Social Listening: AirBnB

  

I chose to dive deeper into the company, AirBnB. AirBnB is a home rental service that allows people to both rent out either a private room, or entire place to people looking to stay in something different than a hotel. They also now have experiences that include both local experiences and online experiences for travelers to participate in. I chose this company because in high school I had the opportunity to tour the headquarters in San Francisco. The environment was so fun and engaging and helped me decide my major. Therefore, I wanted to see how their company was viewed by others outside of the internal headquarters. It is a pretty popular resource so I figured it would get good reviews and comments. It also allows people to make money in a different and irregular way. 

I would argue that AirBnB’s unique value proposition begins with giving people an opportunity to stay in a place that offers more of a unique and local experience. Staying in a house of someone that lives their versus a hotel makes the stay seem more authentic and can be easier to connect with local culture. On the other hand, they also give people the opportunity to make an income by renting out their properties.

 

I went on Instagram to first see what the comments said and to better understand how users' comments reflected their experience. Immediately I was shocked by the most recent post. The first thing I noticed was people speaking in all different languages but there was a trend of saying “#freeUyghurs”. I saw the AirBnB’s CEO, @bchesky, tagged a few times and noticed the same hashtag being used under his most recent post. The photo included shows how many people were commenting on his page. I was confused by what this and the hashtag meant and at first struggled with researching the meaning. There were a lot of posts written in different languages but after using google translate I was able to figure out why so many people were commenting #freeUyghurs. The hashtag originated from a youth movement in support of freeing an ethno-religious minority in China from concentration camps that force people to work in factories under harsh conditions. From a few posts I learned that AirBnB hosts properties that are right near the camps, and makes money from the location. In the screenshot you will notice that user @lauratzz wrote “Stop the collaboration !! It’s terrible” meaning AirBnB should stop working with places in China that are supporting the detention of these groups. To gain more knowledge of the current event I commented under her comment asking for clarification. The company has yet to respond to the comments and events taking place. Everything has taken place in the past couple of days so I would guess they are taking time to understand the situation and come up with a statement. It is probably good they are waiting a little to make sure they have a solid understanding of their actions and a plan to move forward.

I scrolled to the next post and instead of discussion about this collaboration and the people of Uyghurs it seemed to be people talking about the beautiful scenery of the post. However, I also noticed people complaining about their customer support and people not hearing back from their concerns or questions. One person, @iam_brinicole, wrote about her frustrating experience about them not responding to their message and account, and sending a general answer back. This is shown in the screenshot below. This is something AirBnB definitely needs to look into and find a solution. Customer’s happiness is extremely important and their inability to monitor reports and incidents could potentially harm their brand and lose customers. This is something they should have responded to and connected with the user to make sure how they could improve. 

While they are receiving a lot of negative attention, AirBnB’s social media goal is to sell a story and an experience through pictures and videos of potential beautiful stays. Their Instagram is filled with aesthetic pictures that make the viewer and followers motivated to explore their stays. They seem to be pretty successful in capturing and utilizing their social media presence on Instagram and keep engagement high. However, I looked up their TikTok and they have less than 10k followers and no posts. This is a huge missed opportunity as Travel TikTok is a huge market. They could post great content easily and show people more potential stays and experiences.  

After looking over AirBnB’s social media I would change a few things if I was their brand manager. First, I would come up with a small statement to at least acknowledge the events and collaborations with China to ensure the public that we as a company are aware and not ignoring the issue. Next, I would work out the logistics on how to move forward with making sure our actions are not tied to any contribution of these concentration camps, and factories. To show the public our commitment I would also set up an event promoting awareness on the issue and hopefully create some change. Next, I would assign more representatives to customer concerns and accounts to make sure everyone is being heard. Their concerns are very valuable and ways to improve. Lastly, I would create a marketing team to utilize TikTok and harness that opportunity. 

This assignment was very impactful. I learned about an important issue occurring right now that not many people are talking about. At first I was confused how AirBnB was connected to the issue, but I realized that their business was supporting the groups and government that are continuing to put these people in factories and camps. It shows that companies have a lot of power. I also learned that companies should do their best to utilize all social media platforms to gain the most engagement and marketing potential.