Programme : MBA (TTM) Semester : 3rd Course Code: OUTBOUND OPERATION MANAGEMENT Course Code : PGTTM3C003T

TOPIC: Airbnb, Couch Surfing

Learning Objectives : After this presentation the students will understand the following points What is AIRBNB and Couch Surfing Concepts Understanding about the history of the AIRBNB and Couch Surfing. Understand about its importance and challenges.

What is Airbnb ? It is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world. Airbnb hosts list their properties - which can be single rooms, a suite of rooms, apartments, houseboats, entire houses or even a castle - on the Airbnb website. It's free to create a listing, and hosts decide how much to charge per night, per week or per month. Each listing allows hosts to promote properties through titles, descriptions, photographs with captions and a user profile where guests can get to know about the hosts.

ABOUT Airbnb Founded in Aug. 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia. It is a website for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone. It has over 1500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries. By April 2014, approximate valuation is $ 10 billion. Customers are categorized as hosts and guests 6-12% commission of guest payment and 3% of what the host receives Unique idea attracted investors

Founders Joe Gebbia CPO & Co-Founder Brian Chesky CEO & Co-Founder Nathan Blecharczyk CTO & Co-Founder

Service Idea “One-Stop Tourism Solution” Aim 1- To provide customers a comprehensive tourism solution, through a single platform, while focusing on customer’s convenience and safety. Aim 2- To rebrand Airbnb, by providing positive customer experience (valuable lifestyle) and differentiate it in the market by value added features which will lead to achieve higher profits.

Airbnb users Airbnb’s users are divided in two markets segmentations:- People that are looking for places i.e. Travellers. People that are willing to rent out theirs i.e. Hosts. Both - travellers and hosts, are the main target market of Airbnb. 

GROWTH

Why should someone use Airbnb ? It offers the experience of travelling economically all over the world. To know many people and learn about their culture and customs. One can stay in touch with people you have met.

But ! There is always a “But” and in this case its about safety. The only guarantee one can have comes from the reviews about each place and owner plus the owners profile page.

Competition The competition comes from others alike start-up companies such as: flats BeWelcome CouchSurfing Jetsetter HomeAway Hospitality Club Hospitality Services Travelmob Tripping Servas Open Doors

Benefits Reducing Carbon footprints by sharing transportation and assets. Saving costs by borrowing and recycling items. Increasing happiness due to positive social interactions.

Challenge When Airbnb created a community marketplace for people to post, browse, and book unique accommodations around the world, it revolutionized the travel industry. To acquire customers for its unique marketplace, Airbnb needed to reach and educate users about how the service worked, and scale it globally.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths offers a unique experience beyond commercial hotels -24/7 customer service -good alternative in high-traffic tourist events -People get the opportunity to increase their income when renting out their rooms -the accommodation can be massively cheaper than staying in a hotel. -reviews posted by previous guests give confidence -reputation brand -possibility to cook by themselves in the house to save money.

Weakness The prices initially quoted exclude Airbnb's service fee, which is around 10 per cent of the cost of the booking. Organization problems between hosts and travellers.

Opportunities Airbnb's perception is considered cool. Airbnb offers a unique alternative to traditional rentals and accommodation.  Global reach on the internet Local City partnering with tourism guides and other tourist services A lot of options for travellers and the unique advantage of experiencing the 'real' culture and society. As a pioneering Sharing economy business model company, Airbnb are defining the rules for this model. 

Threats There are many companies copying the business model and services provided by Airbnb: 9flats.com, wimdu.com, clickandrent.com, travelrent.com and tvil.ru Legal issues surrounding taxes, health and safety laws are been used to discredit the company Social Media and the threat of horror stories going viral Travellers that could destroy homes and apartments.

COUCH SURFING

Original meaning of Couch Surfing A cheap form of lodging used mainly by college-students or recent college-grads, where one stays on acquaintance's couches rather than a hotel. What someone who can't afford rent on their own and/or can't find roommates quick enough does when they are "between" places

ABOUT CouchSurfing is a service that helps you find free places to stay and great people to hang out with when you are traveling. CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. CouchSurfing isn't about the furniture- it's not just about finding free accommodations around the world- it's about participating in creating a better world.

HISTORY The Couchsurfing project was conceived by Casey Fenton in1999 ,according to Fenton’s account. The idea arose after finding an inexpensive flight from Boston to Iceland. Fenton randomly e-mailed 1,500 students from the University of Iceland asking if he could stay. He ultimately received more than 50 offers of accommodation. On the return flight to Boston, he began to develop the ideas that would underpin the Couchsurfing project. He registered couchsurfing.com the same year. Fenton developed the code intermittently over the next few years. The site was launched with the cooperation of DanHoffer,Sebastien LeTuan, and Leonardo Silveira as a beta in January 2003,although none of these except Fenton was a member of the original board of directors. The project became a public website in January 2004. Former CEO Hoffer stated that when Couchsurfing first started, he made sure to write up a contract between Fenton and himself that detailed what would hap- pen if CouchSurfing were to ever go for profit as he suspected it one day would.

Initial growth of the site was slow Initial growth of the site was slow. By the end of 2004 the site had just over 6,000 members. In 2005, growth accelerated and by the end of the year, membership stood at just under 45,000. As of October 2011,shortly following its privatization. Couchsurfing had over 3 million active and inactive members (Fenton stated the number of active members was approximately one million) and was the most popular free accommodation site. As of October 2011, the site had an Alexa Global Traffic Rankof1,729,but by September 2014 had descended to 3,178

MEMBERSHIP Registration is free of charge , but payment of an annual fee is a fact or in user access to services. CEO Billocken visions increasing the number of services available only to paid members. Members are asked to provide information and photos of themselves and of the accommodation they offer , if any . More information provided by a member, and other members, may affect the chances that someone will ask another member to be their host or guest. Members looking for accommodation can search for hosts using several parameters such as age, location, and gender. Homestays are consensual between the host and guest, and the duration, nature, and terms of the guest’s stay are generally worked out in advance.

Demographics As of January 2013, there were over 5.5 million registered profiles at Couchsurfing. Couchsurfing currently claims it is “a global community of 10 million people in more than 200,000 cities”. Founder Casey Fenton stated in 2011that approximately one-third of the profiles registered at that time were active As of August 2014, Couchsurfing Incorporated states that 400,000 people log-in over a period of one week According to information on the Couchsurfing site, since 2011 a significant number of fake member- ship profiles have been created with the intention of inflating membership statistics In March 2012,65% of New York City profiles were intentional fakes The systematic creation of fraudulent membership profiles has continued through August 2014,with numerous locations across the globe registering rates of 50% or more

SAFETY Safety Mechanisms Given the nature of hospitality networks based on inviting strangers into private homes safety is a primary concern. Safety Mechanisms Couchsurfing,Inc states that “all members are responsible for their own safety”. There are mechanisms Couchsurfing Inc before claimed increased safety and trust visible on member profiles for potential hosts and guests: 1. An optional payment verified system 2. Personal references 3. A personal vouching system (discontinued in November 2014)

IMPORTANT TIPS

References https://www.airbnb.co.in/ https://www.couchsurfing.com/

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