Airbnd - Host Family Industry

Section1: Introduction

1.1Organization Background (leading into the problem)

1.1.1Evolution of the organization (history)

1.1.2Core Functions

1.1.3Enabling Technologies

1.2Business Problem (includes Peer Review)

1.3Literature Search

Section 1:

1.1

According to nowadays world economy, more and more people are willing to send their children to study abroad to learn different culture and environment. Moreover, the average age of students who study abroad is now getting younger and younger. About 10 years ago, almost all foreign students in the US are master students. (source). Up to now, high school students and undergraduate students contain half of the total foreign students.

1.1.1

Due to large number of foreign students come to the US, accommodation turns to a big issue for them. Dorms are very limited for some school and they are first come first serve. For international students, it’s hard for them to reserve the dorms before them arrive. Other than that, most dorms will not open until 2 days prior the school starts. However, it is impossible for international students since they need to fly couple thousand miles to this country and used to the environment and time difference, and also they need someone to pick up them in the airport. In this case, dorm is not the best choice for them. As a result, host family or homestay become the best choice for them since they can live in native American families and get involved in their culture. They could be treated as family members so that they can check in any time if they figure out the deal with host families and the families could pick them up in the airport. In this case, an online platform for families and houses information are needed. Fortunately, Airbnb is the company helps numbers of people to solve this problem. “Airbnb is an online marketplace and homestay network enabling people to list or rent short-term lodging in residential properties, with the cost of such accommodation set by the property owner. The company receives percentage service fees from both guests and hosts in conjunction with every booking. It has over 2,000,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 191 countries. Airbnb was founded in August 2008, is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and is privately owned and operated.” (Airbnb. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb)

1.1.2

The core function of Airbnb is a P2P platform to help landlord to rent their rooms and the renters to find rooms online. The business model of Airbnb is “Airbnb is an online marketplace for vacation rentals that connects users with property to rent with users looking to rent the space. Users are categorized as "Hosts" and "Guests," both of whom must register with Airbnb using a variety of means. A valid email address and valid telephone were initially the only requirements to build a unique user profile on the website, however as of April 2013, a scan of a government issued ID is now required. Profiles include details such as user reviews and shared social connections to build a reputation and trust among users of the marketplace. Other elements of the Airbnb profile include user recommendations and a private messaging system. In addition to providing personal information, hosts display listing details including price, amenities, house rules, imagery, and detailed information about their neighborhood. Due to the nature of the business, a merit system is in place to allow guests and hosts to leave references and ratings which are displayed to the public in order to provide an evaluation method. Since 2008, the website has developed to include social connections pulling data from social networking services such as Facebook. As of May 2011, the site uncovered over 300 million connections between Airbnb and the Facebook user groups.” (Airbnb. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb)

1.1.3

The technology of Airbnb is online data recourses searching and reorganization. With thousands of houses and rooms information, it could help users to find best houses for them based on their perspectives. Nevertheless, their major market is faced on short term renting which is insufficient for international students. For students, they can find rooms on Airbnb, but they cannot rent it for a long period of time or the price is extremely high since the price on Airbnb is daily based. According to the poor user experience for international student long term renting market, I found my own company called iHomebnb, which is to help international students find the best host families.