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The article title is a lot of clickbait, but the core user-need driven approach to building features should resonate with most builder audiences on this site. H
by darkwizard42 3y ago
The article title is a lot of clickbait, but the core user-need driven approach to building features should resonate with most builder audiences on this site. Honestly, I'm really not sure what the product team was doing if they weren't noticing these issues coming up over and over and over again in user feedback. Anyone who stays in Airbnbs 10 times will encounter at least one or two of these core issues across their stays (crazy cleaning fees, additional contracts needing to be signed after booking, weird and extensive checkout steps).
For the last 2-3 years Airbnb has publicly announced a set of improvements on the platform. Yes, these should have been fixed ages ago, but I commend Chesky and the Airbnb team for actually taking action.
Price transparency, visibility of check-out steps beforehand, improvement around single rooms (true OG Air Bed and Breakfast style) are welcome steps and, in my humble opinion, I think Airbnb should continue to pivot away from hotels (standardized boring experiences) and lean into the uniqueness of each room/home.
- user_named 3y agoThose weird fees etc are obvious and likely known by the product team. It's likely they were imposed by the business, not originating with the product team. As such they also couldn't remove them.
- dgreensp 3y agoYeah, I mean it’s fine for the CEO to focus on higher-level things if someone below them is aware of the problems and working on them, or making sure that the product decisions are based on the experiencing of using the product… The article seems overly congratulatory. He could just get coffee with someone who uses AirBnB a lot and they could probably tell him exactly what sucks about it. Maybe even one of his own employees. Lots of engineers use AirBnB, and the AirBnB app apparently has a thousand engineers working on it.
- kevviiinn 3y agoNo no, you need to hire consulting firms to get that level of insight my friend
- firesteelrain 3y agoVRBO has some of the same issues and we don’t see articles about them. Airbnb came long after VRBO was in business and VRBO is still striving. Hosts post to both usually. My dad has used VRBO for a number of years and tried Airbnb. Hated the Airbnb platform and has stayed exclusively on VRBO.
- GuardianCaveman 3y agoI was looking for properties to rent in Italy and VRBO was insanely better than the airbnb prices, data, and options. I was really shocked because I always thought of VRBO as some sort of mostly-luxury option with limited properties available.
- GuardianCaveman 3y agoIt felt like an ad for their new airbnb rooms he talked about.