Project 2: Airbnb Work Study

Maria Jessica
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read
Airbnb’s new Events feature that allow guest find event host through its mobile apps.

Experience the prototype

The situation

In 2008 Airbnb was found asa trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world. Since then, Airbnb has changed the way people travel allowing people to stay in someone’s home and live a like a local. Some hosts allow guest to book their spaces for events by adding it to the description section of their post. With that being said, guest have no clear way to tell which hosts and accommodation permit event booking without having to read through individual posts description and house rules. Airbnb would like to create a first-class means through Airbnb’s mobile app to increase the ability of event hosts and guest to find another.

User Interview

We sent screener survey with 42 responses and we did 6 primary user interview who plan events. We wanted to understand the experiences, situations and process booking venue. The goal of the user interviews was to understand user’s primary struggles with finding a venue so we could solve for them when designing the Airbnb new feature. We discovered that:

  • 8 out of 9 event planners have very specific amenity criteria
  • 7 out of 9 event planners want to trust quality of space
  • more than 50% of event planners stress importance of working with reliable people

We also did 3 secondary user interview who interested in rent their space for event. We discovered that:

  • 100% of hosts want to protect their space
  • 75% of hosts want to be in control of the types of events at their space

We created a personas that match the goal, frustration and behavior from our user interview.

Strategy + Tactics

We found 3 strong competitor online marketplace for booking venue.

We learned from our competitor they have limited locations, more exclusive (target professional event planners, business, and commercial), fees higher than Airbnb, focus on commercial spaces and quite new in the market place.

Our strategy was to provide people who plan events have a reliable and easy way to find venues that meet their detailed event criteria and venue hosts have a reliable and easy way to find the right types of guests for their spaces. With this in mind, Airbnb could powerfully leverage its huge, fast growing & inclusive community. Many users could be interested in sharing home and other spaces — not just to stay in for the night but also for special events.

We brainstorm most relevant sources what our user need whey they plan event and let any host who has event space but not included accommodation to rent their space.

From that we created a new events feature where user can find venues but also discover parts of the city that few travelers and guest ever see and everything just in one app.

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