The success of Airbnb's digital marketing

Airbnb has seen a recent online success within the hospitality industry. In this blog the 5S’s of digital marketing will be covered in order to gain a better understanding of the platform’s success.

The 5S’s of digital marketing, being sell, speak, serve, save and sizzle, is a framework used to define a company’s objectives (Chaffey and Smith 2017). Sell translates into increasing sales, serve into providing quality customer service, save into saving costs and effort, speak into communicating and engaging with customers, and lastly sizzle into expanding the brand online whilst increasing value. In this blog, the “sell” and “save” will only briefly be explained, and the three others will be analysed in depth.

Airbnb makes revenue from non-refundable service fees and from value-added taxes in certain countries (Nath 2020). Therefore, its goal is to encourage reservations, leading to an increase in profit. Furthermore, Airbnb being purely online, they are able to save money and effort due to online transactions and web operations.

Airbnb speaks to their customers using various platforms. Their website and application are mainly used to search and make reservations. Their main social media platforms are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where they mainly post user-generated content. Basing their promotion on content marketing helps the company develop a strong relationship between the brand and its customers, as they share real-life experiences that customers can relate to, stimulating brand interest without forcing reservations.

Furthermore, Airbnb serves its customers through an online customer service, helplines and online chats increasing the company’s value and customer satisfaction (Chen and Chang 2018). They also have a Twitter account, “Airbnb Help”, made specifically for this purpose (Airbnb Help 2021). In addition, with an updated algorithm Airbnb offers personalised recommendations, creating an emotional loyalty between the customers and the brand. Therefore, Airbnb provides a high level of media richness, which positively impacts “the satisfaction consumers experience” (Chen and Chang 2018).

Lastly, Airbnb offers a lot more than just overnight stays. The service also offers the possibility to book activities online such as cooking classes or bike tours and even multiday trips. This increases the brand value as it gives guests an ease of access to activities and has also allowed Airbnb to create a positive online brand image focusing on the overall travel experiences. In addition, they offer the possibility for guests to rate their stay, which reduces “the risk of expectation failure” (Chen and Chang 2018) and increases brand trust. In terms of pricing, Airbnb offers promotional codes and is often cheaper than the average hotel (Mintel 2020), increasing brand interest. All of these factors work together to stimulate an interest towards Airbnb, and to increase its online presence and its value for customers (Chaffey and Smith 2017).

Overall, this digital marketing framework has allowed us to understand Airbnb’s success and how it has been able to dominate the hospitality industry within the sharing economy.

Reference List:

Airbnb Help, 2021. Twitter airbnbhelp [online]. Available from: https://twitter.com/airbnbhelp?lang=en[Accessed 1 March 2021].

Chaffey, D., Smith, P.R., 2017. Digital Marketing Excellence: Planning, Optimizing and Integrating Online Marketing [online]. 5th edition. New York: Routledge.

Chen, C. and Chang, Y., 2018. What drives purchase intention on Airbnb? Perspectives of consumer reviews, information quality, and media richness. Telematics and Informatics [online], 35(5). 1512-1523.

Mintel, 2020. Mobile Device Apps: Inc Impact of COVID-19 – UK – October 2020 [online]. Available from: https://reports.mintel.com/display/1046465/?fromSearch=%3Ffreetext%3Dairbnb [Accessed 7 March 2021].

Nath, T., 2020. How Airbnb Makes Money [online]. Investopedia. Available from: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/112414/how-airbnb-makes-money.asp [Accessed 7 March 2021].