What do we know today about our Airbnb hosts? They write a little description of their place and maybe a sentence about themselves. Maybe they uploaded a picture with their significant other or their dog. We also know about reviews that have been left by previous renters. That’s it.
If Airbnb’s strength is their experience and the whole value is in it, why do we have no idea who the host is?
All this is inspired by my own story that happened in Napa. I went up to Calistoga with my fiance for a long weekend. We wanted to get out of the Valley and get some fresh air (and wine). We decided to use Airbnb to be able to ask our host about the best “hidden” places in the area. Also because I love Airbnb. Since my days of being a backpacker where I went to hostels, to the days of interesting adventures into someone’s house by using couchsurfing, the experience, has, always been king.
So here we are: Calistoga. We arrived to the house which looked exactly as described. When we knocked on the door, a guy cleaning his tears opened the door. He looked terrible. He invite us in and show us the room and bathroom. It seemed like something was wrong.
We talked to him and he mentioned that his dad had died the day before. He didn't live in the house and he just had come for the funeral a day ago.
He was really depressed and went on telling us about his dad. We were heart broken. Poor guy. Having to go through all the pain and trying to have to put on a smile for us. We told him we would look for another place and let him mourn. He said he preferred that we stayed so he didn't feel so lonely in the big house.
The next day it just seemed he was worse. He started to smoke weed all day while drinking bottles and bottles of wine. He stayed most of the time in the living room which connected to his bedroom and ours. So we could smell the air, a pungent mix of weed and wine. But that was not the worst. He was crying and we couldn't do anything about it. We didn't know anything about him. We tried to talk to him, but clearly, he just wanted to be alone.
I felt guilty. I felt accountable, in sense, to hang out with him but at the same time to leave him alone. Maybe it would have been different if I knew something about him before I actually lived with him for four days.
I asked myself: How can Airbnb improve my experience?
The experience is based in the interaction between two or more people. As humans we relate to each other in a personal way and we communicate verbal and non-verbally. We share information about each other.
But what do we know in Airbnb? What kind of information are we sharing? Are we really telling who we are?
The common standard has been reviews. As in Amazon, Yelp or Uber we have made reviews the most popular way of knowing about each other. This has improved our experience. But is this all ?
The system is based in pushing our reviews into someone profile or product. That how good it works today. I'm not surprised that chefs and owners of restaurants don't like when someone writes a horrible review on Yelp. They can respond and try to talk to the client but they haven't had the opportunity to really show who they are. Should we judge a seller on Amazon just from their product?
This aspect of reviews has lost it’s integrity or at least can be skewed, an example of this is a troll consumer or businesses that have tried to “buy reviews” on Yelp or TripAdvisor. The system is based in the idea that not all reviews can be bought and that quantity will actually bring transparency to the market.
Back to Airbnb. What if we actually had better information on our host?
Maybe he just like to take naps on the sun…
Airbnb has made a great progress on the photography of the places making them look better. But are they only focusing on the asset? Is it the apartments or houses that makes someone use Airbnb? I don’t think so. Its about the people. The experience. The stories.
I love what Airbnb has done with stories. They tell beautiful experiences but I wonder why they can't do it with every host? Just a 60 second video on the host. To get to know the person we are staying with.
Something like what youplus.biz does with short interviews. Good quality video that tries to bring out the real person inside of us. Why do you rent your place? What do you do for living? What are your hobbies? Why do you think Napa is the best city to live? Maybe knowing a little more about my host of Calistoga could have helped me deal with that moment.
I believe Airbnb can create the best experience we have ever had by sticking to what matters. Let us go back to the people and the experience. Really feeling what it means to “belong anywhere.”
PS: Hope you like this post. If you did please share it with others and hit the Recommend button. Also tell me on Twitter, I'm @JDcarlu
