Airbnb

Airbnb

Airbnb is a rental site between individuals. It offers the possibility to its users to rent their home or part of it to other users of the community platform. Founded in 2008 the company is based in San Francisco. The offer currently covers 192 countries. 700 employees are located in 13 offices around the world. All developers and engineers work from the US West Coast and the site's data is hosted on servers owned by Amazon.

The owners set the price at which they want to offer their home in a completely free way, but Airbnb offers them help to establish the price. "Commissions are levied on both sides: the host, 3% of the price of the night, and the tenant, who pays him a little more (between 6% and 12%). "

The offer remains very attractive and largely competes with offers offered by hotels and professional rental sites. Prices are often much lower for a rental of the same size, plus the site offers a wide range of accommodation, ranging from dormitory to castle. Moreover, Airbnb offers a personalized offer thanks to its many search criteria.

Airbnb heavily relies on all components that can reassure users of the platform. Admittedly the site operates on the principle of "crowdsourcing" which itself allows to establish a relationship of trust between users including through comments from the community. But Airbnb reinforces this desire to reassure its users by positioning itself as accompanist, arbitrator and guard-safe in the transactions made on the site. The notion of trust plays a decisive role in their success.

How does Airbnb keep the advantage over his competitors and overcome them?

Airbnb has developed a platform business model that brings together producers and consumers in the same environment. This model differs from the traditional "pipe" where the company produces a service which it then sells to the customer.

This type of model has become widespread with new technologies. The web allows direct contact with the end user and the producer (disintermediation), deriving the traditional intermediaries. The smartphone and the GPS allow geolocation in real time and easy identification. The algorithms optimize bid-ask matching, guide the user and set the optimal price. The platform creates an "elegant environment" for linking, providing the necessary functionalities for the exchange of value between individuals or professionals.

And then?

Whether you have a local or national business, competition is a situation that you face every day, and that takes different forms throughout the life of the company.

Individuals and professionals, when in the buying phase, naturally compete with several sellers to compare their offers, including quality of the service or product, delivery times, prices, terms of payment.

If the competition is stimulating and dynamizes the markets in several ways (supply, innovation, quality, price, ...), this rivalry is often experienced as a constraint by the impact on prospects and customers and the turnover. Yet to remain competitive, companies have to face this competition, tame it and exploit it to maintain a good position in a market.

How to keep an eye on its competition and anticipate, to maintain a competitive advantage, maintain and develop sales, or take precedence over any competitors?

Know your competitive environment

To stay ahead of your competitors or gain market share over them, the first benefit you need is a good knowledge of your competitors and their business.

Analyse what makes the products or services of your competitors successful. Compare offers in terms of:

• Product features
• Marketing method (online or online, number of internal or external salespeople, website, type of commercial actions performed)
• Rates and discounts
• Customer payment terms and deadlines
• Sales pitch
• Communication tools
• Positioning
• Target
• Innovation cycle
• Partnership
• Etc.

Also compare the other main functions and supports of the company, such as: logistics, production, supplies, cost structures, technological level, human resources, etc. All parts of the business participate in creating the competitive advantage of a company. It does not come only from the way the product is made or the service performed, the price, the proposed use, the marketing lever or the positioning. It can also be the means implemented to achieve the product or the services, the logistical power, the choice of supply, the manufacturing technique ...

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