3min chapter

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Online Travel Agency Factboook: The Top 11 Global Booking Sites

The Skift Travel Podcast

CHAPTER

Airb and B to Scale

Arobbe and b made its reputation based on it was the unique experience. So how do they scale when it is built on unique experiences? But then, on the other hand, you just said, while so many of the hosts are pof sonal and it's losing some of that uniqueness. I dn't knw if there's any answer to it, i wouldn't say. You've been in some, some facebook groups with the rb and b host who are not so pleased with the direction the platform has gone on. What doYou think? Do you think they can add professional hosts or orepto retrench?

00:00
Speaker 2
We'lle speaking of margin. So, um, ad wewere talking about marketing through gog um. It's not necessarily adirty word, because booking dot com, you know, markets heavily through google, am, and they made a hell of a lot more profits than arobbe did. A and the tlmonts looked at totally. I mean,
Speaker 1
it's, it's a function of their scale, right? It's a function of their scale too, right? Because because, let's, let's look at the revenue numbers. Wilkin does nine, nine point two billion billion i revenue. And air bean be o five point three. And so even if they have, you know, they both have pretty good margins, but you have those margins dropping through on four billion extra dollars of revenue. That's a lot of ebada, right? That's a lot of profits. And so that's what's happening there. So,
Speaker 2
speaking speaking of skill, i mean, one of the big paradoxes, right? So erbe and b, and you alluded to it before, made its reputation based on it was the unique experience. You know your going to talk to the host and sit on the back patio and draw up plans for the day. A, so how do they scale when it is built on unique experiences? But then, on the other hand, you just said, while so many of the hosts are pof sonal and it's, you know, it's losing some of that uniqueness. Well, you
Speaker 1
know, dennis, maybe i'll throw the question back at you, cause i don't don't know. I dn't knw if there's any answer to it, i wouldn't say. So i want to clarify, i wouldn't say so many of the hosts are professional. There's a minority of hosts that are professional. But they do a much, much better job of generating sales. They have their, their places are available for moral there's more availability. They charge higher rates. They use more professional revenue management tools. And so one path forward for airb and b to scale would be to embrace those professional hosts a lot more. And that might be a way to grow revenue, but that might have the unintended side effect of alienating their corps hosts. And, you know, brian chesky spoke a lot trn the pandemic of kind of saying, you know, really, really them re appreciate again, renew their appreciation for their maman pap hosts. I know, dentist, you talk to a lot of mon pop hosts. You've been in some, some facebook groups with the rb and b host who are not so pleased with the direction the platform has gone on. What do? What do you think? You think they can add professional hosts d maintain that balance, or orepto retrench? What do you think? I don't know,
Speaker 2
um, i think it's goingtobebat.

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