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Value proposition

Name of the Student

Department

BUS 5112 -01 Marketing Management

Name of professor

Due April 14, 2022

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Value proposition

Airbnb

“Where both the guest and the host walk away happily, One with wonderful local

experience and the latter with smiling pocket.”

Airbnb was founded in the year 2008 as a platform where local residents could list their

homes as rentals for a short period of time while they are on Holidays or in far states. This was

listed for the short-term travelers who could be in need of a place to stay for two or three days

and who like have alternatives to lodgings (Symon He, 2020). It allows the users to run a search

through other people’s experiences and review thus allowing the user to have the full picture of a

house before selection.

This platform allows users to have a additional pre-arranged tours and selected

restaurants and even recently visited recreational areas that sets up a wonderful adventure ahead

of the traveler. Initially, the houses advertised under this platform were considered cheap and

affordable as the owners offered relatively low prices. This to say today is the reason Airbnb has

tremendously grown to become a 2.6 billion empire as this alternative saw a massive liking that

took travel industry by storm (Thomas, 2016). Additionally, the places where most of the houses

are located has been termed by many as “cool” with sceneries. This was a brilliant move by the

management as many of the homes have ample road access with the Airbnb homes offering the

best home experiences.

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During its formation and growth, many could not even define correctly what Airbnb

meant as it was never a real estate company. At one time, the retail estate players were hit by

recession, however, since it did not own properties and its unique value proposition, Airbnb had

a breakthrough that was the start of its tremendous success. In this particular time, many people

were hit with economic downturn, people had their jobs on the line and due to relocations, it was

hard for many to live in hotels and pay huge prices per night. This opened the path for Airbnb to

specifically address the people’s pain point and they provided the services cheaper. This price

strategy made many opt for Airbnb and hence kept the growth on the rise (Philip Kotler, 2015).

Not only did the guests got cheap and amazing environments, Airbnb provided a range of

benefits for the hosts and home providers. It made them to have other alternative sources of

income during the hard times. It was strange to open doors to strangers but through Airbnb, it

made it a blessing of more earnings. As times go by, this platform as received appreciation from

all round. However, in the recent times, the economy in parts has recovered and many people

have returned to the expensive laving styles. These has made people to start questioning the

value it continues to provide, something that has caused it to generate few billions in a financial

year.

In the awake of this, Airbnb has come up with new strategies which seem to bring out the

different experiences in staying at local homes with those staying in the hotels. They have

worked smart in framing their value of proposition that local experience is the new tourist

experience replacing the traditional hotel staying tourism. Additionally, they have expanded their

portfolio to restaurants and experiences and this has allowed many customers to access to a

variety of potential activities upon travel and stay. This has further solidified their network and
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the future projection is that Airbnb will have more customers and stronger network that will keep

the customers and hosts happy and satisfied.

References

Philip Kotler, G. A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. Pearson Education, Limited.

Symon He, J. S. (2020). Airbnb For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons.

Thomas, M. (2016). Airbnb: How to Make Money on Airbnb and Easily Earn Up to $10,000 a

Month in the Comfort of Your Own Home. CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Platform,.