Joseph A. Michelli - Driven to Delight

If you enjoyed this book, discover your next great read with the following excerpt.

A few years ago, a photo made the rounds on the Internet. It was a snapshot of words written by Alberto Brea, blogger, speaker, and chief growth strategist at DiMassimo Goldstein, that were scrawled on a whiteboard in some corporate office. Those words read:

Amazon did not kill the retail industry.

They did it to themselves with bad customer service.

Netflix did not kill Blockbuster.

They did it to themselves with ridiculous late fees.

Uber did not kill the taxi business.

They did it to themselves by limiting the number of taxis and fare control.

Apple did not kill the music industry.

They did it to themselves by forcing people to buy full-length albums.

Airbnb did not kill the hotel industry.

They did it to themselves with limited availability and pricing options.

Technology by itself is not the real disruptor.

Being noncustomer centric is the biggest threat to any business.

This book highlights Airbnbone of the disruptors referred to by Mr. Brea. In the span of a decade, Airbnb has deservedly earned its reputation and success by creating a global customer-focused movement that leverages effort-reducing technology to enable inspired human interactions.

While some will gravitate to this book to learn how to be a successful Airbnb host, this is also a book for anyone who wants to create meaningful and profitable human experienceswhether they are delivered in the context of employment, entrepreneurship, or personal life.

The Airbnb Way was designed to serve you if you are (or plan to be) a part of one of the following:

A business that delivers outstanding technology-aided, human-powered experiences to other businesses (business to businessesB2Bs) or to consumers (business to consumersB2Cs)

A company positioned to disrupt an established industry

An organization seeking to retain a strong or dominant market position

The sharing economywhich I broadly define as any sale transacted through an online market, whether business to business (B2B) or peer to peer (P2P)

An improved sales or service experience

Since customer experience excellence involves a journey as opposed to a finite destination, who better to study than a company dedicated to journey creation? In fact, leaders at Airbnb have broadly described their company as:

A global travel community that offers magical end-to-end trips, including where you stay, what you do, and the people you meet. Airbnb uniquely leverages technology to economically empower millions of people around the world to unlock and monetize their spaces, passions, and talents to become hospitality entrepreneurs.

Lets begin our magical end-to-end trip into the world of Airbnb and its host community by first defining some of the territories we will and wont be exploring.

Our adventure is set for you to:

Learn an inclusive form of hospitality that produces meaningful and lasting connections

Acquire tools needed to build trust and community

Examine the value of technology-aided and human-powered service experiences

Understand how to do good for those you serve while also doing well in business

As for territory outside the bounds of this book, we will stay away from well-worn paths. For example, we wont embark on detailed stories of Airbnbs humble beginnings, nor will we venture into the many controversies faced by this market disruptor. Those topics are well chronicled elsewhere and are eloquently shared in Leigh Gallaghers book, The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions... and Created Plenty of Controversy.

Instead, we will study Airbnbs leadership and explore how the team at Airbnb encourages hosts to provide a universally welcoming experience. One cautionary note before we dive into Airbnbs leadership and team impact: Airbnb is in hypergrowth! All numbers reported in this book were accurate as of the time of this writing, but they have likely surged by the time of your reading. Throughout the book, we will be examining how Airbnbs 3,000-plus current employees, located in approximately 40 global offices, partner with hosts to source over 6 million Airbnb listings. Those listings span more than 100,000 cities in nearly 200 countries. Together, Airbnb employees along with the host community have accommodated more than 500 million guest arrivals.

Since they are the experts on the topic, most of our journey will be guided by Airbnb hosts. You may be a part of the host community or have relatives, neighbors, or colleagues who are hosts. This globally diverse entrepreneur community includes anyone who lists on the Airbnb platform seeking to craft consistent and emotionally engaging hospitality.

Before we start our journey, lets take the remainder of this chapter to:

Highlight the disruptive success of Airbnb

Look broadly at how technology has changed service expectations and behavior

Examine Airbnbs technology and human service delivery in the context of commerce and travel

Offer a preview of the themes of the book

Its hard to fathom just how much Airbnb has accomplished in 10 years.

The need that fueled the creation of Airbnb began in 2007 when two roommates (Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia) were looking for a way to pay rent on their San Francisco apartment. The pair, who met at the Rhode Island School of Design, saw an income opportunity associated with a major design conference coming to San Francisco. In advance of the conference, Chesky and Gebbia purchased three air mattresses and crafted a simple website so conference attendees could reserve their makeshift accommodations. During the conference, two men and one woman paid $80 each per night to stay on Chesky and Gebbias air mattresses. Shortly thereafter, Chesky and Gebbia partnered with a former roommate and computer scientist, Nathan Blecharczyk, to develop the online marketplace we know today as Airbnb. Over an approximately 10-year span, Airbnb has grown to these heights:

It has listed over 5 million properties worldwide (approximately 2 million of which are instantly bookable).

It has processed over 400 million guest arrivals.

It has earned high corporate valuations (at least $38 billion as of May 2018).

It has generated substantial wealth for hosts (in 2018, Airbnb announced that female hosts55 percent of the overall communitymade $10 billion in revenue in the prior year).

To fully comprehend Airbnbs growth, one need only consider Airbnbs guest bookings in 2008 compared to 2018. According to Internet Online Property (IOLproperty.co.za), Airbnb had approximately 400 total guest bookings for the entire year in 2008, and it had approximately 400 guest bookings every two minutes in 2018. By 2018, approximately 2 million guests were staying in Airbnb-listed property on any given night.

Early on, Airbnb was US centric, with approximately 59 percent of bookings coming from the United States in 2009. As of 2017, the global nature of the brand was reflected in the fact that only 29 percent of guest bookings were coming from the United States.

Not only have listings become more global, but the options available on Airbnb have also increased in variety. When it comes to homes, accomodations can go from a $10-per-night stay in a Backpackers Hostel in Jakarta, Indonesias Old Town, to a $10,075-per-night stay in an exclusive villa in Austin, Texas. Of course, for $10,075, you and 15 of your closest friends can luxuriate in two homes and a guest house.