Airbnb's online community for hosts has been around for some time. Today it allows hosts to engage in all sorts of activities, but how well does it execute on these ideas? This breakdown by FeverBee's Richard Millington details how Airbnb runs its online community and where they might look for improvement.

1. A D E TA I L E D
B R E A K DO W N O F
A I R B N B ’ S O N L I N E
C O M M U N I T Y
By Richard Millington,
www.feverbee.com

2. Airbnb’s online community for hosts has existed since at least 2011 and been
through several iterations during that time.
The community is based upon the Lithium platform and uses translation (rather
than separate sites) to cater to different languages. The community allows hosts
to ask questions, share tips and tricks, connect with other hosts, suggest ideas,
create and host meetup groups, and collaborate with each other in home
sharing clubs.
The main challenges for a mature, highly active, community like Airbnb is
handling high levels of activity, being responsive to member questions, and
ensuring members are engaging in actions which drive real value to the brand.
There may also be questions about the value of an online community. The
largest a community becomes, the bigger the team required. As the size of the
team grows, so does the temptation to slash the project if it cannot clearly
establish the value of the community.
C O M M U N I T Y C O N C E P T
Airbnb has an online
community for hosts
to share ideas, solve
their problems and
connect with other
local hosts.
CONCEPT AND BACKGROUND

3. O V E R V I E W O F A I R B N B ’ S O N L I N E C O M M U N I T Y
Airbnb’s
Community
CUSTOMER
SUPPORT
MEETUP
S
HOST
VOICE
CONNECT
LOCALLY
HOME
SHARING
CLUBS
NEW
IDEAS Members can suggest ideas they
would like Airbnb to implement.
Host Voice
This is where hosts can share
stories with one another
Home Sharing Clubs
Member can create and sign up
to attend local meet ups.
Meetups
The primary goal of the community
is to facilitate members sharing
ideas with one another
Tips and tricks to help
hosts be better hosts
Connect with local hosts
A second goal is to build sub-
groups for hosts to connect locally
with one another
Customer Support
Much of the community activity revolves
around hosts asking questions and
getting support from one another
This list doesn’t include the host
newsletter, toolkit, host stories,
webinars, and toolkits which have
lesser levels of activity. Nor does it
include social or groups started on
3rd-party platforms (e.g. Facebook).

4. H O M E P A G E
D E S I G N

5. 5
THE COMMUNITY HOMEPAGE A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY

6. 6
THE COMMUNITY HOMEPAGE A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Would love to see photos of
some top members here
instead of just hosts. The
diversity within the photos
selected is a smart balance
of sexualities, age, and race
Two very clear calls to
action. Suggests this
isn’t just about
resolving problems
but genuinely
facilitating ongoing
conversations.
The language and copy here is
telling. This should highlight the
main goal of the community. A
community where ‘anyone can
belong’ suggests Airbnb is pursuing
a movement rather than a function.
This is a high-risk, high-reward
approach. I’m not sure it’s the best
way to motivate contributions.
I like this way of handling the
multiple-language challenge.
Three clear categories here. Get
inspired by new ideas, connect
with others (validation), and get
support. However these don’t
clearly connect to the mission-
statement opposite.

7. 7
THE COMMUNITY HOMEPAGE - BELOW THE FOLD A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Great for catching up on recent
discussions or seeing if any
answers have been received.
Would be good to show date or
recency of last response.
Featured discussions are
fantastic when they support a
clear goal. I’d be interested in
displaying them clearly.
This is an interesting
longer-form way of
displaying content. It
works well when the
goal of the community
is to provide new ideas
and get people to click
on ‘blog style’ posts for
inspiration. But it’s not
great when it includes
customer support posts
that won’t be relevant
to as many people
Showing top posts
instead of latest posts
by default is a good
idea for idea/tip-
driven communities

8. 8
THE COMMUNITY HOMEPAGE - FOOTER A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB'S ONLINE COMMUNITY
This looks like a good an
interesting mix of content
here, but it’s buried too far
down for almost anyone to
see it. I’d look to display this
much higher up. Showing
lengthy posts instead of just
titles has reduced what can
be shown on the page.

9. MOBILE RESPONSIVE A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
The site works well on
mobile with the
images dropping out
to reveal a simple
layout above the fold.
Could possibly remove
the copy below the
headline here.
The full posts take up a
lost of space and lead
to a lot of scrolling on
a mobile space. I’d
reduce this to just the
titles of the post to
allow for easier
scrolling

10. U S E R
E X P E R I E N C E
A N D
P A R T I C I P A T I O N

11. ASKING A QUESTION / GETTING HELP A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Lithium’s autocomplete search works
well with the related discussions
appearing as the question is being
typed. The tick next to the questions
with resolutions is a useful touch.
AUTOCOMPLETE
SEARCH

12. ASKING A QUESTION / GETTING HELP A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
This prompt when you first click on the
search box is also a nice touch. Small
nudges like these can be really effective
in online communities.
AUTOCOMPLETE
SEARCH

13. ALL DISCUSSION PAGES A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Once you select ‘start a discussion’ you’re
taken to the ‘all discussion rooms’ page which
then asks you to select from relevant ‘rooms’.
This feels clunky and the categories are
confused. This would work better within a
‘drop down’ menu to select while writing the
post itself.
Also, many questions could easily be in
hosting and help simultaneously.
UNNECESSARY
CATEGORISATION
OF TOPICS

14. THE HELP PAGE PRESENTATION TITLE COPY GOES ON HERE
Not sure this image has to be
here, it pushes all the other
content way down the page.
The ‘welcome to help’ area
also feels like it could be
shortened to something
much simpler.
Showing the community
guides at the top of the
page works well, I think
showing the guides
themselves in box form
would be better here.
Is this copy necessary? It
duplicates the copy opposite
and most people would
naturally ‘start a discussion’ if
they wanted help.
Second time we have had
to click ‘start a discussion’
to start a discussion. This
shouldn’t be happening.
Showing related tags works
well, but would be best to
organise these by priority
or trending topics.

15. STARTING A CONVERSATION PRESENTATION TITLE COPY GOES ON HERE
Very clean interface. Autosave
feature is also appreciated.
Drop-down list appears again to
avoid duplicated questions
Tags don’t automatically
appear (nor are there any
suggested tags based upon
the post) - this would be easier.
Offer images, links, and bullet
points but no other HTML. this
is probably a good idea for
Airbnb
Do you really need a ‘cancel’
button? People will either
post or not. Feels an odd
place to encourage a
cancellation
Would benefit from some Apple-
style advice sharing simple tips to
help people ask good questions (e.g.
give context and details).

16. HOW QUESTIONS APPEAR A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Why not ‘reply’ or ‘help’,
the focus on ‘join the
conversation’ feels a bit
redundant
Would benefit from some Airbnb-
esque advice sharing simple tips to
help people ask good questions
(e.g. give context and details.
There are FAR too many things
to do here. This is before we look
at the two ‘options’ drop-down
menus which show the same
options. Would benefit from a
like / me-too / reply and nothing
else.
Move the # comments
and views to the top of the
page to show popularity
This options area
both here and on
the post are
unnecessary (and
some options
don’t work)

17. R E S P O N S E S A N D
E M P A T H Y

18. RESPONSES AND EMPATHY A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Airbnb does a very good job of ensuring
almost all questions and tips shared receive
a quick response. In some areas, these
become sprawling discussions. In others,
they are simple customer support
questions which receive a good response.
MOST
QUESTIONS
RECEIVE A QUICK
RESPONSE

19. RESPONSES AND LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
This is useful, but would
benefit from an
additional prod to select
this.
It lists a ‘level 10’ here but
there is no other information
on the community about
gamification, rewards, or
what these levels mean. It
seems level 10 is the highest
a member can reach in the
community.

20. EMPATHY IN RESPONSES A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
PERSONALISED
AND SMART
Most responses come from community members at
a level 10 or above (level 10 appears to be the highest
achievable level).
The responses are generally factual, but not rich in
empathy and there isn’t much attempt at a follow up
to check if the problem was resolved or make a
solution as a featured answer. This is a missed
opportunity. The low-level of responses from staff
members suggests a relatively small team manages
this online community

21. R E G I S T R A T I O N
A N D O N B O A R D I N G

22. REGISTERING TO JOIN THE COMMUNITY A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Accessing the Airbnb community
requires using an Airbnb account. There
isn’t a distinct community registration
pathway. You go through the same
process as you would to register for the
site itself.
This means there is no onboarding
pathway to engage or educate
members. The anti-discrimination policy
acceptance is a welcome touch.
NO SEPARATE
COMMUNITY
JOURNEY

23. BREAKDOWN OF THE AIRBNB COMMUNITY A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Because there is no distinct community
participation track, there is no welcome
email that guides people into their
ongoing contributions to the
community. This feels like a missed
opportunity to convert people into
active participants and also hints at a
limited level of integration with other
areas of the organisation. This email
even guides people away from the
community.
AIRBNB
WELCOME
EMAIL

24. THE TUTORIAL PAGES A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
A curated list of tips and help guides is a great
addition, but it’s buried within the community
and would benefit from being listed in an
automated onboarding journey. The list is
strong and potentially very useful however. It is
also kept regularly updated.
I’d list by popularity rather than alphabetically
but it’s a minor tweak
COMMUNITY-CREATED
HELP GUIDES

25. THE TUTORIAL PAGES A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
The community also has a list of centrally
created tutorials to do basic actions on the site.
I prefer these as one-time pop-up notifications,
but they can work well here if they are easy to
find. They appear above the fold, yet tend to
push down after discussions. It’s best to
showcase a tutorial next to the action where it
is needed.
COMMUNITY
TUTORIALS

26. T I P S A N D T R I C K S

27. USER TIPS A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
The tips and tricks area of the
community is structured similarly to
other areas. This needs a good display of
the top tips shared by hosts, ideally in
visual form.
This area would benefit from best tips
ever shared, top tips for new Airbnb
hosts, tips to get higher ratings, and
trending tips relevant right now.
POOR DISPLAY
OF USER TIPS

28. Despite the best efforts of the
community manager, many
topics are filled with
complaints about Airbnb or
customer support questions.
This brings the tone of
discussions down from what it
could be.
USER TIPS A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
It’s impossible to upvote
or rate a tip without
clicking into it. Reddit-
style upvoting works best
when sharing new ideas.

29. L O C A L
C O N N E C T I O N S

30. CONNECT LOCALLY A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Airbnb encourages members to ‘connect
locally’ and join groups for their city. Very few
of these groups are active and many share the
same kinds of discussions as appear
elsewhere. Ironically it’s not possible to send
a direct message or ‘connect/befriend’ with
other members.
This section could easily be abolished or
control handed over to regional community
members who could lead these groups either
on Airbnb or, much better, on Facebook
groups where they may already exist. At the
moment too many of these groups have very
low levels of activity and need to be pruned.
FEW ACTIVE
LOCAL GROUPS

31. H O M E S H A R I N G
C L U B S

32. CONNECT LOCALLY A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
The goal of home sharing clubs is to educate
local hosts about local laws and benefits of
hosting.
Home sharing clubs overlap significantly with
local connection groups and should be
merged. These are led by community
members and generally have higher levels of
activity which suggests great potential in
letting community members lead areas of
the community.
HOME SHARING
CLUBS

33. I D E A T I O N

34. A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
The ideation area is hidden
and not very active (or clear
under the name of ‘host voice’)
Translation of ideas is very
smart.
Anger is boiling up from a lack of
participation from Airbnb. This does
not bode well for the community at
all.
Features like this are best
displayed as headlines only along
with their current status. The
design of this area is not well
suited for ideation.
This explanation would
benefit from explaining the
process of how an idea goes
from ideation to participation
This should be near the top. 6 ideas
under consideration isn’t a great statistic.
Showing the list of ideas previously
implemented would be useful.
IDEATION

35. I N T E R N A L
S U P P O R T

36. 36
THE COMMUNITY HOMEPAGE A BREAKDOWN OF Airbnb’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
The online community is hard
to find. It appears at the very
bottom right below several
rows of invisible scroll posts.
This indicates the community
has low levels of internal
support.. The easiest way to
booth traffic would be to
increase the community’s
visibility.
The community is interestingly not
hosted on airbnb.com but has been
moved to a ‘withairbnb.com'
domain. It’s not clear why this has
changed in the past year.

37. C O N C L U S I O N

38. 38
A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Airbnb’s online community has huge potential
but feels like a smorgasbord of different
initiatives which have grown under the banner
of community. This is leads to a confused
strategy which has led to a sprawling use of
Lithium’s modules and overlapping areas of
participation.
The community would benefit from focusing
on solving host’s problems, sharing the best
ideas between hosts, and removing all other
features from the website.
Local connections and meetups can be best
facilitated by people submitted groups hosted
on third parties (e.g. facebook.com or
meetup.com) for approval to be listed. These
can then be led by a committed advocated in
collaboration with Airbnb.
Airbnb would benefit from customising the
design for each purpose (customer support,
best ideas) and making it easier to find and
scroll through the trending questions or ideas
and the best ideas ever shared.
The community mission of building a planet
where everyone can belong is noble, but
would be far less effective than focusing on
the immediate needs of the hosts (e.g.
booking their properties solid and solving
host’s problems).
Ideation would be useful when Airbnb can
communicate what ideas it needs and when it
needs these ideas. There is also potential in
better nurturing superusers and building a
more advanced gamification system.
CONCLUSION
CONFUSED STRATEGY, TOO MUCH SPRAWL

39. 39
A BREAKDOWN OF AIRBNB’S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Richard Millington is the Founder of FeverBee, an online
community consultancy, and the author of Buzzing
Communities.
Richard works to help organisations understand the
technology and psychology behind the web’s most successful
online communities.
In the past decade, Richard has helped 250+ organisations
develop successful online communities for their employees,
customers and fans. His client roster includes Facebook,
Google, Oracle, Lego and many more.
FeverBee’s community management academy has also
trained 1200+ of the world’s top online community
professionals from around the globe.
To learn more, please visit: www.feverbee.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RICHARD MILLINGTON,
FEVERBEE
richard@feverbee.com
@RichMillington