Sublets: AirBnb’s Manhattan project
How a hidden product could be their post-pandemic secret weapon
If you’ve been lost in the leaderboards and political debates around covid-19 you probably might’ve missed the carnage that AirBnb hosts have been facing. Long story short, the world went into lockdown and AirBnb rightfully didn’t enforce cancellation fees on guests. They had to pick between pushing hosts or guests out of the way of certain disaster. They chose the people that pay.
Since then city planners, renters, anti-gentrification advocates, and even landlords have started debating whether this is the end of AirBnb.
Anthony Breach, a researcher from the Centre for Cities, tweeted:
For renters in cities being hurt by the rising rents, Vice summed up their reaction pretty accurately:
Of course hosts and property owners are worried. Many use this as a large source of income. Many are converting their places to long-term rentals to gain some financial security. Some even say they’ll never go back to airbnb. Then there’s this guy:
Is this the beginning of the end of AirBnb? Nah, probably not. Once the world starts to return back to some form of normal, their hosts will probably see an uptake in guests again. Some of them may not be back for a while until the long-term leases them signed expire and their tenants leave. Ultimately Airbnb will probably do what they’ve always done and listen to their users.
Some hosts want more stability. Renters and housing advocates want more units available at affordable rates. Politicians just want this mess to go away.
Well, AirBnb has a product called sublets that allows hosts to rent their properties for up to 6 months. Don’t worry if you can’t find the link on the site, I stumbled onto it doing a google search while apartment hunting. Looking at the design it looks like they’ve had it since before their rebrand in 2014–15. Hammer meet nail.
How much of an impact could this have on solving their current challenge with hosts and angry renters? Here’s a screenshot of airbnbs available in their home base of SF:
It’s probably not as accurate as the data AirBnb has internally but it gives a great picture of how many properties they can potentially make available for long-term rentals.
Allowing hosts to sublet or do extended bookings is just another arrow in their quiver. It potentially makes them a dangerous competitor to companies like Zillow, HotPads, Zumper, Trulia, the list goes on.
Aren’t they just a travel company you ask? Technically yes and no. A lot of their products are travel experience focused but they don’t use the word bookings. They’re called stays. There’s nothing in their mission that says hosts can’t offer “extended stays”. More importantly it’s what hosts are now looking for and could turn long-term renters from enemies into customers.
If AirBnb was taking their time to think it through before, the host uprising of 2020 has probably forced them to accelerate their plans and make it a priority. It’s an opportunity that I can’t imagine they won’t at least put some more resources (i.e. marketing and engineering) into growing.
The execution won’t be a cake walk, but the pitch is simple. Stay Longer.
