okay so we have had a huge potential
market on our radar for a while now this
is an incredible opportunity for our
hosts representing millions of high
quality bookings I'm talking about
business travel but there's a problem
with business travel today for many
women and men who travel for work the
experience can be downright bland and
Hollow we know that business travellers
can be some of the loneliest travelers
on the planet that's not their fault
though
these are exciting people they want to
have fun they just haven't been given an
environment where they can get some
fulfillment out of their time on their
road so now companies are looking for
new ways to help their employees have a
better time while they're traveling so
we know that you Airbnb hosts can help
business travelers connect with their
destinations you can help create
memorable experiences for them I know
this is well this will probably not come
as a big surprise to you but I happen to
travel on Airbnb for business quite a
lot in fact I guess it was earlier this
year I was on a trip to Barcelona I
think we have some Barcelona hoes here
oh there you are all right I stayed in
the old city anyway one morning my host
came by and invited me for lunch he came
and picked me up we went to this tiny
Market in the middle of the old city he
took me to a restaurant in the back
super secret I never would have found
this place had this incredible lunch
with him and he spent an hour sitting
with me telling me all about the city I
learned more in that hour sitting in
Barcelona than I ever knew about the
city previously all because that host
was there to make me feel at home and
this was happening on a business trip so
it makes you wonder why shouldn't
business travel always feel as
fulfilling as leisure travel or as a
vacation or at least pretty close right
so with the launch of Airbnb for
business we're driving new demand to
your listings the business traveler
business travelers make great guests
their average booking value is three
times higher than leisure travelers they
make midweek bookings and they have your
round needs so it's not necessarily all
seasonal with like the seasonal patterns
for vacation travel even better they
often travel back to the same location
so you can have repeat visitors maybe
you even have some regulars you get to
know your business travelers I'm gonna
share something pretty amazing right now
in two months since we launched business
travel on Airbnb employees from over
1,000 companies have had employees
travel on Airbnb for business how crazy
is that
and these aren't little companies either
they include big ones like Google and
Salesforce who are now helping encourage
their employees to travel on Airbnb for
business so of course business travelers
have unique needs so we're asking hosts
who want to participate in this
opportunity to meet kind of a set of
criteria and get business travel ready
business travel ready listings are
really well reviewed the hosts are super
responsive and for now at least their
entire homes there's also some other
things like some amenities that we
require if any of you have ever traveled
for business I'm sure you know how
important it is that the Wi-Fi works
that's one of the amenities that we like
our business travel ready listings to
have very important once your listing
becomes business travel ready it will be
labeled as such in search so somebody's
searching can see which listings meet
the criteria and soon we're gonna give
guests the opportunity to filter their
search results so they can only look at
business travel ready listings so it's
really important that you do this
to make your listing business travel
ready visit airbnb.com slash business
travel ready it's pretty easy to
remember right don't worry I'm gonna
show you the link in a second we make it
really easy to certify your listing just
a few clicks on that page and you're
ready to go so there's the link I
promised go to airbnb.com slash business
travel travel ready get your listing
business travel ready and then all you
have to do is sit back and get ready for
more business thank you
so you're gonna have a lot more guests
at your home how many guests here's a
stat that Nate shared earlier 60 million
guests you've hosted in the existence of
Airbnb just this year so far 25 million
by the end of this year you will have
hosted the equivalent population of the
country of Venezuela so how are we gonna
make sure that as we continue to grow we
will get great guests so we're launching
a new guest signup flow and I want to
show you what our guests are going to be
walking through first guests both in
pictures and in words are going to get
some information about what Airbnb is
but the clear message should be you are
staying with real people in real homes
this is not a hotel
then we'll get their email and then
we're going to verify their phone number
to make sure that you can contact them
when necessary and now we are requiring
every guest to have a profile photo
before they even message you
but I know what you're thinking a lot of
guests they're gonna just take the
flowers in their desktop and upload it
we have technology that will guess if
it's a human face or not if our system
doesn't think it's a face it will reject
the photo but that's not it
when guests are making a booking
reservation and making a booking request
we're gonna ask them to tell us about
themselves it would require them to also
send a message and the message we're
gonna prompt them includes this tell us
about yourself
what brings you who's coming with you
and what do you like about the listing
to make sure we start the conversation
that's also not it we've heard that you
don't believe that your guests are
actually reading your house rules so we
are taking your house rules and we are
copying them and putting them on the
checkout page so before they hit confirm
to submit the payment they will have
read your house rules
so today we talked about how we're gonna
learn from each other how we're gonna
make hosting easier with smart pricing
and how we're gonna make sure that you
get more guests during the Down season
with business ready listings this is
just the start of the conversation this
event is to have two-way dialogue to
hear from you last year we had 60 people
taking your feedback
this year we have 600 people taking your
feedback and we really really want this
conversation to continue as you've seen
we do take action on your feedback you
can also visit us at the new feature
Center at the pavilion and play with
that play with the new features and Mike
Laura and I are going to be there from 2
to 3 p.m. tomorrow to meet with you
individually and hear your feedback
thank you so much for everything you do
and thank you for hosting