April 21st, 2012

Marketplace Tactics and the Free Airbnb Photo Shoot

I am starting a new type of post called “Inspired by Quora”, where I will write a post based on a Quora question I think is interesting. This particular question was “What are free Airbnb professional photo shoots like?”

First let me say that marketplace businesses/dynamics are absolutely fascinating. I could write like 20 posts on this and probably will since since I made this promise to really for reals write every single day.

I am a firm believer in optimizing for the seller in any marketplace scenario. If you have amazing inventory, buyers will find you. Feel free to rage about this in the comment if you don’t agree.

So in the case of Airbnb, that means they want to cater to those people listing apartments – get them to keep their calendars updated, and offer people considering a listing some carrot to get them to actually list their place. They were right to recognize that there is a certain mental hurdle in listing your apartment, and it is the same mental hurdle that keeps you from selling stuff you don’t need on craigslist, listing all your used books, etc. Listing anything on a marketplace site is a pain and if it doesn’t sell then you are even more frustrated.

The way that Airbnb solved this problem is by offering free photography. Someone literally comes to your apartment/house and you do nothing while they take amazing photos of your spot and upload them directly to Airbnb.

For me it totally worked – having the photos sitting there was enough to get me to complete the description. Ghost/incomplete/crappy listings on marketplaces (ahem ebay) are such a nuisance and a real drag on the user experience. By optimizing around great photos, the secret to lots of hotness right now in the tech world, they were able to create a more appealing marketplace in a market that was already filled with large players.

These small marketplace hacks really make a huge, huge difference for both buyers and sellers alike.

classic Airbnb photo – crisp, clear, enticing (also, not my house)