Brian Chesky, the CEO and founder of Airbnb, is not interested in building 5-star experiences. He wants to know what the 7-star hospitality experience would look like. It’s his job to break the scale.
The 7-star experience is the ideal. It’s “The Beatles” experience, where you make each and every customer feel like an actual rockstar.
For Brian Chesky, there is no such thing as too-good of an experience. He believes in starting from the perfect experience and working backwards.
Brian Chesky’s problem however, is that Airbnb is not a hospitality service. It is a hospitality marketplace. And if you are an Airbnb host, you probably don’t care about how good your experience is on the objective scale. You care about how good it is relative to the other options.
I call this The Airbnb Paradox and it applies to aspirational marketplaces. It goes like this — if you are a marketplace, then you cannot control the top-of-the-line product. You can, by employing proper incentives, assure a baseline minimum.
As a result, we will probably see companies like Uber and Airbnb fight to reclaim greater control of their product. Airbnb will try to open up their own apartments and Uber their own fleet of cars. Not to eliminate the middle-man, but to provide the ideal experience.
Like Airbnb, WeWork is in the hospitality business. But since they are a service, not a marketplace, free beer fills their kitchens, mouthwash and deodorant are stocked in the bathrooms, beautiful decor lavish the walls, and you can even find a massage parlor in some locations!
Like WeWork, these services will resemble things that already exist, except they’ll be executed much better.
Right now, Airbnb hosts work hard for the 5-star review. What should be done when 5-stars are not enough?
If you liked this newsletter, send it to a friend!
If you hated it, send it to an enemy 🙂