:
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160419006571/en/Airbnb-Launches-Products-Inspire-People-%E2%80%9CLive-There%E2%80%9D
Film shown:
(deutsche version)
(English version)
(ENglish version with English accent -- much nicer than the American English version....)
(french version)
(I like the sound of all these better than the American English version....)
