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How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

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Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#61

Post by iambateman »

Airbnb’s original promise was magical, thrilling, interesting - get to stay in unusual places that are full of charm and possibility.

But that promise was broken for me when Commaleta played back the video of her front door camera and counted that we had 10 people walk in her door, not eight. She proceeded to accuse us of throwing a party, when we absolutely did not, and tried to charge us $1000 extra dollars.

At that point, I decided that Airbnb’s hosts were too much of a wildcard in most travel situations.

By the way, the story above is from 10 years ago and I will never forget her name for the rest of my life…she turned what should’ve been a relaxing, beautiful week into a miserable arbitration process. It’s hard for ABNB to succeed long term when one experience like that can ruin everything.

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#62

Post by ghaff »

secabeen wrote: post #44
ghaff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose hotels can have a few rooms with kitchens but I'm guessing a vanishingly few people care about kitchens when traveling outside of maybe a microwave and a small refrigerator. AirBnB that are larger (e.g. houses) can also be nice for groups but that's more outside of cities than in a city center. Hotels tend to optimize for the 90% case. Where I'm staying at the moment is a "serviced apartment" and does have…

A large fraction of families traveling value the kitchens (leftovers, kid breakfasts, not having to eat restaurant food for every meal, when all the kids want is Kraft Mac&Cheese, etc.) and the common living spaces (kids go to bed early). I hate traveling with my family and being stuck in a hotel room (or two!). When I'm traveling alone or with just adults, I can be out all day and only use my hotel room for sleeping…

My point was that this is a minority preference in most paces.

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#63

Post by maxrmk »

listenallyall wrote: post #55
maxrmk wrote: post #6

I 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…

Good point and it affects far more than just Airbnb. I'm sure some companies internal ROI for app notifications is universally positive... but when you send me 10 app notifications a week for a product or service I only purchase occasionally, I'm uninstalling the app. Obviously I'm in the minority because the app still has millions of users but hopefully others have turned notifications off.

Yeah I think about this model weirdly often.

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#64

Post by seany »

secabeen wrote: post #44
ghaff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose hotels can have a few rooms with kitchens but I'm guessing a vanishingly few people care about kitchens when traveling outside of maybe a microwave and a small refrigerator. AirBnB that are larger (e.g. houses) can also be nice for groups but that's more outside of cities than in a city center. Hotels tend to optimize for the 90% case. Where I'm staying at the moment is a "serviced apartment" and does have…

A large fraction of families traveling value the kitchens (leftovers, kid breakfasts, not having to eat restaurant food for every meal, when all the kids want is Kraft Mac&Cheese, etc.) and the common living spaces (kids go to bed early). I hate traveling with my family and being stuck in a hotel room (or two!). When I'm traveling alone or with just adults, I can be out all day and only use my hotel room for sleeping…

This is the primary reason I use Airbnb and it's equivalents. My typical traveling party is 4 adults, 3 kids, and 1-2 dogs most of those people have a preference to cook rather than eat out. Accommodating that in a hotel is a disaster unless you get an ultra low price of a double suite or something.

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#65

Post by gregorymichael »

huevosabio wrote: post #10

Mega-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…

AirBnB and Uber both have a dynamic where the host/driver has often taken out a loan and modified their lifestyle to depend on this income, which makes them the easier party to squeeze.

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#66

Post by appreciatorBus »

ghaff wrote: post #62
secabeen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large fraction of families traveling value the kitchens (leftovers, kid breakfasts, not having to eat restaurant food for every meal, when all the kids want is Kraft Mac&Cheese, etc.) and the common living spaces (kids go to bed early). I hate traveling with my family and being stuck in a hotel room (or two!). When I'm traveling alone or with just adults, I can be out all day and only use my hotel room for sleeping…

My point was that this is a minority preference in most paces.

If it truly is a minority preference, then we need a way to square that with all the people saying they book AirBnB's instead of hotels because of the kitchens. :)

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#67

Post by appreciatorBus »

huevosabio wrote: post #51
appreciatorBus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PMS - Property Management System, aka what actual hotels use to manage room inventory, bookings, etc. IMO most of the things that people like about AirBnB vs hotels is downstream of the failed experiment of urban planning. If we want hotel operators willing to "spend" floorspace on kitchens and other niceties, then legal floorspace can't be scarce or special, but most of the current planning regime is oriented around…

Yes, this is spot on. The more lax the regulations for hotels, the less appealing Airbnb is.

Sure tho TBF I wouldn't use the word lax - it implies there's something dangerous or untoward going on and we are choosing to let it slide. :)

Rather since the rules limiting hotel size, locations, quantity etc have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with class, exclusivity, and segregation, we can jettison them confidently without worrying that we are being too lax about anything important :)

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#68

Post by [deleted] »

listenallyall wrote: post #56
avidiax wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A listing could look great online and receive a lot of bookings (so high LTV), but ultimately drive users away from the platform. I am precisely this kind of churned customer. I have personally booked maybe 3 AirBNB stays, and stayed with family in them on other occasions. The units I pick are always well-reviewed. But in the cities I've stayed in (LA, SF, Rome), the price is really no cheaper than a hotel, and the…

> My impression has been that AirBNB's customers are actually the hosts Yes for sure. Avg # of transactions per host dwarfs avg # of transactions per guest. Same with revenue. A frustrated host who pulls a unit (often, multiple units) off the platform is much more detrimental than an individual customer leaving the platform.

[deleted]

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#69

Post by ambicapter »

carlosjobim wrote: post #39
9283409232 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Booking.com is awful. Anyone can make a listing on Booking.com for places that don't exist. Airbnb at least makes an effort to verify the building is real.

I've made thousands of reservations work booking.com, this does not happen.

Thousands? Personal reservations?

Re: How Airbnb measures listing lifetime value

#70

Post by bickfordb »

huevosabio wrote: post #10

Mega-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…

I have a smalltime Airbnb and I feel the same. Their only value is in their marketing distribution and they take 30%+. Their hosting tools could be worse but are not particularly great. Usually things work fine, but they have zero / hostile customer service on the host side on the random exceptional occurence. Hopefully more marketplaces show up
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