Why do they publish blogposts on such a lame paywalled website though...
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How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
11–20 of 129 posts
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#12I feel like this is missing a really important factor: how likely are guests to use airbnb again after staying at a listing? A listing could look great online and receive a lot of bookings (so high LTV), but ultimately drive users away from the platform. A certain ad platform I worked on cared a lot about this - offensive ads could get you to quit the site altogether. You might want to count every ad as positive for…
In the case of Airbnb, wouldn't that show up in the listing's reviews, requests for refunds, etc. and ultimately drive down the listing's LTV? Nobody leaves reviews on an ad, and I imagine that very few users report inappropriate ads, so you can only measure that indirectly. But if somebody books an Airbnb and has a bad experience, they are much more likely to give you direct feedback about it.
I think it could show up in those other places, but probably isn't fully captured?
Imagine an airbnb that's great for most guests but absolutely terrible for 1 in every 5, so bad that they quit airbnb. Maybe it's next to a music venue, so every once in a while it's very loud.
It's possible it could maintain a decent average star rating and LTV as described in the article but actually have negative (real) lifetime value for airbnb if the 1 in five that they lose would have spent a lot of money on the platform otherwise.
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#13Mega-tangent: As a host, I feel compelled to rant about Airbnb whenever they come up in a discussion. The last 2 years they have _really_ moved to squeeze the hosts. The customer service has been demolished and they seem to have taken a stance of "the guest is always right". I've spent countless hours going through their customer service as a super host, so I know I have a decent amount of anecdata. My suspicion is t…
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Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#14Mega-tangent: As a host, I feel compelled to rant about Airbnb whenever they come up in a discussion. The last 2 years they have _really_ moved to squeeze the hosts. The customer service has been demolished and they seem to have taken a stance of "the guest is always right". I've spent countless hours going through their customer service as a super host, so I know I have a decent amount of anecdata. My suspicion is t…
> paying 17% is way too much
Have you considered increasing the cleaning fee to recoup some of that money? /s
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#15This isn't an LTV model, it's a regression model. Is it even good? Doesn't seem so.
Maybe their folks need to punch "LTV" into Google Scholar.
And also, is it even actionable?
> For example, suppose we run a marketing campaign that provides hosts with tips on how to successfully improve their listings
Right guys. “Marketing-induced incremental LTV” indeed.
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#16Mega-tangent: As a host, I feel compelled to rant about Airbnb whenever they come up in a discussion. The last 2 years they have _really_ moved to squeeze the hosts. The customer service has been demolished and they seem to have taken a stance of "the guest is always right". I've spent countless hours going through their customer service as a super host, so I know I have a decent amount of anecdata. My suspicion is t…
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An AirBNB host is not a landlord.
Without landlords, you have no rental properties and everyone who can't afford to purchase their residence outright would have to find another option whatever that might be.
(I have never used AirBNB.)
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#17Mega-tangent: As a host, I feel compelled to rant about Airbnb whenever they come up in a discussion. The last 2 years they have _really_ moved to squeeze the hosts. The customer service has been demolished and they seem to have taken a stance of "the guest is always right". I've spent countless hours going through their customer service as a super host, so I know I have a decent amount of anecdata. My suspicion is t…
PMS as in Pantone Matching System or Premenstrual Syndrome?
AirBNB can be equally frustrating for users as well. Recently ended up at night in a new city in northern Japan where the host told me the listing was at a different address, where I found nothing, and got only radio silence from the host. Every hotel room in town was occupied that night. Airbnb support, seemingly in far away India, told me to try contacting the host, and that was that.
Also recently stayed at a place with a dog that shat inside due to the owner not taking them out; due to politeness no one had complained in the reviews.
Also Airbnb lists one price but when booking it always ends up being way more with more fees added.
I’m using hotels.com with a filter for “has kitchen” these days, which was the only reason I used Airbnb in the first place
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
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An AirBNB host is not a landlord. Without landlords, you have no rental properties and everyone who can't afford to purchase their residence outright would have to find another option whatever that might be. (I have never used AirBNB.)
Without landlords we wouldn’t have a chunk of the housing supply held captive as investment, driving costs out of reach for most of the non-HN-reading audience.
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#19I feel like this is missing a really important factor: how likely are guests to use airbnb again after staying at a listing? A listing could look great online and receive a lot of bookings (so high LTV), but ultimately drive users away from the platform. A certain ad platform I worked on cared a lot about this - offensive ads could get you to quit the site altogether. You might want to count every ad as positive for…
I had this experience years ago. The first place I ever rented in had Wi-Fi that didn’t work and after about a week the water stopped working. I cancelled my booking through support and the owner called me 3 or 4 times on WhatsApp and then left me a bad review. The second place had a shower that didn’t drain and the washing machine flooded the apartment one evening. The third place had black mold growing out of the kitchen ceiling. I tried to get them to waive the cleaning fee over it, but the owner claimed he had told me about it already and refused to do anything. When I left, he told me he had written me a good review and expected one in return. I pointed out that he had done nothing to remedy the mold issue and then posted my own review, and found that in his review he had accused me of bringing prostitutes and drugs into the apartment (which I did not).
It was nominally cheaper to travel this way, but for my next trip I’ll be staying in hotels.
Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value
#20Mega-tangent: As a host, I feel compelled to rant about Airbnb whenever they come up in a discussion. The last 2 years they have _really_ moved to squeeze the hosts. The customer service has been demolished and they seem to have taken a stance of "the guest is always right". I've spent countless hours going through their customer service as a super host, so I know I have a decent amount of anecdata. My suspicion is t…
>So that's what many of us are doing, moving to PMS + paid advertising / SEO
For those of us not in this space, what does PMS mean?