AirBNB’s Product Shortcomings: No Fridge, Technology, or Service Widgets

AirBNB is not an engaging host or guest platform. There is hardly anyway to customize a listing, except through static photos. The offer to improve a listing through ‘professional photography’, for instance, feels more like desperation than a real attempt at engagement. These shortcomings, however, are hardly worth mentioning. AirBNB’s problem is not so much with its lack of customization within its listings than with its product offerings. Throughout the company’s history there has not been a single advance in any of its product offerings or any new ways of offering their sole product, spaces.

AirBNB is not an ideal platform for spaces. Where is the host engagement? The dashboard, for instance, does not allow a host to increase his or her engagement in hospitality at all. Of course, you can chit-chat all you want. There is no end to endless chatter but there are no options, for instance, to cater to guests; there is no fridge widget; there is no technology widget; there is no services widget.

Fridge Widget

Image being able to order your favorite beer, wine or spirits way ahead of your exquisitely planned getaway on AirBNB. Imagine the joy a host may experience by facilitating the reception of these drinks, stocking a mini fridge just like a hotel mini fridge or processing payment for these transaction on the AirBNB platform. AirBNB’s platform, however, does not have a fridge widget. With a fridge widget a host’s abilities to…