Visit to Airbnb office

Airbnb's mission is to help create a world where you can belong anywhere and where people can live in a place, instead of just traveling to it. They started in 2008 and have grown exponentially providing travellers access to more than 6 million unique places in 191 countries. More recently Airbnb added experiences to their portfolio to provide travellers access to local communities and interests through 30000 plus handcrafted activities. Airbnb has been disruptive in the hospitality industry by changing the way people looked at travel. Airbnb’s Exponential growth of Airbnb has led to new challenges such as new competitors and safety concerns which were heavily discussed in our field trip.

Our field trip started off with a tour of Airbnb’s office. The office was unique and unlike anything I had seen before. The design reflects Airbnb’s ‘Belong Anywhere’ ethos by incorporating elements of its global community into the design of the space. This was followed by a brief introduction about Airbnb and a Q and A session hosted by *** and ***.

Airbnb’s biggest challenge has been rising number of competitors in the shared home spaces from big hospitality companies such as Expedia, Marriott etc. who have now entered into this field. Some of the competitors have access to large capital and might seek to compete aggressively on the basis of pricing. To compete with these companies, Airbnb has decided to diversify by acquisition. It has recently acquired HotelTonight, which is an acquisition that will allow Airbnb to provide last minute accommodation for travellers. Airbnb acquired Luxury retreat International to venture into luxury home stays which is now branded as Airbnb Luxe. These investments have been strategic and have allowed Airbnb to increase its target audience. Their target audience now includes business travellers, last minute travellers and luxury travellers.

The next big challenge that Airbnb