Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - Cellular
- Robots - Wheeled Robots
Applicable Industries
- Cities & Municipalities
- Telecommunications
About The Customer
Airbnb is a community marketplace founded in 2008, based in San Francisco, CA. It allows people to list, discover, and book accommodations around the world, online or from a mobile phone or tablet. Airbnb empowers private residents and commercial properties to rent out extra space to travelers looking for a hotel alternative. With listings in 191 countries and 34K cities worldwide, Airbnb offers travelers affordable, creative, or unconventional lodgings. The platform allows hosts with an available room or property to post listings that potential guests can filter and search according to their needs.
The Challenge
Airbnb, a global community marketplace for booking accommodations, faced a challenge in facilitating secure, automated mobile communication between rental hosts and potential guests. The platform allows hosts to post listings of available rooms or properties, which guests can then filter and search according to their needs. However, once guests found a suitable place and communicated with the host to finalize the reservation details, the hosts had a 32-hour window to accept or decline the booking request. Often, hosts were not near their computers and couldn't respond promptly, even if they wished to confirm the booking. This delay in response time was affecting the user experience negatively, as potential guests had to wait longer to hear back on a reservation.
The Solution
To overcome this challenge, Airbnb partnered with Twilio to automate mobile communication between rental hosts and potential guests using text messaging. If a host did not respond to a booking request within a certain timeframe, they would receive an automated SMS message from Airbnb. This message would contain information about the guests, the dates of the requested stay, and the price for the stay. Hosts could then quickly respond with a text, even if they were away from their computers. This solution not only improved the user experience but also increased the number of successful bookings. Airbnb understood that a positive user experience could translate into more bookings for hosts, and this solution enabled hosts to confirm a reservation with their mobile phones, thereby improving the experience for potential guests.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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