Airbnb reaches for the penetration playbook

Airbnb describes itself as a global business, but it has only a limited presence in many countries and it’s setting out to change that. 

Why Airbnb matters

“There’s a huge amount of growth if we could just get Airbnb to even a fraction of the percentage of penetration that we have in the United States,” CEO Brian Chesky told an earnings call. 

Canada, Australia, the UK and France come close, he said, but after that it tails off rapidly, “so we have a massive, massive opportunity just by bringing Airbnb's playbook to these other countries.” 

What it’s doing 

• The playbook involves a four-pronged approach, with product optimization, PR, local marketing “and just general optimizations on the ground”.
• Chesky reported that this approach has already been effective in several countries – Brazil is twice the size it was pre-pandemic, Korea is 54% higher than before – but “we’ve just scratched the surface of what we can do”.

The overall marketing strategy

• Word of mouth remains the primary reason for people to come to Airbnb (90% of traffic is direct or unpaid), followed by earned media and then brand campaigns.
• “We do performance marketing but we think unlike other travel companies, it’s not necessarily a way to buy customers,” Chesky explained. “It’s literally more like a laser that we use to hone in on balancing supply/demand and we really can use it to optimize certain markets.”
• A recent campaign contrasting the benefits of the Airbnb versus the hotel was “the highest-performing digital campaign we’ve ever done,” Chesky reported, adding that it will be the basis of a major new marketing campaign next year. 

Sourced from Seeking Alpha