Skift Take
Professionalizing the homesharing experience is helping to alleviate travelers’ concerns and anxieties about staying in a stranger’s house. But there's always room for improvement.
Skift launched the latest edition of our magazine at the Skift Global Forum in September. This article is an excerpt from our look into the current state of the traveler and consumer mindset through the lens of the pervasive state of anxiety felt worldwide.
Download the full version of Skift's Travel in an Age of Permanxiety magazine here.
Airbnb, HomeAway, onefinestay, and their peers all have the comforts of home when it comes to the accommodations they offer on their sites, and with that, sometimes the stress of dealing with hosts and homeowners without any formal hospitality training.
But these companies are also learning that as alternative accommodations become less of an alternative and more mainstream, they need to professionalize the experience a bit more to address travelers’ very valid concerns.
Given the massive number of bookings these platforms facilitate on a daily basis, there are relatively few instances where things have gone terribly wrong during a home stay. But when they do, those stories often go viral, and they only add to the valid concerns any traveler might have about staying in a stranger’s home versus a hotel.
Not only that, but recent incidents where hosts and guests alike have been subject to bias or discrimination on peer-to-peer platforms like Airbnb have only added to the anxiety travelers feel. For some travelers, it’s not even a matter of whether everything will be all right during the actual stay, but whether they’ll even have a place to stay.
To that end, many alternative accommodations providers have attempted in varying degrees to assuage travelers’ concerns by implementing new features that allow guests to instantly book a listing, easily order groceries, or turn to the support of a trusted on-site concierge.
Airbnb and HomeAway
On one end, there are platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway where, in some instances, travelers do have to interact with the hosts or homeowners directly. And on the other end, there are platforms like Oasis, onefinestay, and Paris Perfect that
