The Sky is the Limit for Airbnb

Airbnb was founded by Brian Chesky (CEO), Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia in 2008. The idea for the company emerged when they noticed a local conference was causing a temporary shortage of hotel accommodations, creating opportunities for them to hire out their air mattresses in their apartment and provide breakfast for their guests.

They initially named the new business AirBed & Breakfast, and later renamed to Airbnb to signify the expanding variety of accommodations they would have available to guests.

In 2009, Airbnb pitched to startup accelerator, Y Combinator, receiving $20,000 initial investment to establish their marketplace.

They expanded the user experience by taking more compelling photos of the properties and developing closer relationships with the hosts to make sure that host needs were met and that they in turn were able to provide high quality services to their guests.

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Almost 10 years ago, I remember attending a team away day, where we discussed how to improve our product delivery to become more customer-centric. During the event, one of the questions we were asked went along the lines of:

“What does it take to give our users the best possible experience, enabling our teams to prioritise the right scope and deliver it for our customers?”

To illustrate what high quality user experience felt like, we were given a case study on Airbnb and how they visualise and prioritise what their users truly wanted. This approach ultimately informed Airbnb’s product roadmaps and backlogs.

11-Star Treatment

The 11-star experience framework was an approach developed by co-founder and CEO Brian Cheskey, aimed at creating the most exceptional experiences that surpassed customer expectations. When I learned about the concept, I though it was simple to grasp yet challenging to implement, especially for those who are less adventurous in their thinking.

The process is as follows:

• ⭐️ Start by describing a very bad experience with a product or service (1 star)

• ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Describe an average experience (3 star)

• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Describe what you would consider a solid good experience (5 star)

• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Keep going incrementally until you describe a guest experience that far exceeds anything you’ve ever thought could be possible. (11 stars)

When I took part in this exercise, I originally felt very uncomfortable after 5 starts, as I thought that 5 was the limit and surely, nothing ever existed beyond ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

As I was asked to keep going to 6, 7, 8, and eventually 11 stars, I felt increasingly more uncomfortable until the facilitator told me to lose all constraints around how the service could be implemented and just think about what I would consider to be exceptional as a user myself, regardless of who provided the service and how they went about it.

The completely unconstrained thinking allowed me to be more creative in my thought process and more demanding as a customer.

What I learned from that experience was that most products and services are average at best. They exist to meet a basic customer need and occasionally exceed them. They may exist to beat their competition but only enough to get noticed and increase adoption. There isn’t enough dreaming that goes on in project or product teams, about what would make an experience truly exceptional for a user, such that they have no choice but to tell their friends and family about it.

This must be why Airbnb’s customer usage is 90% intent-driven traffic, where users go directly to the site or app, rather than being driven to it by paid traffic through advertising.

The name Airbnb is also one of very few that is so widely known, it has become both a verb and a noun.

This type of user adoption and engagement is incredibly challenging to achieve and a testament to how much Airbnb values class-leading user experience.

11-Star Example

Here’s an example of what an 11-star experience might look like.

1 Star: The guest arrives at the home but the keys are nowhere to be seen. The parking is further away than described. Wifi in the house does not work, the bed is very uncomfortable.

3 Stars: The guest arrives and the host is there to greet them but the host is 30 minutes late. The parking is close by. The house is clean and warm but only has basic features.

5 Stars: The guest arrives and is greeted by a friendly host who gives a tour around the house and shows the guest how everything works. The host gives the guests complementary snacks. The house is comfortable, warm and very welcoming. The host leaves a personal hand-written welcome message for the guest. The location is near to desirable amenities such as restaurants and a beach. As the guest leaves.

9 Stars: After booking, the host reaches out to the guest and asks for their preferences, arranging for a car to pick them up from the airport. The guest find a personal chef preparing their favourite dinner, alongside a carefully curated selection of experiences for the guest to enjoy during their stay. The guest’s laundry and ironing is done for them ready for the next day.

11 Stars: The guest is greeted by a luxury car playing the guests favourite music with a chauffeur who also shows them around the local sites on the way to the house. On arrival at the property, the guest is welcomed by a party organised by the host. There is exclusive access to local events with the guest favourite musician hosting them and granting VIP access. The guest is given a supercar to drive whilst staying at their house and has complementary access to the most exclusive restaurants. The host arranges a private jet for the guest to return home.

After complementing the 11-star ideation, the team at Airbnb used this to plan which of those were actually possible.

Whilst the 11-star treatment may not be physically possible, maybe some of the 9-star experiences could be made possible. If not, then perhaps something from the 8-star treatments could be possible. If not, maybe the 7-star experience?

This consideration goes on until very valuable features can be identified and placed on the backlog or plans to be delivered. When I undertook this exercise in may workshop, I discovered a few points:

• Thinking in an unconstrained way enables you to believe that something which normally would have been considered too challenging or not feasible, now becomes more feasible and less challenging, especially when compared to 11-star experiences.

• New ideas come to light which, otherwise may never have been thought of

• Exceptional experiences don’t always have to cost. For example, a host leaving a personal welcome note for a guest when they arrive might make the guest feel at home and appreciated, however, spending money on flowers may have the same effect. The difference is that writing a note does not cost anywhere near the same amount as the flowers.

Ideas for Ideation

There are other forms of unconstrained thinking, which help ideate before planning and prioritising delivery scope. Here are some examples:

1. Bodystorming: Physically act out scenarios to generate ideas based on real experiences, which can be particularly useful for service design projects.

2. Co-creation workshops: Involve stakeholders, including users, in the ideation process to generate ideas and ensure user-centric solutions. (Note that what users say they want isn’t always what they actually want or need).

3. Move around: Include physical movement during ideation sessions to stimulate creativity and new perspectives.

4. Crazy 8s: Quickly arrive at eight different ideas in a limited time frame.

5. Worst possible idea: Deliberately describe the worst possible ideas or most ridiculous sounding ideas related to a particular problem. This approach can lead to breaking away from conventional thinking and expose possible credible solutions.

One of the advantages of developing a truly customer-centric product, such as Airbnb is the expansion opportunities it could bring in future. Airbnb spent over 15 years perfecting the temporary accommodation two-sided marketplace for both guests and hosts.

They now appear ready to expand from the core business by developing adjacent opportunities. In recent interviews Chesky has suggested future expansions including:

• Longer term rentals (30-90 day stays).

• Co-hosting marketplace, connecting people with properties but little time, with experienced hosts, looking for properties to manage.

• Relaunching experiences. It is not very well known that experiences can be purchased by Airbnb in addition to room rentals. Experiences could range from a diverse set of options, including local tours to craft making activities.

• International expansion into under-penetrated regions.

• Sponsored listings.

• Expansion to new adjacent services related to temporary accommodation rentals.

• Eventual expansion to other services not directly related to temporary accommodation rentals.

The commitment Chesky made was for his team to launch 1-2 new products every year that could make $1bn or more annually when they have fully developed.

This roadmap commitment will need to involve regular ideation, leading to new ideas, as well as the appetite to take consistent risks by launching new offerings whilst facing the reality that some of them could fail.

10 Effective Ideation Techniques for all Teams

Stage 3 in the design Thinking Process: Ideate

Airbnb’s 11-Start Framework

Who is Brian Chesky…

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