The Story of Airbnb
The beginning of Airbnb
As we all know, Airbnb is one of the most famous rental apps for travelers worldwide. But how did it start?
Just like a lot of other companies, Airbnb started without a lot of money, two founders of Airbnb Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky started Airbnb in 2008 with only 3 air mattresses and a simple website. All they did was rent their mattress and promised breakfast on the website.
What they faced?
Even though Airbnb overtakes Hilton Hotel in nights booked in 2012, and has over $25.5 billion value since 2015, they are facing a lot of problems as well. (https://bmtoolbox.net/stories/airbnb/)
Unlike a lot of companies that started in 2008, Airbnb started their business online which is different from other traditional companies. Even though an online company has the benefit of connecting the whole world altogether, Airbnb has to face a lot of different problems as well.
Because Airbnb is doing international rentals, so they have to think about the different laws in different countries for rentals. Different areas have different laws and regulations for those vacation rentals, so Airbnb has to be careful about those laws.(https://www.igms.com/airbnb-problems/)
Except for laws and regulations, because Airbnb is focusing online, it is really hard for them to deal with some problems that customers have with householders.
Great content
After I talked about how did Airbnb start and the problems they are facing, I noticed that Airbnb has a lot of great campaigns online:
This is my favorite campaign idea of Airbnb, first of all, interestingly, a traveling rental app is telling you not to go somewhere! This is incredible. But after that, they are telling you that the best way of feeling a place is not to travel like a tourist, but to feel like you live there.
A lot of local cultures you can only feel it whenever you live there, and Airbnb is providing this chance for people to live somewhere instead of just tour. People can feel that they are having a home in that place.
What I loved the most about this campaign is that I agree with the idea that living in a place would be much more efficient than just traveling there, even though just living for one night.
From the point of view of a traveler, I feel attracted by this message that Airbnb sent to me, I agree with the stories that they are telling, and I would choose what they want me to choose in the future traveling. Also, I feel this campaign idea perfectly filled their brand message that “Belong anywhere”. Whenever you have a home at a place, you are living there and you feel you belong there.
Finally, I feel this content is shareable because whenever people are seeing this video they would be attracted by the new idea that Airbnb just came up with, and would share those ideas with their friends during travel. After they felt the benefit of living in a place instead of traveling to a place. This would change their future behavior and pass to everyone else they know.
Cited:
2. https://bmtoolbox.net/stories/airbnb/
3. https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F220076779
