It's been a good November for Airbnb. Two weeks ago, the company was throwing a victory party in San Francisco after the city voted no on a measure that would have restricted short-term rentals. The following week, Airbnb's top honchos flew to Paris for its annual conference for hosts.
Dialing back some of the fiery rhetoric the company used against the San Francisco's Proposition F, CEO Brian Chesky unveiled an Airbnb Community Compact on Wednesday, stating the company will work on "treating every city personally and helping ensure our community pays its fair share of hotel and tourist taxes."
Treating cities—and people—on a person-by-person basis is a mantra Airbnb seems to be rallying around, including technology. Along with the politically motivated community compact, the company released a suite of personalized tools for hosts. "We are working to make things on Airbnb personal," Airbnb vice president of product Joe Zadeh tells Newsweek. "Sixty thousand listings in Paris means 60,000 unique opportunities. How do we find the right person for the right listing or host on both sides?"
Of the seven new tools unveiled in Paris, the most interesting is a "smart pricing" algorithm that will automatically choose daily prices for hosts. All hosts have to do is to set a minimum and maximum price for daily prices, and the algorithm will fluctuate within the range based on demand, geography and even the host's average rating. (The higher the reviews, the higher the prices.)
Once they set up the tool, owners cede control over the day-to-day prices. And some worry it could create an Uber-like surge—where prices skyrocket based on demands. But smart pricing has a ceiling and Zadeh argues the trade-off allows hosts to focus more on attending to the visitor's needs. "Hosts might think it's a good idea to surge in busy times," Zadeh says. "But it's actually bad idea because either they won't get booked, or they do get booked and get a bad review to cost their business long-term."
Airbnb is also targeting business travelers with an expansion of its successful Airbnb for Business programs with a "business travel ready" identification for hosts who meet certain requirements.
Many of the requirements are hotel-like amenities, such as a 24-hour check-in system, laptop-friendly workspaces, hangers, clothing irons, and shampoo.
Airbnb has also partnered with companies such as Google to encourage employees to use Airbnb in their business trips. When Google employees book an Airbnb listing, the website will charge Google directly for expenses, according to Zadeh.
Another new Airbnb initiative: giving credits for helping mentor fledgling hosts through Airbnb's "community centers"—an online forum.
Zadeh distinguished these community centers from the similar-sounding home-sharing clubs, which the company will create in 100 U.S. cities by next year. The latter will be more brick-and-mortar and politically charged to combat future regulatory efforts by city governments across the United States.
Airbnb announced its vision for a home-sharing clubs a day after Prop F was defeated. Its global policy chief Chris Lehane said Airbnb will "spend what it takes to succeed."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Seung Lee is a San Francisco-based staff writer at Newsweek, who focuses on consumer technology. He has previously worked at the ... Read more
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