AirBnB is a great program, clever and cheeky (real people), but the one thing that they'll always have to reckon with is that they have no rewards program. Thi

AirBnB is a great program, clever and cheeky (real people), but the one thing that they'll always have to reckon with is that they have no rewards program. This might change in the future, but people are incentivized by rewards. I travel regularly to Starwood hotels, sometimes under Cash and Points, or I use my free weekend nights. Rewards are real and incentivize people to be loyal to a particular service or brand. Because of the credit card program and because they offer free nights as a regular promotion (stay 3 nights, get 1 night free at category 1-6 hotel), I'm heavily incentivized to lean towards the Starwood chain, and 2 out of 5 times I'm staying for free or under a discounted rate because of Cash and Points. And the hospitality industry, in general, has real people (not the faceless org we're used to) and provide excellent service. AirBnB has individuality, which is a great selling point, but for some others, that is a risk (at least if you're going to a St Regis or Westin, you know it's going to be nice and reliable; with AirBnB, you don't know if you're going to be compatible with the people or the housing arrangements). But, AirBnB offers a cool incentive to meet new people and make friends outside of a professional arrangement that a hotel would usually entail. Of course the difficulty of administering rewards program is it that it requires the program to flex its muscle to require that some rooms are offered available to the program at a discounted rate. Chains have this power, but AirBnB wouldn't be in a great bargaining position for a rewards program. They're not cheaper than the hotel chains, so it doesn't give any excuse to provide less service. If anything, they need to step it up a bit by offering just a bit more. A rewards program would level some of the differences.