What do you do in your role as Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for Airbnb? While I didn’t plan for this to be a full-time position when the three founders asked me to join them two and a half years ago, I’ve ended up in a role overseeing many parts of the company as well as giving strategic advice and guidance to the smart, young founders. The areas I oversee are all related with the hospitality and travel industries, as well as real estate developers and landlords, business development and global partnerships, and our growing extension into business travel. In the early days, I helped to set up the learning and development function in the company to grow our leaders. But, my biggest role is being the voice for our one million hosts in 191 countries; micro-entrepreneurs who want to learn more about how to provide a remarkable hospitality experience to our 50 million guests. We’ve gotten better at onboarding these hosts, creating hospitality standards and helping them know how they’re doing, and championing our best hosts through our Superhost program and our Airbnb Open (6,000 of our best hosts from 100 countries meet for a summit in Paris this November). I’m proud of the fact that our guest satisfaction scores have grown to the point that they’re now higher than the average for the global hotel chains. We’ll never be able to be as Interview with Chip Conley Chip Conley, founder and former CEO of Joie de Vivre, now serves as the head of global hospitality and strategy at Airbnb. Conley is the author of four books and has a great perspective on the boutique hotel and sharing economy industries. consistent as these hotel chains, but we can be dependable, personal, and quite unique in the service our hosts deliver. How would you describe the “sharing economy” and how Airbnb fits in? Some critics have suggested that “sharing economy” is a misnomer since the hosts and Airbnb get paid and sharing isn’t about monetizing. The way I answer that is to suggest this term (that Airbnb didn’t originate) speaks more to how technology can match slack resources (like cars and drivers’ time in the case of Uber) with demand. By doing so, it is possible—macroeconomically—for us to optimize or share resources which means less of a need to build new cars, buildings, and the like. “Collaborative consumption” is an alternative way to describe this phenomenon. What makes Airbnb different from many ondemand, 16 California Hotel & Lodging Association FALL 2015 sharing economy companies is that we’re a marketplace and our precursor was really eBay. In our early days, people called Airbnb the “eBay for space.” What hospitality trends are you carrying over from Joie de Vivre to Airbnb? Both boutique hotels and home sharing have been labeled “disruptors.” When I started Joie de Vivre nearly 30 years ago, many traditional hoteliers couldn’t imagine why guests would want such an unpredictable, unique experience since the hotel industry had long thought that guests truly prized “no surprises” (the name of a Holiday Inn ad campaign long ago). But, what’s common about Joie de Vivre and Airbnb is the fact that more and more people want an experience that makes them feel like a local and doesn’t feel like a transaction. We started calling our front desk clerks “hosts” at Joie de Vivre in 1987 because that’s what we wanted our guests to feel from our hotel team. Airbnb just took that localized experience and made it global, but did so with a phenomenal blending of tech and design so that the product can be magical to use. More than anything else, boutique hotels and home sharing suggest guests want a personalized experience that feels just right for them. “One size fits all” doesn’t have the appeal to travelers it once did. What are the differences between staying in an Airbnb vs. a Bed & Breakfast? We have a very large collection of traditional bed and breakfasts on the Airbnb platform as many B&B’s have come to realize this is an affordable way to distribute their product to a younger demographic. First off, most Airbnb homes don’t include breakfast so literally that’s one big difference. Additionally, most Airbnb listings are for someone’s whole home while they’re traveling so there aren’t multiple rooms like you’d find in a B&B. Lastly, a B&B usually has a small staff and has operating costs that require a higher occupancy because it’s truly a business. Our average Airbnb host in one of our top cities rents their place out (including an extra bedroom in their home) about six days per month so 20% occupancy (based upon a 30 day month) isn’t unusual. That wouldn’t work for most traditional B&B businesses.
CH LA Lodging News Fall 2015
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