Towards a post-airbnb world ?
The world is changing, so are the patterns of tourism consumption, which will impact all layers of the travel industry: airlines, hospitality, travel agents, booking platforms, tourism boards…And Airbnb has been the epitome of the last world tourism pattern. What are the alternative business models and above all what could be the other ways to nurture new experiences and discoveries for our clients?
Recently, the Quarantined Entrepreneurs organized an E-meetup & ideation session related to the future of tourism with various actors of our industry. We mainly focused on what could be the post Airbnb era in the tourism industry.
To understand and ideate on what can be a post-Airbnb era, we must, first of all, define what has been the most interesting aspects of the company offers and what the organization and similar companies in the space have come to represent in our industry.
Airbnb’s unique selling point was to open people’s homes to tourists in order to provide an “at home” global experience.
Thereby, it actually changed the way in which the industry was structured and operated.
Airbnb has modeled itself as a modern technology company which created a global platform to connect travelers with home owners.
The positives of the Airbnb model which have been highlighted are:
- Cheaper accommodation than offered by the traditional hospitality industry,
- A global and user-friendly platform,
- An experience which is more humane and authentic,
- A closer contact with local culture and people,
- A platform which incentivized home owners, creating a completely new revenue stream for real estate owners,
- A strong and reliable rating system.
Much later, Airbnb extended its services to include more immersive experiences curated by local people. This new offer came as a response to the critics of the impact of the primary business model on local infrastructure and local people.
As a matter of fact, Airbnb primary humane model had got hijacked by the real estate and finance industries resulting in the experience becoming less authentic while creating new problems for urban areas and communities. Indeed, the Airbnb experiential services were also launched while the company was getting ready for its IPO after 12 years of operations.
The gap between Promise and Reality
The negative fallouts of Airbnb model was that it led to over tourism and to a lack of attention to the principles and standards of the hospitality industry.
In the last decade, as travelers we all enjoyed the positive impact of this model supplemented by low cost flights and travel options.
Therefore, it created a lack of hygiene, design and comfort aesthetics, safety and security protocols. In addition to this, the gap between the brand promise and the ground level reality has been highlighted by its negative impact on communities and urban areas.
In the last decade, as travelers we all enjoyed the positive impact of this model supplemented by low cost flights and travel options.
However, both this global pandemic and the negative outcomes of this business paradigm have prompted us to rethink the business proposition of our tourism industry. Hence, to discuss a post airbnb model in the context of climate change and global warming.
The Quarantined Entrepreneurs discussed some of the potential or possible ways to transition to a new future:
First of all, we definitely believe that the future has to include better standards of hospitality, health and hygiene. Also, our industry will need to create a model of travel which takes into account the norm of social distancing and the fear of large gatherings and crowded places.
Customer care will demand much greater involvement and accessibility of local partners who will curate the travel experience better. Hence, the professionals will need to create better service oriented models by carefully selecting service providers. We will have to definitely pay more attention to the on-ground traveler experience .
Therefore, we may need to create more community oriented and niche products which improve the philosophy of tourism with locals and create a positive link between the industry professionals, the travelers and the communities.
Also, the service models will demand more transparency and traceability for the traveler. Thereby having more accurate rating systems and trust matrix.
A greater thought is to position tourism within the global climate change; therefore, to create new products and evolve new models which demand more localization and less impact on the local environment.
Finally, we need to look at more virtual experiences of travel as being experimented during this Covid lockdown.
To sum up, what the Covid-19 lockdown has given us is the time and the space to think about the negatives of over-tourism and to create more human driven models where care, trust and attention to individual needs is important. This will push us towards new innovative products and services and use upcoming technologies to augmente the traveler experience.
Finally, we need to look at more virtual experiences of travel as being experimented during this Covid lockdown.
The Quarantined Entrepreneurs
We are a global community of empathetic entrepreneurs, now under quarantine, who regularly gather to support each other and ideate on the future and the current business issues. You can find us on Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram.
