Airbnb’s goal is to collect information and experiences to see how to improve its business offerings for the benefit of remote working.
People who love to work from home and travel the world are in for the opportunity of a lifetime. In a press release, Airbnb has just launched the “Live Where You Want” initiative.
As the name suggests, it is a call for 12 people from around the world to spend almost a year living in the platform’s accommodations. The app would sponsor the stays and also provide financial support for the winners’ transportation expenses.
Airbnb’s idea, according to the release, is that the experiences of these individuals will help them “shape the future of long-term stays.”
According to the brand’s terms and conditions, it is looking for people from 32 countries and regions around the world. Each participant will be able to bring up to three companions and will receive between u$s24,000 and u$s48,000 in credits within their app to fund the stay.
Anyone from participating countries and regions can apply for the project until June 30 through the official website. Airbnb’s idea is to have a diverse group of people in this group of 12 participants and their companions.
They are expected to share their experiences with the company, specifically around site changes, more suitable accommodations, and community connections. The trips would begin as early as this September.
Getting ahead of the remote working trend
Airbnb’s idea is very cautious. There is very little knowledge about what the needs of consumers working long-distance in spaces away from home are.
It’s a trend that practically appeared with the pandemic. According to the Hanoi Times, in countries like Vietnam, 52% of commuters during the health crisis considered traveling elsewhere for work. A phenomenon almost non-existent pre-2020.
And many coworking spaces are going to continue remote work even with the return to the new normal. According to Flex Jobs, giants like Amazon, Facebook, American Express, and Atlassian will allow employees who can do so to work outside the office.
In this sense, Airbnb has a significant business opportunity. Assuming, of course, that it manages to offer consumers a satisfying experience wherever they are.
This is no small task. Several agents have warned employers that it is not easy to implement remote working systems that are as effective as face-to-face work.
According to McKinsey, some tasks simply cannot be adapted to distance as efficiently as physical. And what Airbnb must identify is what services and resources consumers will require to have a productive stay if they want to work remotely.
Airbnb experiences
For a company heavily tied to the travel industry, this home-sharing platform had a relatively very productive pandemic. In April last year, it launched digital experiences. The idea was to give its hosts a way to generate revenue even if they couldn’t receive guests because of the health crisis. The proposal was so good that it was even applied in the framework of the canceled Tokyo Olympics for last 2020.
Even in the economic revival, Airbnb proved that it can play its cards very well. Last March, it launched an alliance with Mexico’s Magical Towns.
The idea was to motivate its users to resume their tourism, safely, in these towns. Partly with the idea of avoiding extremely popular areas, possible sources of contagion. At the same time, it would participate in the financial reactivation of these towns and their businesses.
