Skift Global Forum: Airbnb’s CMO on the Meaning of Authentic Travel Experiences
Photo Credit: Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall. Airbnb
Skift Take
There's really no broad stroke definition for what an authentic travel experience is. It means different things in different places and travel brands need to consider what their definition is to avoid generalizing.
Jonathan Mildenhall will speak about leveraging cultural ideology to create a super-brand in travel at the Skift Global Forum on October 14 and 15 in Brooklyn, New York. See the complete list of amazing speakers and topics at this year's event.
We recently caught up with Mildenhall to get his perspective on what authentic travel experiences actually mean in a world where virtually every brand claims to offer them. As CMO of Airbnb —one of the world's largest home-sharing sites — the company built itself on the promise that its guests would receive authentic, local experiences in hosts' homes that hotels don't have the power to replicate.
It's becoming more difficult to find a hospitality brand that doesn't promise guests some kind of authentic experience during their stay, and with that the definition of authenticity has become somewhat convoluted, Mildenhall argues. A guest attending a wedding at a hotel in New York City will get the authentic experience for that particu
