How Airbnb Could Really Make Me Feel Like Home

Part 3: The logistics around staying in someone else’s home.

(This story is the 3rd part of a 4 part series about the Airbnb Guest Experience and how it could be improved by re-thinking their mobile app. In the first post I’m describing my design process that lead to this outcome.)

“We’ve kept the feeling of being at home anywhere.” — Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO to De Zeen Magazine

In September 2013, Airbnb announced the hire of Joie de Vivre founder Chip Conley to be their first Head of Global Hospitality, aiming to provide travelers with a home away from home anywhere in the world. With this act started their intense focus on hospitality and providing the feeling of home, something that lead to the current rebranding with the controversial Bélo and the slogan “Belong everywhere.”

“A house is just a space, but a home is where you belong. “ — Brian Chesky.

But to feel like home you need to know where things are, how things work and what is expected of you.

Traveling to a new place and staying with people you don’t know, whether the host is there or not, can quickly become a frustrating experience if you don’t have easy access to the information you need when you need it.

For instance, having the address can seem like all the information you need to get checked in, until you find yourself circling around the block unable to find the right entrance or the parking garage the host mentioned somewhere in the listing. Then you need to dig through your inbox to find that email with the door code, and then try to remember where in the app you saw the information about the apartment number. Maybe later, you can’t remember what the host said about how to operate that entertainment system and now he’s gone to bed so you can’t ask. Then, when checking out, what are you expected to do with the dirty towels or the key? The last thing you want right before leaving is to upset the host and get a bad review!

Airbnb is aiming for a a seamless end-to-end experience, but user interviews showed that there is currently a lot of friction areas during a stay and many of these are during check-in and check-out.

I already discussed how important it is for guest and host to have clear communication in order to achieve a great trip experience. But some important information is not changing and should be available for the guest to access whenever he or she would need it, without having to dig through the inbox to find the booking confirmation or to read through the entire listing to find a relevant piece of information.

I think the guest experience could be improved by restructuring the Your Trip section in the app more intuitively and timely to when you would need that piece of information. This, together with time-relevant and pro-active push notifications, would remove friction and let the guest enjoy the feeling of being in a home away from home.

This is how it could work:

Oakland, 11:45PM: Philip the gust arrives at his destination and receives a notification on his phone. “Almost there! Here’s how to find parking and get in.” In the app he sees the hosts notes about where to park the car and how to find the right entrance and the door code for getting in.

Oakland, 11:55PM: Philip rings the doorbell at the apartment and John the host is opening the door, greets him and introduces him to his wife Ann. John then shows him his room and where the bathroom is. They chat for a few minutes and then John excuses himself and gets ready for bed, it’s been a long day and it’s getting late.

Later, in his room, Philip notices he has gotten a new notification on his phone. “We know you want wifi. Please read the house manual”. Philip swipes and lands in the “Booking information” section of Your Trip. Here he finds the answers to the questions he didn’t remember to ask John about before he went to bed, like the wifi password or if he could use the washing machine. He also checks the house rules and now he knows enough about this place and his host to feel more like home.

Interested in knowing more about my design process and the background for this study? Read part 1, part 2 and part 4 of my Airbnb Design Exploration finding solutions to the Airbnb check-in logistics and neighborhood guides.

I am not affiliated with Airbnb. This work was completely unsolicited and done in September 2014. Visit my blog for more of my thoughts on travel tech, hospitality, product management and user experience design.