03-09-2016, 06:31 PM
Airbnb has a better website. It is better in the way it displays product and local area attractions. Significantly, Airbnb engages both guests and the property holders to rate and provide feedback on each other, akin to how TripAdvisor operates. Airbnb is one unified brand. They waste little time in trying to create nuances between sub-brands or even considering the nonsense of promoting some sort of new ‘lifestyle’ brand. This single entity model galvanizes a lasting high level of awareness. Airbnb invests in traditional advertising. They recognize that the internet is not an advertising vehicle, but rather an information distribution vehicle with social media as a relationship nurturing channel. On the other hand, TV, radio, magazines, billboards and so forth are emotive, demand drivers. Remember that share of advertising voice ultimately equals share of market. For hotels, be prepared, insofar as awareness, as Airbnb is barely saturated. Airbnb is customer friendly. If you ask past guests about Airbnb, the experience will likely elicit a smile. Why is this? Simple: Airbnb is based on personal relationships between the guest and the property owner with no faceless intermediary. Airbnb is a primal consumer experience. AirbnB encourages you to explore the properties available in each location and delve into the details. This evokes consumers’ primal ‘hunter’ instinct. As a result, the guest has done a lot of the homework before purchase and, ultimately, this process makes them feel as if they have participated in the buying decision. In this sense, the guest already has a relationship with the property before crossing the threshold