Understanding your marketplace technology stack
The Challenge
Airbnb’s platform growth is directly tied to its ability to attract new hosts. The central challenge was that prospective hosts often found the process of listing their space to be complex and overwhelming, leading to a drop-off in the conversion funnel. The goal was to optimize the host homepage and initial onboarding experience to demystify the process, build trust, and ultimately increase the number of new hosts joining the platform.
My Role
As a consultant supporting Airbnb’s host growth initiatives, my role was to develop and implement a new strategic framework for the host acquisition journey. I championed a benefits- and knowledge-oriented approach designed to educate potential hosts and make the prospect of hosting feel more accessible and rewarding. This was a cross-functional project that required me to align and collaborate with a broad range of internal stakeholders, including teams from community, trust, editorial, legal, data science, UX design, and brand. Together, we redesigned the user experience to proactively address user concerns, simplify the messaging, and clearly articulate the value of hosting on Airbnb.
The Results
The strategic shift to a more educational and benefits-driven approach was a key initiative that supported Airbnb’s broader growth trajectory during a period of remarkable success. By making it easier and more appealing for new hosts to join, these optimization efforts were a direct contributor to the platform’s ability to scale its supply side.
- Supported Revenue Acceleration: By enabling the growth of the host community, this work was foundational to the 40.4% rise in gross booking value over the same period, which increased from $20.97 billion to $29.44 billion.
- Fueled Platform Growth: These efforts were integral to the platform’s expansion, which saw Airbnb’s total listings grow by 50% between 2017 and 2018, from 4 million to 6 million.
This is visual of the redesigned homepage followed by the original design