Von allen in den letzten Jahren gestarteten Startups ist Airbnb in der besten Position, der nächste große Internetkonzern zu werden. Denn Airbnb ist auf gutem Weg,1 einen großen Teil der Reisebranche umzukrempeln.
Fast Company hat ein lesenswertes Porträt über Airbnb und die Ambitionen veröffentlicht:
Chesky has decided that Airbnb will become nothing less than a full-blown hospitality brand, one that delivers a seamless end-to-end experience when its customers travel. “If you ask Brian now what drives Airbnb's growth, it's not that people want to get a cheaper space,” says Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, an early investor. “Airbnb could've spread out horizontally into the sharing of power tools and cars and stuff like that. But Brian has decided the growth is in hospitality.”
Which brings us back to that sheet created by Chesky, Conley, and those 60 other Airbnb employees. “Our business isn't [renting] the house,” Chesky says. “Our business is the entire trip.” His idea is to create a portfolio of new services that make the Airbnb experience more consistent from stay to stay, and that can generate lots and lots of additional revenue. One starting point: a cleaning service that will offer fresh sheets and towels to Airbnb proprietors. Reimagining “the entire trip,” the $6 trillion travel industry itself, is an audacious goal.
Es fällt nicht schwer, sich zu vorzustellen, in welche Richtung Airbnb gehen kann:
Chesky does hint that “there might be an opportunity to democratize a lot of the services that the Four Seasons provides.” To that end, a source familiar with the company's plans indicates that Airbnb has tested an airport-transportation service similar to Uber. One top industry researcher, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to alienate any traditional hotels, said that it's not a stretch to imagine what might come next. “Once the guest has made a decision where to stay, [he or she] may need a dry cleaner, or a restaurant in the neighborhood, or transportation service to and from there. Airbnb could become a travel agent for the people who are staying with its hosts.”
Airbnbs Reichweite kann die Basis für eine Plattform sein, um die ein Ökosystem verschiedenster, lokaler Dienstleistungen entsteht. Das ist, was Airbnb-CEO und Gründer Brian Chesky mit “an opportunity to democratize” meinen dürfte.
Man kann angesichts der Potenziale nur unterschreiben, was Amazon-CEO Jeff Bezos Brian Chesky mit auf den Weg gab:
“This company is going to be massively successful as long as you don't fuck it up.”
Im Gegensatz zu etwa den deutschen direkten Konkurrenten hat AirBnB nicht nur Weitsicht sondern auch internationalen Erfolg. Eine Groupon-Geschichte lies sich hier aus einer Vielzahl von Gründen nicht wiederholen. ↩