Download PDF
Airbnb Streamlines Rental Experience for Global Travelers Through Automated SMS
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - Cellular
- Robots - Wheeled Robots
Applicable Industries
- Cities & Municipalities
- Telecommunications
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.
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 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
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Turning A Stadium Into A Smart Building
Honeywell created what it called the “intelligent system” for the National Stadium in Beijing, China, turning the venue for the opening and closing events at the 2008 Summer Olympics into a “smart building.” Designed by highly controversial artist Ai Weiwei, the “Bird’s Nest” remains one of the most impressive feats of stadium architecture in the world. The 250,000 square meter structure housed more than 100,000 athletes and spectators at a time. To accommodate such capacity, China turned to Honeywell’s EBI Integrated Building Management System to create an integrated “intelligent system” for improved building security, safety and energy efficiency.
.png)
Case Study
Smart Street Light Network (Copenhagen)
Key stakeholders are taking a comprehensive approach to rethinking smart city innovation. City leaders have collaborated through partnerships involving government, research institutions and solution providers. The Copenhagen Solutions Lab is one of the leading organizations at the forefront of this movement. By bringing together manufacturers with municipal buyers, the Copenhagen Solutions Lab has catalyzed the development and deployment of next-generation smart city innovations. Copenhagen is leveraging this unique approach to accelerate the implementation of smart city solutions. One of the primary focus areas is LED street lighting.
Case Study
Buoy Status Monitoring with LoRa
The Netherlands are well-known for their inland waterways, canals, sluices and of course port activities. The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure indicates that there are thousands of buoys and fixed items in and near water environments that would profit from IoT monitoring. One of the problems with buoys for example, is that they get hit by ships and the anchor cable breaks. Without connectivity, it takes quite some time to find out that something has happened with that buoy. Not to mention the costs of renting a boat to go to the buoy to fix it. Another important issue, is that there is no real-time monitoring of the buoys at this moment. Only by physically visiting the object on the water, one gains insight in its status.
Case Study
China Mobile Smart Parking
Smart Parking, powered by NB-IoT technology, is making it easier for drivers to find free parking spots. Cities can better manage their parking assets and maximize the revenue available to them as a result. Drivers searching for parking create congestion and pollution by circling and hunting for available parking. Smart Parking services are able to significantly ease these problems by guiding a driver directly to a parking space.
Case Study
Barcelona Case Study
Barcelona’s heavy traffic and its associated high levels of pollution were the primary factors that motivated some companies and universities to work on strategies for improving traffic in the city centre. Bitcarrier is one of the technologies involved in the In4Mo Project, whose main objective is to develop the applications that form the core of smart mobility, one of the fundamental pillars of the smart city concept.
