1. How do the four characteristics of services apply to Airbnb? How does Airbnb deal with each characteristic?
2. Apply the service profit chain concept to Airbnb.
3. How does Airbnb differentiate its offer, delivery, and image?
4. How much of a threat is competition to Airbnb?
5. Will Airbnb last as long as Hilton Worldwide has? Explain.
This case focuses on the hospitality services industry. Airbnb has pulled off a truly amazing rise to market leadership. Attacking an industry that has been set in stone for more than 100 years, Airbnb has become bigger than any hotel chain in terms of rooms available, annual revenue, and stock price. And, it has done it all in less than a decade. Airbnb has accomplished the impossible by focusing on providing a customer experience that the standardized hotel model simply cannot. By building a network of private property owners who rent all or part of their homes in a convenient and price competitive manner, Airbnb has discovered a huge market that previously was left underserved-travelers who want to experience the world as locals do.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 a intangibilityThe service Airbnb is providing is accommodation in 191 different countries offered by hosts who use the platform there for their ser... View the full answer