A Closer Look at Airbnb's Marketing Strategy

Airbnb is far more than a simple platform to find inexpensive hotels. To succeed internationally, its founders had to create a whole rental infrastructure and business model, a task far different from other hotel booking sites. That’s a huge feat, but it wouldn’t have succeeded without Airbnb’s marketing strategy. The company presented itself as the most welcoming and easiest-to-book option for guests that it’s hard for Airbnb competitors to even come close.

In this article, we’ll examine how Airbnb markets itself to potential customers by offering them a wide array of affordable opportunities for temporary lodging:

Establishing the Airbnb Experience

Airbnb’s strategy isn’t just about the cheapest prices. Instead, it’s about providing a home-like experience for anyone in the world who wishes to travel. Thus, the company made a conscious decision to model itself after sharing services such as Uber and Lyft by promoting the “Airbnb Experience,” a unique experience of staying in a foreign country with a local.

To achieve this, the company has created a giant network of hosts who provide an interesting and unique local experience using their personal homes. This creates a more personal and unique Airbnb experience and also makes Airbnb stand out among competitors who list only traditional hotels.

Different Techniques to Appeal to Different Audiences

Airbnb goes beyond simple language marketing. It is constantly adapting its marketing strategy to meet the needs of its varied international markets. The home-sharing site has developed a number of strategies to address cultural differences in different regions.

For example, in the United States, the company focused on providing a unique experience for Americans. However, in Germany, Airbnb implemented a different strategy. The company targeted German tourists, as well as Germans living abroad, to create a sense of familiarity with the brand.

Finally, in Italy, a country with a strong hospitality industry, Airbnb adapted its platform to appeal to Italian families and couples. The company pioneered the “Airbnb experience” in the Italian market by showcasing Italian hosts and local neighborhoods.

Airbnb’s marketing strategy succeeded in attracting customers in every corner of the globe by providing them with a tailored experience.

Getting New Users Through Deep Linking Strategies

Airbnb’s marketing strategy depends heavily on maintaining a strong user experience. Unlike other sites that take you to the home-sharing company’s homepage, Airbnb takes you to either the booking page or to your account page. That’s where Airbnb uses deep-linking to help customers navigate the website themselves.

For instance, if you’re visiting Airbnb to book a room in a specific city, you can go directly to a host’s page for that city by clicking on a search result. This gives you more information about the host and the property and helps you book a stay that helps you achieve your goals, such as saving a large amount of money.

Conclusion

The home-sharing platform brand Airbnb has successfully become the most welcoming and easiest-to-book site by marketing itself as such. Airbnb has also been able to appeal to its international audiences by adapting its strategy to cultural differences. The company has used innovative marketing strategies to promote itself, and those strategies have paid off in the end. But as effective as Airbnb is at marketing the platform, you need to strategize to thrive on Airbnb as a host, too.

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