Holiday somewhere unique with Airbnb

Airbnb is a website that allows people to rent out their rooms. It started in 2008 when two design graduates in San Francisco noticed hotels filling up for a design conference near their home. They had a spare room and offered to rent it out to conference attendees. They put an airbed in their spare room and Airbnb was born.

6 and ½ years later it has helped over 30 million guests, listing accommodation options in over 190 countries. Taking 3 percent from each one of these bookings they are now worth over $10bn and they don't own a single bed.

Now you may think, “I am not going to stay in some strangers room”. But the website has a review system, you can look through the experiences of other travellers and find a place, price and host that suits you. Your local host can tell you great places to eat, the best coffee, things you can see and do. You can share and connect with the place you are visiting, rather than slip in and out of the same bland old hotel room.
You can rent an entire apartment/house and not be bothered by the host if you prefer.

The point is you are in control, the choice is yours.

Here are some highlights I have found:

10 min walk to the Eiffel tower in Paris - $113 (AUD) a night. 
5 min walk to the beach in Byron - $68 (AUD) $18 per extra guest 
Snowbound log cabin in Alaska - $60 (AUD) $33 per extra guest 
Armidale has 21 places from $35 to $280 a night

You can explore anywhere in the world yourself. Click on the website, enter a destination and say goodbye to your afternoon - www.airbnb.com.au

Customers in Control

In last week's Foraging Friday we discussed the success of Minecraft and how it could be attributed to letting the customer decide what they wanted in a game.
This follows a similar theme. The customer is empowered, they have more choice in their accommodation.

The Internet and computers are well suited to optimise and reduce waste. Surplus accommodation, surplus shelter in the form of spare rooms are now benefiting the host and visitor. It is travel in a more human way too. It allows you to connect with people and place. Instead of profit for faceless generic hotels you have reasonable payments to real people. Those hosts that do well on Airbnb please visitors and get good reviews. The model encourages good service.

Takeaway

How are you pleasing your customers? Is there an online service like Airbnb stripping people from your customer base?

View our services to see how we can help you meet your customers needs online.