Concepting Report Airbnb

Concepting plus 2259XADV37 Dirk Hens 19-02-2015

Lori Brekelmans 2181641 Iris Driessen 2186842 Fabian Knapen 2162873 Dasja Groeneveld 2191423

Introduction In this report we present to you our model ‘The Happiness Funnel’. This model was created by Dasja Groeneveld, Lori Brekelmans, Fabian Knapen and Iris Driessen.

Nowadays it’s not enough anymore to just provide an experience. The customer wants more than that, they want happiness. We are shifting towards a ‘happiness economy’ instead of an ‘experience economy’. We believe that with this model you can lead your customers towards this state of happiness. After applying The Happiness Funnel model on your company you can conclude if your product or service is making the users happy and if/where improvements are necessary to reach a state of happiness.

We applied our model on the company Airbnb. Airbnb is a community-marketplace for people to book a trip, discover places and advertise their accommodation. Airbnb brings people together for a unique traveling experience. As you can read Airbnb is presenting themselves as a company who provides an unique experience. By applying our model ‘The Happiness Funnel’ we tried to find out if they can take this to next level; providing a state of happiness.

After applying our model on Airbnb we found some pain points that needed to be improved in order to create a complete state of happiness for their customers. On each pain point an individual advice is given.

For any questions do not hesitate and get in contact with one of the group members.

Lori Brekelmans l.brekelmans@student.fontys.nl Fabian Knapen f.knapen@student.fontys.nl Iris Driessen iris.driessen@student.fontys.nl Dasja Groeneveld d.groeneveld@student.fontys.nl

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Index Model p.6 Company p.10 Analyse p.12 Conclusion p.20 Advice Lori

p.22

Advice Iris p.26 Advice Fabian

p.28

Advice Dasja

p.30

Bibliography p.34 Appendix p.35

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M O d e l

STE P VAL 3: UE F IT

STEP 2: POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Ha

STEP 4: PRODUCT QUALITY

STEP 5: PRODUCT HEALTH

1: STEP ITY FIT T IDEN

appiness 7

Currently the economy is shifting from an experience economy into an happiness economy.

It’s not enough anymore to just provide an experience for your customers, but you want to achieve a permanent change in their behavior or way of thinking. But how do you achieve this?

We believe that with this model you can lead your customers towards a state of happiness.

1. Identityfit: The product or service you offer has to be in line with the identity of the company. This has to be visible in all of the touchpoints.

Touchpoints are moments when the custo mer gets in touch with the company.

The first step is to rethink and evaluate all of your touchpoints by asking yourselves the following questions: a.

What is our vision? b.

What is our mission? c.

What are your core values? d.

Create a customer journey by collec-

ting all the touchpoints e.

Are all the touchpoints in line with

your identity? f.

Are their touchpoints you can

improve? If yes, come up with a plan.

2.

Positive emotions: An important component of happiness is that it has to evoke positive emotions. The product or service you offer must create a happy state of mind. You can reach this by including the elements fun, surprise and gratitude to your product. a.

These elements should be reflected in most of your touchpoints. Take a look at each individual touchpoint and see in which way these elements are included in the touchpoint. Do this by ‘experiencing’ the touchpoint through the eyes of the customer. b.

After making this overview, take a look at the touchpoints that don’t reflect these elements. Is improvement possible or necessary?

3.

Value fit: In the first step you listed your core values as a company, but do these fit with the values of your customers? A value fit occurs when organizations and their customers share similar values. This means that the organization’s involvement with the customer must be as great as possible. a.

Identify your customers by performing a target group research. The following

questions can help you: i.

What is happening in the lives of our customers at the moment? ii.

What touches them emotionally? iii.

Why does a customer come to you? b.

Define their values. c.

Do these values meet the values of your company?

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4. Quality: The consumer finds the quality of a product or service very important. Your product can fit your identity perfectly, but if the quality does not meet the expectation it can be a big disappointment. a.

b.

c.

If you are creating a new product or service, take the following steps: i. Research ii. Brainstorm iii. Prototype iv. Evaluate v.

Repeat (if necessary) If you want to decide on the quality of an existing product/service, take the following steps: i.

Testing experiences (collect positive and negative feedback) ii. Evaluate iii.

Repeat (if necessary) Can you achieve some improvements?

5.

Product health: A product or service should be ‘healthy’ for the customers and the environment. The consumer is more and more conscious about health nowadays and it is an important factor to create a state of happiness.

Ask yourself the following questions: a.

Is your product durable? b.

What is the lifecycle of

your product? c.

Does your product or

service provide a better

quality of life? d.

Is the product or service

an addition to the health of the company? Does it lead to any profit for the company itself?

After completing all of the steps and making the changes that are necessary, you can create a state of happiness with your product or service. An important factor of this state of happiness is commitment. If you have completed all the steps above, you not only create happiness but your customers also feel committed to your brand, company or product.

M O d e l

Company

Founded in 2008 in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a community-marketplace for people to book a trip, discover places and advertise their accommodation.

Airbnb brings people together for a unique traveling experience. In more than 34.000 cities in over 190 countries, people can book a villa, an apartment or a castle. With a first class customer service and a growing community, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to make some money by offering their extra space.

(Airbnb, 2014)

Airbnb has two sources of income.

Firstly the booker pays a 10% service fee over his renting price. As soon as Airbnb receives the payment they pay the host 24 after arrival of the guest. Besides that, the host pays 3% of the booking amount to Airbnb. That amount is fairly low within the Online Travel Agencies.

Other sites ask 30% from providers of an accommodation.

Airbnb knows the importance of the collaborations with the hosts, and that’s one of the success factors. (Reijsen, 2012)

The company was founded by Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia.

Blecharczyk is the CTO, focusing on the technical strategy of the company and is dedicated to build up a team of engineers with the goal to keep Airbnb in the forefront of the industry. He has a degree in Computer Sciences from Harvard University and has worked for Microsoft, OPNET Technologies and Batiq. Chesky is the CEO of Airbnb and leads the strategy, vision and growth of the company.

Under his leadership, the company has grown with more than 800.000 accommodations in over 190 countries. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design. Gebbia is the CPO and leader of the product team in creating meaningful experience through intuitive design.

He also graduated from Rhode Island School of design and has a degree in Graphic and Industrial Design. (Airbnb, Onze medeoprichters, 2014)

Mission “For so long, people thought Airbnb was about renting houses. But really, we’re about home.

You see, a house is just a space, but a home is where you belong. And what makes this global community so special is that for the very first time, you can belong anywhere. That is the idea at the core of our company: belonging.”

(Chesky, 2014) Vision “Our shared vision of belonging is the thread that weaves through every touchpoint on Airbnb. We have redesigned every single page of the user experience across the web and mobile to bring our new identity to life. Now we have a platform that reflects your feedback, and that can continue growing as we keep listening.” (Chesky, 2014)

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The next step is to apply our model on Airbnb. This way we can search for some painpoints that need to be improved.

Once these painpoints are improved, Airbnb is really transforming to a service that provides happiness instead of just an experience.

Step 1:

Identity fit

The product or service you offer has to be in line with the identity of the company. This has to be visible in all of the touchpoints.

Touchpoints are moments when the customer gets in touch with the company. The first step is to rethink and evaluate all of your touchpoints by asking yourselves the following questions: a.

The vision of Airbnb is as follows: “Our shared vision of belonging is the thread that weaves through every touchpoint on Airbnb. We have redesigned every single page of the user experience across the web and mobile to bring our new identity to life. Now we have a platform that reflects your feedback, and that can continue growing as we keep listening.” (Chesky, 2014) b.

The mission of Airbnb is as follows: “For so long, people thought Airbnb was about renting houses. But really, we’re about home.

You see, a house is just a space, but a home is where you belong. And what makes this global community so special is that for the very first time, you can belong anywhere. That is the idea at the core of our company: belonging.”

(Chesky, 2014)

c.

The core values are: - To champion the mission: They do this by living the mission.

- Be a host: Hospitality is what defines the company.

- Simplify: Everything has to be as simple and easy as possible - Every frame matters: They look at the end experience of everything.

- Be a cereal entrepeneur: They funded the company by selling cereal.

- Embrace the adventure: Have a youthful spirit, regardless of age.

(Chesky, 2013) d.

The touchpoints of Airbnb are: Website, Social Media, News, E-mail, Blog, Hosts, Customer Service, App. e.

So how do these values come back in the touchpoints of Airbnb?

Simplify is best shown in their website and app. Booking via these channels is easy as can be. Every frame matters and be a host, are also two elements that come back in these channels, but also social media, their blog, e-mail and customer service. People need to have the best experience they can possibly have. Besides that, their choice of corporate identity is very hospitable. They live the mission this way.

Their corporate identity is implemented in everything. Now Chesky said that they have thought a lot about what they are. Are they a technology company? A booking company?

But in the end they are a hospitality company, powered by design, technology and their community.

Analyse f.

Are their touchpoints you can improve?

There are some touchpoints that have negatively affected Airbnb. There were some hosts that didn’t have a good experience. They had their house vandalized or things stolen from their house by travelers. This of course is a blow to Airbnb’s reputation. Besides that there was a question about if the company should pay for the losses. (Arrington, 2011) To really give their hosts a secure feeling, this shouldn’t even be a question. Airbnb should always keep their customers happy.

Step 2:

Positive emotions

An important component of happiness is that it has to evoke positive emotions. The product or service you offer must create a happy state of mind. You can reach this by including the elements fun, surprise and gratitude to your product. a.

These elements should be reflected in most of your touchpoints. Take a look at each individual touchpoint and see in which way these elements are included in the touchpoint. Do this by ‘experiencing’ the touchpoint through the eyes of the customer. b.

After making this overview, take a look at the touchpoints that don’t reflect these elements. Is improvement possible or necessary?

(Note: we only assessed the touchpoints that were possible for us to assess.)

Website: Fun: The website is quite fun. It shows pictures of places and homes of users of Airbnb. This isn’t the standard, dry website someone usually gets from a booking site.

Surprise: The website could be considered surprising, because it doesn’t look like a standard booking site.

Gratitude: Only the customers could show a sign of gratitude, but the website itself doesn’t.

Social Media: Fun: On their social media pages, Airbnb shows tips for travelers. Also Airbnb has contests, where followers of the company can win prizes.

Surprise: The element of surprise comes from the contests. People can win a trip to footballer Andres Iniesta’s villa in Spain for example.

Gratitude: Airbnb expresses gratitude by thanking the users of Airbnb regularly.

They also praise their followers at certain milestones, which is a sign of gratitude.

Blog: Fun: The blog has various themes, related to travel. For travelers, these are fun stories.

Surprise: There is not much surprise in this section.

Gratitude: By writing about someone, community or a group of Airbnb users, this shows a sign of gratitude.

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Customer Service: Fun: Customer service is used for questions. The customer service is very user friendly.

Surprise: There is no element of surprise in their customer service.

Gratitude: If someone has a question for Airbnb, gratitude can be shown in a quick and good answer.

App: Fun: The app is also very user friendly. It works the same as the website and has the same features in phone size.

Surprise: There is no element of surprise in the app.

Gratitude: Here applies the same as for the website. Airbnb itself doesn’t show gratitude towards the customers.

Touchpoint Fun Surprise Gratitude Website + 0 0 Social Media + + + Blog + 0 + Customer Service 0 0 0 App + 0 0 Step 3: Value fit In the first step you listed your core values as a company, but do these fit with the values of your customers? A value fit occurs when organizations and their customers share similar values. This means that the organization’s involvement with the customer must be as great as possible. a.

Identify your customers by performing a target group research. The following questions can help you: Airbnb has two different customer groups (Umbarila, 2012): - Travelers: This group mostly exists of people who travel for tourism.

- Hosts: This group exists of people who are willing to rent out their homes.

These groups consist of individuals who all have different lives, backgrounds, beliefs and stories.

Similarities in these groups are that they all are looking for connections all over the world. The customers that rent out their room want to earn money, the customers that rent the room are looking for cheaper options for places where they can stay.

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They like to meet up with strangers from all over the world. They like to connect with each other and share stories. Both these groups want to experience through connecting with people from all over the world. (Brian Chesky, 2014) i.

What is happening in the lives of our customers at the moment?

It is difficult to say what is happening in the lives of the customers because this group is heterogenic. The group consists of individuals from all over the world, because of that they all have different norms and values. There are a few global changes, such as the rise of technology. Big brands like KFC and Starbucks are settling all over the world. (Fas, N.D.) ii.

What touches them emotionally?

The thing that connects these customers is that they all want to feel welcome, appreciated and respected. Every single one of the customers is a different individual. The world has changed, it has been individualized, but these people want to be a part of a group where they can share their lives and experiences. These people want to discover this planet and the people who live all over.

(Brian Chesky, 2014) iii.

Why does a customer come to you?

Customers come to Airbnb because they have the desire to belong ‘somewhere’. They have the desire to feel welcomed, respected and appreciated for who they are. The technology has taken people a part, but Airbnb brings people closer to each other. That is what these customers are looking for. b.

Define their values: - Connecting - Hospitality - Sharing - Adventurous - Experiencing - Belonging c.

Do these values meet the values of your company?

All the values of the target group meet the values of the company. Airbnb and the customer groups are both aiming for experiences, adventure is also a value that they have in common.

Sharing and hospitality also are connected. Belonging is also one of their biggest core values, they want to make you feel at home. Through their community they connect travelers with the hosts.

From this we can conclude that there is a very good value fit.

Step 4:

Quality

The consumer finds the quality of a product or service very important. Your product can fit your identity perfectly, but if the quality does not meet the expectation it can be a big disappointment.

For Airbnb point B and C of step 4 are important to focus on. This becaus Airbnb already has a service so point A is irrelevant.

With the following steps Airbnb will get an inside of the quality of their services.

B vi. Testing Experiences With a deskresearch on the internet Airbnb can find a lot of reactions from their customers, both positive as negative. * In the appendix more positive and negative experencies can be found.

Positve experiences

Negative experiences

Gabby - Airbnb is a wonderful company with great ideas. (Trustpilot.nl, 2014)

Julie - Absolutely horrible. Now Airbnb doesn’t give you contact information for a guest that is going to stay at you house until you confirm the reservation. (Trustpilot.nl, 2014)

Christel - It helped us to make our house better as we saw it through the eyes of other people.

(Trustpilot.nl, 2014) Jean - Airbnb can benefit both hosts and travellers. (Investopedia.com, 2014) Laaraa - I have some good expierences with Airbnb. (Forum.viva.nl, 2014)

Claire - I cannot cummunicate properly with my guests on forehand of the stay. (Trustpilot. nl, 2014) Jean - The biggist concern for the guests may be that the property does not match the discription. (Investopedia.com, 2014)

B vii. Evaluatie On the Internet a lot of comments and statements about AirBnB can be found from customers.

Both positive as negative experiences are shared which is a good thing for AirBnB. The most important statements of the positive comments are: - AirBnB gives hosts an extra income and helps to travel cheaper.

- AirBnB is very supportive to the hosts.

- AirBnB is very supportive to the guests.

- AirBnB offers a different experience than a hotel stay.

These positive points are important to know due to the fact that AirBnB needs to know what the positive experiences from the customers are so they can use this to reach a state of happiness from the customers.

Unfortunately there are also negative experiences with AirBnB. The most important statements of the negative experiences are: - Airbnb doesn’t give the host contact information for a guest that is going to stay at the house until the host confirm the reservation.

- The follow up from AirBnB is very poor.

- The communication between a host and guest is very poor during the bookings process.

- If you make a booking there is no flexibility in changing or cancelling your booking once its made, you made it; your money is off your credit card.

- The biggest concerns for guests may be that the property does not match the description, or that the host is unresponsive to guest needs.

The value that a costumer gives about a company is very important. This is why AirBnB needs to take these negative experiences seriously. c. Can AirBnB achieve some improvements?

Within step b. it has become clear that AirBnB needs to take some steps within the negative experiences to achieve some improvements.

When AirBnB takes the negative experiences seriously and they try to improve these points a state of happiness will be easier to reach within this target group. To achieve these improvements AirBnB needs to talk with the unsatisfied customers, keep up to date with the comments on the Internet and look with a critical view at the current situation.

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Step 5:

Product Health

A product or service should be ‘healthy’ for the customers and the environment. The consumer is more and more conscious about health nowadays and it is an important factor to create a state of happiness. Ask yourself the following questions: a.

Is your product or service durable?

Airbnb is not a product, so a service is durable in a different way. Airbnb is durable in the following ways: With Airbnb people are stimulated to rent unused rooms. This itself is very durable. You can see it as a form of ‘recycling’.

Also, research shown, that guests who stay in an Airbnb accommodation are behaving more durable than people who stay in a hotel. They use less energy and water, choose to use the public transportation more often and produce less garbage than hotel visitors. It appears that sharing your apartment with other people is a stimulants, for the guests and the renter, to act more durable. b.

What is the lifecycle of your product or service?

It has an ongoing lifecycle. Airbnb has created a community of renters and travelers, and the community is still growing. The rooms and apartments have their own lifecycle of course, and for that reason they will lose some renters every now and then. But in the long term Airbnb has a very long lifecycle.

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This also has to do with the ‘sharing economy’ we live in nowadays. As long as renters offer rooms at Airbnb and travelers choose to use Airbnb, the community will keep existing. c.

Does your product or service provide a better quality of life?

Absolutely, as well for the traveler as for the renter. With the service Airbnb offers both parties are made happy. The traveler has an unique experience. It is an experience you will remember for a long time. Airbnb creates an unique way of traveling that makes a much bigger impact on a person in comparison with visiting a ‘normal’ hotel.

For the renter it is also a way of paying some extra bills, which can create a better quality of life in many ways. The renter can now afford to go on an extra holiday for example. Renting an extra room or an entire apartment can also give you a very positive feeling about yourself. It is also a way of meeting people from around the world.

For the traveler and the renter counts that social contact is important for a good quality of life. Meeting many different people, also from around the world, can really enrich your life.

d.

Is the product or service an addition to the health of the company? Does it lead to any profit for the company itself?

Airbnb is doing good money wise. Airbnb is now worth $10 billion. That’s four times as much as the company was valued in 2012, when it raised $200 million. You can see that Airbnb has grown a lot over the last few years. This is made possible because of the ‘sharing economy’ we live in.

c o n c l u s i o n 20

Airbnb is doing an excellent job in many ways. They have a strong and clear identity and their touchpoints also fit this identity. There is also a very good value fit between the values of the target group and the company. Airbnb really knows who their target group is and acts on this.

The quality of the service Airbnb provides is positive most of the time. And finally, the health of the service is very positive as well. Airbnb has a durable service and inspires others to be durable as well. It also provides a better quality of life.

In our research we also found some negative points. In our advice we will focus on these pain points and how they can be improved.

• The touchpoint ‘blog’ can be improved. It is a bit blanc compared to the other touchpoints. Although it is the same style as the other touchpoints, there is a change for Airbnb to do more with this medium. It misses some creativity and there can be a better link to their values.

• This also counts for the app of Airbnb. The elements fun and surprise can be more implemented in this touchpoint.

• It is made difficult for the guest and host to communicate during the booking process.

The host can’t contact the guest before the reservation is final. Once the booking is final, there is no way back. Airbnb should listen to these complaints and make a change.

• At this moment AirBnB cannot say what is going on in the lives of their costumers.

This because of the variety of the costumers. They are living all over the world and travel around. So it is difficult for AirBnB to find out what the costumers are up to and what they find important within their lives.

Airbnb is already a company that provides a unique experience to their customers, but once they improved these pain points they can provide a state of happiness instead of just an experience. In the next chapter we will advise Airbnb how to improve these pain points.

Pain point: Blog

by: Lori Brekelmans

Introduction To create more than just an experience, it is wisely to add something extra to your communication means. A mean that can use something extra is the Airbnb Blog. It is a fine blog, which fits the corporate identity and is in line with the other means. Though, we see this blog as an opportunity to be unique and stand out. It seems if the blog is ‘sleeping’ and it needs to be more vibrant.

This can create a state of happiness for the readers and attract more (new) readers.

Moving pictures: the website of Airbnb uses moving pictures. This adds extra emotion and it stops you from looking away. You can also use this is the blog. This can also help to add some fun and surprise to the blog. To keep it different and unique you would have to choose for other images than on the website. Make it more ‘blog appropriate’ like images of people writing or typing. You can also show the environment where the person is writing or typing, for example in one of the unique Airbnb apartments or in a beautiful city.

To create a state of happiness it is important to evoke positive emotions. You can reach this by including the elements fun, surprise and gratitude. We think that the gratitude is well covered on this blog, but the elements fun and surprise can be implemented more.

We will give you an advice how to implement these elements more.

Advice If you look at the website and the blog, it is almost hard to see the differences. It is good that the communication means are in line with each other, but you need to able to see the differences. The blog needs to have it its own identity, visually and in the content. The content is already different than on the website, but the visualization needs to be adjusted somewhat. To make it more fun and surprising it also needs something extra. With the following advice I will give you some points you can adjust or add to make the blog more unique.

Examples of the mood you can set with the moving pictures on the blog.

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Photobook: the content on the blog is mostly very inspiring. Another way to be inspired is by looking at pictures. A picture says more than a thousand words and are very powerful. It evokes a lot of positive emotions and it very fun to look at. Airbnb has a very powerful community of people who have been all over the world. These people must all have a treasure of beautiful pictures they made during their journeys. By sharing these pictures, you can inspire a lot of people. My advice would be to add a ‘photobook’ to the blog in which all the customers can upload their most beautiful pictures of their journeys.

Visualization: The visualization is kind of simple and blanc at the moment. It also needs to be obvious that the blog is different than the website, as I mentioned before. The visualization can be improved by using: • Vibrant colors: the colors that are used in the blog are kind of dark and boring. To make it more fun to look at you could use more vibrant colors. I would advise to stick to the same color palette that you use throughout your corporate identity, but to make them more alive.

• Other shapes: what I notice is that all over the blog the square shape is used mostly. Maybe it would be fun to add some unique shapes. What fits Airbnb well is to use shapes of houses. Underneath I will visualize my thoughts: These kinds of simple drawings of houses, really fits the corporate identity of Airbnb. To make the blog more fun and alive, these drawings can be added to the blog.

A d v i c e

A d v i c e

The houses I just showed in the image above, can be implemented in different ways. An option is to use the houses as the navigation buttons in the top of the blog.

The current look of the blog. The squares represent the written blogs. Another option is to use the shape of houses instead of the squares.

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Persona This is Jacky. Jacky is 34 years old and she loves to travel around the world. She is looking for a new adventure and she needs some inspiration to decide where she wants to go to. She has travelled with Airbnb before, so she decided to take a look at the website of Airbnb.

She doesn’t really know what she wants yet, so she ends up on the blog of Airbnb. She hopes to be inspired from the blog for her next destination.

She immediately sees the moving pictures on the homepage of the blog, which surprises her. It puts a smile on her face and she is triggered to keep searching on the blog. She browses through the blog and finds many inspiring stories. She loves the look of the blog.

It is very fun to look at and it really fits with the style of Airbnb. She will definitely visit this blog more often in the future. After a few minutes she sees the button ‘Photobook’ and clicks on it. She really loves photography herself and on every trip she takes pictures of the beautiful places she visits.

She spends at least 15 minutes on the Photobook page. She really gets a happy feeling from looking at these pictures and is getting excited to go on her next trip.

After visiting the blog she knows here next destination: Australia it is! A few days later she goes to the Airbnb website and books an apartment in the south of Australia.

advice

Pain Point: App

By: Iris Driessen

In the happiness funnel analysis of Airbnb four pinpoints occurred. One of the pain points is the following: The elements fun and surprise can be more implemented in the app of Airbnb. Happiness is divided in a few elements; fun, surprise and gratitude. At the moment the app is clear, it’s userfriendly and the design looks professional.

The fun is reflected in this app trough the design. The app shows pictures of places and homes of Airbnb-users, the app-user can easily swipe trough these pictures. The chance that can be found in this painpoint is that Airbnb can create a happy state of mind by their target group with the app. They can achieve this by optimizing the app by adding surprise and gratitude as well as maintaining the fun part.

The analysis gave the insight that the app only covers the ‘fun’ part of happiness, the app does not surprise or show gratitude. Improvement is possible and necessary to create a happy state of mind. To add the elements surprise and gratitude Airbnb first has to look back to the vision, mission and core values they stated.

It is important that the changes in the app, that are necessary to add the elements surprise and gratitude, stay true to the core business of Airbnb. The element gratitude can be added in multiple ways. First of all it can be added by taking the vision literally. If Airbnb incorporates the feedback of their customers more and in a visible way into their app they show gratitude. They show their customers that they value them and their opinions. The gratitude can also be added by incorporating the blog more.

They can add the blogs to their app, or they can simply add quotes from the blog into the app.

And last, if they make their customers feel at home while using the app they meet their mission and the customers will show gratitude.

Airbnb can make the customer feel at home by using photo’s, music, text or other elements that are familiar for the customers. For this they can look at the other communication means or they can look at where the travelers go and where they come from.

They can create accounts and personalize the app a little bit for the app-user. If these things are visible in the app they will create a two-way-gratitude, they will receive the gratitude back from their customers.

The surprise element can also be added to the app in different ways. The app can offer random (surprise) destinations. In their values they state ‘Embrace the adventure: Have a youthful spirit, regardless of age’, if they incorporate surprise destinations they will make this core

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value true. The random destinations can be chosen based on the customers stories and feedback. If Airbnb even communicates the feedback and the reason why this is a surprise destination they will also create another form of gratitude. They can also add surprise by offering special (personalized) features for example discounts, shared stories, and even possibly merchandize. Airbnb has to keep in mind that the surprise does not have to be big, small things will also be noticed by customers. A small mention in the app, or a notification with a special message can be enough.

If Airbnb follows this advice they will bring the elements fun, gratitude and surprise together in their already clear and user-friendly app. By combining these three elements Airbnb will create a happy state of mind, which will lead them closer to last state of the happiness funnel: ‘commitment’ and eventually true happiness for the company and their customers.

Persona Name: Finn Age: 23 Country: The Netherlands Interest: Traveling Finn is an adventurous young guy from the Netherlands. He just finished his study and is now ready to travel around the world with his backpack. To start the travel off he has discovered Airbnb and he has downloaded the Airbnb-app. When he opens the app he sees a fun app that is personalized. The content makes him feel at home because it is based on his norms and values. When he swipes trough the pictures and scrolls to the content he sees that Airbnb shows gratitude towards their customers and that the customers give that gratitude back. He sees that the feedback of the customers is well received and that Airbnb optimizes the app with that feedback.

After his first booking and travel a notification pops up. The app sends him a link to a digital travel guide based on his location. Surprised by this he downloads the guide and visit all the tourist attractions. After wandering the same location for a month another notification pops up. They offer Finn a surprise destination. The only thing he has to do is pay for the travel and take the airplane. He ends up in a nice home on the other side of the world and has the biggest adventure he ever had. When he finally arrives back home he is full of stories that he shares with his family, and with the Airbnb community. The community has grown into a place where he finds he belongs.

Pain Point: Communication between host and guest By: Fabian Knapen One point that customers aren’t satisfied about is the communication during the booking process. Customers can send e-mails to the landlords with who they are, what they like about this apartment and who is coming with them, but it’s hard to ask questions. It isn’t interactive and it can take a while to get a reply.

This system could be made more efficient.

A messenger would be more effective. By implying a messenger system, people can interact with each other. With the current way of contacting, customers or landlords have to put up a list of questions they have, and the receiver of the message has to reply to them all at once. But with a messenger system, people can ask one question at a time and anticipate on the answer. Besides that, it’s also a better and more personal way to get to know each other instead of sending multiple questions or answers.

Of course people should take into account that the other person could live in a different time zone, so he might not be able to response immediately. This could easily be solved by showing the current time of both persons in the message, so there are no misunderstandings about why someone is not responding.

advice Persona Name: Gulliver Age: 28 Country: England Interests: Cultural anthropology Gulliver is the ultimate cosmopolitan, and that’s by the way also his favorite drink. He likes to travel the world, meet people, eat the dishes that are served in the country he visits and get acquainted to the culture. Airbnb is the best platform that meets his norms and values. This time he wants to meet Zihuatanejo, Mexico. He finds a nice and cosy apartment with an ocean view that belongs to Eduardo. This is where he wants to go! So in his best Spanish he says to Eduardo through the messenger app: “Hola!

Como estas, amigo? Soy Gulliver, soy Inglesa y quiero visitor su appartamento.” While he’s just scrolling through some other apartments, he receives a reply: “Hola Gulliver! Bonito! Me siento halagado de que cogí mi apartamento!” Now it’s getting harder for Gulliver to speak Spanish, so he decides to ask Eduardo a question in English.

A conversation starts. The two feel connected already. They can trust each other. It could be because of the mustache, but it could also be because of their mutual interests. A friendship arises. And that’s all because of the Airbnb messenger app.

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Pain point: Target audience By: Dasja Groeneveld Introduction The conclusion of the analysis shows that Airbnb is doing an excellent job in many ways. However there are some painpoints that can be improved so Airbnb can get their customers in a real state of happiness. One of these painpoints is the variety of the costumers. Due to the fact that the customers of Airbnb are living all over the world and travel around it is difficult for Airbnb to find out what the segments of their customers are. This advice will focus on how Airbnb can improve this painpoint and how to gather more specific information about their customers so that Airbnb knows what is going on within their target audiences.

Advice To get your customers in a state of real happiness it is important for Airbnb to know who the customers are and what for interests they have. At this moment Airbnb is not focussing enough on gathering specific information about their customers.

Because of the fact that Airbnb is used worldwide they have to deal with different cultures, different people and different interests.

Airbnb can gather a lot of information about their customers by using the personal profile accounts of the customers. With these specific information Airbnb can categorized their different target audiences and in the end Airbnb can start targeting on a personal level. To improve, develop and gather the information about these different target audiences Airbnb needs to take the following three steps

Current personal profile of Airbnb. Airbnb is not asking for any specific information about interests etc.

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Step 1 As a customer of Airbnb you need to create a personal account. This can be done via Facebook or create an account by using your e-mail address. Currently Airbnb asks for some personal information like the name, hometown, country and birthdate. To gather more specific information about who your customers are Airbnb needs to update these personal profiles with some specific questions like; What are your interests, How do you like to travel, which kind of overnight stays are you interested in and what is the goal of your stay with Airbnb. By using these questions Airbnb will gather some specific information about the customers.

Important to consider what you want to know and create the specific questions so they will reach this goal.

Step 2 Step two is all about analysis the information.

The more detailed accounts will give Airbnb a lot of specific information from each person.

Gather this information and analyse what the differences are and which interests are the biggest.

Step 3 Segment the target audiences based on the outcomes of the analysis. By using these segments it will be much easier to know how to communicate with the different groups. Have a look at each segment and come up with a communication strategy. Now the communication with your customers can be done on a more personal level. Also Airbnb can target more specific on the different segments. For example if Airbnb knows that the segment backpackers does not want to stay in a villa

Airbnb can filter out all the villa’s in the research result for the customer.

Result In this case when Airbnb will communicate on a more personal level and participate on the different segments and interests, the customers will feel more special and appreciated. These factors will follow up by a happy feeling, which will lead the customer into a state of happiness. In this way Airbnb can be different from other companies. For a next step Airbnb can improve the app with the gathered information and use the same target technique within the app as on the website.

A d v i c e

Persona

A d v i c e

Laura is a fun lady and 23 years old. She just finished her study and is busy preparing a backpack trip in South America and Asia. Laura has heard a lot off good stories about AirbbB but never used it herself. Now she is planning a backpack trip Aribnb can be very useful for her especially because she wants to meet locals. Her goal of the backpack trip is to discover different cultures and learn the real local ways of living in various countries.

Laura visited the website of Airbnb and started creating a personal profile. She was amazed by the fact that she could create her profile with her Facebook account. This step was very easy and did not take a lot of time. The next step for Laura was to answer a couple of questions about her way off travelling, interests and goals of her future stays.

After a week Laura start searching on Airbnb and she was amazed by the personal offers Airbnb showed her. The most beautiful places appeared on her Airbnb wall and every host was a pure local. No big expensive villa’s or luxuries yachts but small towns and hopefully friendly people. After her search Laura booked her first Airbnb stay in a small town nearby Buenos Aires. She can’t wait to get on the plane next week and meet her hosts. Thanks to Airbnb she found a place she never would found on forehand of her trip.

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Bibliography (2014, July 6th). Opgeroepen op December 16th, 2014, van Forum.viva.nl: http://forum.viva.nl/forum/reizen/ervaringen-airbnb/list_messages/235024 (2014, December 3th). Opgeroepen op December 16th, 2014, van Trustpilot.nl: https://www.trustpilot.nl/ review/www.airbnb.com (2014, September 2th). Opgeroepen op December 16th, 2014, van Investopedia.com: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/032814/pros-and-cons-using-airbnb.asp?performancelayout=true Airbnb Is Worth $10 Billion Because The Sharing Economy Is a Farce. (2014, maart 20). Opgeroepen op december 17, 2014, van Valleywag: http://valleywag.gawker.com/airbnb-is-worth-10-billion-because-the-sharing-economy-1548065301 Airbnb-reiziger duurzamer dan hotelgast. (2014, augustus 6). Opgeroepen op december 17, 2014, van Duurzaambedrijfsleven.nl: http://www.duurzaambedrijfsleven.nl/67537/airbnb-reiziger-duurzamer-dan-hotelgast/ Arrington, M. (2011). Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry. Opgehaald van techcrunch.com: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/29/airbnb-victim-speaks-again-homeless-scared-and-angry/ Brian Chesky. (2014). Belong Anywhere. From blog.airbnb.com: http://blog.airbnb.com/belong-anywhere/ Chesky, B. (2013). Airbnb’s Brian Chesky And Sequoia’s Alfred Lin On The Importance Of Culture And Core Values To A Business. (L. Rao, Interviewer) Fas. (N.D.). The Global Technology Revolution Summary. From fas.org: http://fas.org/irp/nic/rand/mr1307. sum.html Umbarila, A. (2012). CH 8 Segmentation and Targeting Markets. From Airbnb-marketing.blogspot.nl: http:// airbnb-marketing.blogspot.nl

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appendix Step 4 Quality: Reactions and experiences from customers with Airbnb.

Positive experiences

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Negative experiences

thank you