How Airbnb can Leverage Big Data for Marketing?

Two major customer groups of Airbnb include travelers (guests) looking for accommodation and patrons (hosts) looking to offer temporary property rentals.

Alexa West. https://unsplash.com/s/photos/airbnb

Ideas to improve customer experience:

• A name could help infer race ad lead to bias in booking decisions. To protect privacy, reconsider hostname and profile picture requirements at the time of booking, with options to be anonymous.
• Implement standards on uploading property pictures and descriptions. Mailbox number, neighborhood description should not be public information.
• Establish automated scans for detecting fraudulent, and suspicious listings.
• Inform hosts of “high-risk” bookings.
• Ensure reviews are not “fudged” and that a majority of those are not coming from family/friends.
• Provide an “online advisor” that can recommend destinations and/or unique preference-based experiences. Provide discounts based on loyalty scores.

Ideas to improve customer engagement:

• Provide reporting dashboards to hosts and guests. Host metrics include property occupancy rates, reviews from guests, bookings trends over a timeline, etc. Guests metrics include total nights rented, booking trends, pricing trends/ expenses, property rating history, receipt tracking, etc.
• Analyze complaints data to ensure issues are not repeated. Train employees to be consistent with customer service.
• Make it easier for the guests and hosts to work with the support team by proactively providing a case number, aiming one-call resolution.
• Analyze customer lifetime value to provide discounts on listing fees to hosts and on transaction fees to guests.
• Provide opt-in for promotional offers, major event alerts, and weather hazards.
• Integrate customer touchpoint channels like Twitter, toll-free number, etc.
• Train staff to escalate calls in special situations. Provide authority on approving refunds within limits.