Airbnb - a Failure of Corporate Communication
AirBnB – Case background
AirBnB is a website that was founded in 2007 by Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky, and Nathan Blecharczyk. AirBnB’s story begins in the living room of Joe and Brian's San Francisco loft in 2008.
The name AirBnB stands for “Air bed and breakfast”. AirBnB is a community marketplace that allows property owners and travelers to connect with each other for the purpose of renting unique vacation spaces around the world.
It is an alternative to a hotel giving the user a more fun, cheaper and local experience. AirBnB has everything from private homes to private islands in over 16,000 cities in 186 countries. It has rooms, couches, homes, islands, castles and an airplane sticking out of a tree. Famous people like Conan O'Brien rent out their homes as well. With 1,000 more new listings a day, a number likely to accelerate to 3,000/day as it expands in all the major tourist markets. AirBnB is expected to surpass Hilton (600,000) in number of rooms by 2012 with their current growth rate. AirBnB also offers a free iPhone and iPad application for booking accommodation on the run.
With AirBnB's over a billion-dollar valuation already it is every entrepreneur’s dream of a perfect start-up.
Things seemed too good to be true for the San Francisco based company. The company was largely build on social media, since the users engaged with the page through Facebook and Twitter.
AirBnB had a social crisis management issue in the summer of 2011, caused by a lack of corporate culture and values. AirBnB has become a classical example, showing the importance of social media in reputation management, especially in a crisis. AirBnB was caught off-guard by a social media storm after clients had their property vandalized.
A member of AirBnB known as EJ posted on her blog about a bizarre and brutal destruction of her home by someone who rented her space through AirBnB. Her things were stolen, her identity documents photocopied and her apartment destroyed. After the
AirBnB is a website that was founded in 2007 by Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky, and Nathan Blecharczyk. AirBnB’s story begins in the living room of Joe and Brian's San Francisco loft in 2008.
The name AirBnB stands for “Air bed and breakfast”. AirBnB is a community marketplace that allows property owners and travelers to connect with each other for the purpose of renting unique vacation spaces around the world.
It is an alternative to a hotel giving the user a more fun, cheaper and local experience. AirBnB has everything from private homes to private islands in over 16,000 cities in 186 countries. It has rooms, couches, homes, islands, castles and an airplane sticking out of a tree. Famous people like Conan O'Brien rent out their homes as well. With 1,000 more new listings a day, a number likely to accelerate to 3,000/day as it expands in all the major tourist markets. AirBnB is expected to surpass Hilton (600,000) in number of rooms by 2012 with their current growth rate. AirBnB also offers a free iPhone and iPad application for booking accommodation on the run.
With AirBnB's over a billion-dollar valuation already it is every entrepreneur’s dream of a perfect start-up.
Things seemed too good to be true for the San Francisco based company. The company was largely build on social media, since the users engaged with the page through Facebook and Twitter.
AirBnB had a social crisis management issue in the summer of 2011, caused by a lack of corporate culture and values. AirBnB has become a classical example, showing the importance of social media in reputation management, especially in a crisis. AirBnB was caught off-guard by a social media storm after clients had their property vandalized.
A member of AirBnB known as EJ posted on her blog about a bizarre and brutal destruction of her home by someone who rented her space through AirBnB. Her things were stolen, her identity documents photocopied and her apartment destroyed. After the