Preparing for the travel rebound

It has been two years since the world went into lockdown, and Airbnb believes people are yearning for what has been taken away from them: travel and human connection (Yahoo Finance, 2020). Airbnb anticipates a significant increase in travel as restrictions are gradually lifted and borders are opened. However, when travel does resume, it will not be the same as it was before the Pandemic. Airbnb (2021c) conducted a survey of American travellers to better understand how travel will change, which led to a few findings.

First, people miss travelling more than any other out-of-home activity, including going to bars and restaurants and attending sporting or other live events. They, however, do not miss all kinds of travelling. People do not miss business travel as much, and they generally do not miss mass tourism. The form of travel that people miss the most is spending meaningful time with the people they care about. When travel returns, it will be all about connection. The type of travel Airbnb offers, homes, allows people to gather with their family and friends and spend meaningful quality time together.

Second, the majority of those surveyed stated that they intend to travel soon and will do so as soon as they feel safe to. Travel patterns have completely changed, and travel as we used to know it pre-Pandemic will probably not return in the short term.

The travel rebound, which will be dominated by domestic and non-business travel, represents a huge opportunity for Airbnb. People will travel by car to smaller communities, where they will stay in homes. Homes will most likely be popular not only because they allow people to spend meaningful time with their loved ones in a safe way, but also because demand will be redistributed to some smaller communities that may not even have hotels (Airbnb, 2021c).

10 Airbnb recognises Superhosts based on a set of criteria relating to host services and commitment. Please refer to https://www.airbnb.com/superhost for the criteria to determine a Superhost.

41 In 2021, travel has been less about where you go and when you go, and more about who you are with and what you can do together. There has been a shift away from mass travel and toward meaningful travel. And, as more people work from home, they have more flexibility in terms of where and when to travel.

Airbnb's single priority in 2021 was to prepare for the upcoming travel rebound. The company believes it is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the new forms of travelling and living. To make the most of the imminent return to travel, the company has devised a plan centred on four key elements: educate the world about hosting, recruit more hosts and set them up for success, simplify the guest experience, and deliver world-class service (Airbnb, 2021b).

First, the company is educating the world about what makes Airbnb unique: hosting. Airbnb's marketing and communications efforts are aimed at informing guests that being hosted is a better way to travel and at inspiring more people to become Hosts.

Second, to ensure that there are enough high-quality homes on the platform, Airbnb is recruiting more hosts and preparing them for success.

The majority of Airbnb hosts come from word-of-mouth, or because they were prior guests. In 2019, 23% of Airbnb hosts were effectively guests first (Airbnb, 2021c), and the company aims to increase this conversion rate. Since the easier the process is and the more support people have, the more likely it is they are going to get through the conversion funnel, the company is focusing on simplifying the onboarding process. As a result, Airbnb is simplifying the process to become a host, lowering the average time it takes to list a property on the website to less than 10 minutes (Airbnb, 2021c) and reconducting the process to 10 simple steps (Airbnb, 2022d). To attract hosts, the company has also invested in the Made Possible by Hosting campaign, which complements the main brand campaign Made Possible by Hosts, which is more focused on guests. The campaign proved to be very successful, with traffic to the hosting landing page in campaign countries increasing nearly 40% in Q4 2021, compared to Q4 2019.

Apart from recruiting more hosts, the company wants to ensure that hosts are well-prepared for success. And, because hosts are evaluated after the stay, they must provide excellent experiences to succeed. Platforms need to adopt a more targeted approach in the development of their crisis management policies and strategies as well as their overall support

42 measures to hosts. Otherwise, they run the risk of losing members, especially individual hosts who tend to share their space and are often unable to meet the increasing needs of guests (Farmaki and Kaniadakis, 2020).

To better serve hosts, the company is improving its tools and support system (Airbnb, 2021c).

The company is investing in pricing tools to help hosts price their listings, as well as calendar tools. In addition to this, Airbnb is updating the way information is collected to be able to provide useful feedback to hosts and tips for ensuring better experiences. The Host advisory board is a component of the company's support system. It will specifically advise on features that the company develops to assist hosts in becoming successful. In parallel, Airbnb is increasing the contact between new and existing hosts and is scaling customer service ahead of demand to further help hosts along the journey. Airbnb intends to keep its processes efficient by lowering contact rates, reducing the need for people to call or message when they have a problem, and by making its agents more responsive in the event that people need to contact customer service anyway.

Airbnb sees itself as more than just a distribution platform; rather, it considers itself as an enablement platform (Airbnb, 2021c). As a result, the company believes it is its responsibility to build all the tools, services, and educational materials that hosts require to be successful.

Third, to make it easier for guests to find the ideal stay, Airbnb is simplifying and perfecting every aspect of the guest experience, as well as improving its search functionality to accommodate more flexible travel patterns. The company is focusing on redesigning the entire end-to-end experience to make it even easier to book on Airbnb by significantly reducing the steps required to log in, sign in, get verified, and find a place to stay.

Finally, Airbnb must provide world-class service whenever hosts or guests require it. To accomplish this, the company is actively addressing product issues that drive community contact, scaling operations to meet demand, and continuously improving its service. In November 2021, the platform introduced AirCover, a top-to-bottom protection, which includes USD $1 million liability insurance and USD $1 million damage protection with new coverage for pet damage, deep cleaning and more (Airbnb, 2022d). In addition to this, to further help hosts, Airbnb launched the Ask a Superhost feature in September 2021, a

43 dedicated support system which connects new host with the most experienced ones (Airbnb, 2022d).