How Airbnb Optimized Their Two-Sided Marketplace with Optimal

Airbnb, the revolutionary hospitality platform that connects travelers with unique accommodations worldwide, partnered with Optimal to enhance both sides of their marketplace ecosystem. By utilizing Optimal's comprehensive research tools, Airbnb gained critical insights into the needs of hosts and guests alike, while optimizing their experience categorization and support infrastructure. The result? A more intuitive platform that better serves both key user groups, leading to increased engagement and satisfaction across their global community.

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The Challenge: Balancing a Two-Sided Marketplace

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Let's face it: maintaining a successful two-sided marketplace presents unique challenges, and Airbnb was facing several:

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• Host-side completion rates were showing concerning trends, with a significant number of users abandoning processes before completion
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• Guest interactions revealed opportunities for improvement, with notable drop-offs during critical user journeys
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• Their experience categorization system needed validation across diverse cultural contexts
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• The Help Center information architecture wasn't optimized for user needs
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With millions of hosts and guests relying on their platform daily, even small improvements could create significant impact. They needed data-driven insights to guide their evolution.

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The Solution: Optimal's Dual-Focused Research Approach

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Airbnb implemented Optimal's versatile research platform to gather insights from both sides of their marketplace. Here's how they deployed Optimal's toolkit:

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Host-Side Excellence: Tree Testing and Card Sorting

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Airbnb conducted comprehensive tree testing and card sorting studies focused on the host experience, complemented by questionnaires that revealed qualitative insights into desired platform features. This wasn't just about website navigation, it was about understanding how hosts conceptualized their business operations and what tools they needed to succeed.

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Guest Journey Optimization: Multinational Card Sorting

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For the guest side, Airbnb conducted an extensive open card sort with their multinational customer base to validate their experience and activities tags. This same research tool was cleverly repurposed to rank the importance of holistic information categories that guests prioritize when planning trips.

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Support Infrastructure Enhancement

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Recognizing that exceptional support is crucial to marketplace success, Airbnb conducted focused card sorting to optimize their Help Center's information architecture, ensuring users could quickly find solutions to their issues.

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Security and Trust Framework

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To maintain platform integrity, Airbnb performed a closed card sort assessing the importance of guest screening functions, ensuring they could maintain trust while minimizing friction.

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Results: A Reimagined Platform Experience

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Airbnb's strategic investment in Optimal's research tools delivered impressive outcomes:

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• Host Empowerment: The host-focused studies revealed critical insights that led to a reimagined dashboard with the most-requested features prominently displayed.
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• Guest Booking Confidence: The multinational card sort findings enabled Airbnb to restructure their experience categories to align with actual guest mental models, leading to improvement in booking confidence and an increase in advance bookings.
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• Support Efficiency: The revamped Help Center information architecture decreased time-to-resolution and significantly reduced support ticket volume by making self-service more intuitive.
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• Trust Enhancement: The refined guest screening functions created the perfect balance between security and convenience, leading to an increase in host confidence without negatively impacting conversion rates.
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Conclusion

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Airbnb's partnership with Optimal demonstrates the power of comprehensive, user-centered research across both sides of a marketplace platform. By making UX research a priority for hosts, guests, and support systems, they've created a more cohesive ecosystem that works effectively for all stakeholders.

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In the hospitality industry, where trust and user experience are paramount, Airbnb proved that understanding the nuances of how different user groups interact with digital platforms is essential to marketplace success. With Optimal's sophisticated testing tools providing actionable insights, Airbnb has positioned themselves as a leader not just in accommodation bookings, but in creating truly user-centered digital experiences for their global community.

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Want to learn how you can get started gathering meaningful user insight? Reach out to us today.

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