Next-generation hospitality company Airbnb has been running an old-fashioned hospitality promotion to try to grab a bigger slice of the rental market in traditional resort areas.
This October, the lodging-rental company has been touting a deal that reads like this: “First-time Airbnb guests get $100* off homes in 13 of North America’s best ski destinations when you book by Oct 29.”
What’s notable about the promotion is that it isn’t aimed at Airbnb’s stereotypical listing of an urban property where the host lives on-site.
The deal aims to drum up business at traditional resort spots worldwide — in this case, ski destinations like Aspen, Jackson Hole, Stowe, and Whistler.
The promotion suggests how the company thinks about the market. It thinks in terms of geography rather than demography.
Airbnb defines the market difference as traditional resort spots versus urban or suburban areas, instead of as professionally-managed listings versus self-managed ones. It has its teams looking at activity in areas such as Bali, Cape Cod, Hawaii, Provence, and so forth with a separate approach to the ones looking after, say, Paris.
Michael Endelman, who helps lead Airbnb’s North American vacation rentals team, recently sat down with Tnooz to offer a wide-angle shot of the company’s approach.
A couple of years ago, Airbnb realized that resort areas have a different type of host and a different type of guest, he says. So it created a “sub-team” to better serve resort areas. They tweak the company’s product and marketing to gain share, with a goal of quadrupling its nearly half-a-million resort area listings.
Airbnb estimates that close to 70% of its property managers in vacation rental markets have fewer than 10 listings. These are typically small local businesses, says Endelman, rather than big property management companies. He adds:
“This typical host profile fits well within Airbnb’s brand values. They contribute to the local economy and they have the ability to act as local ambassadors to guests.”
Read rest of the article at Tnooz
