Chesky Notes (#2) — In-home Concierge Amenities

Chesky Notes is an ongoing series of (hopefully) innovative ideas about Airbnb. It’s also my fanboy hope that Brian Chesky may actually read this one day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When I travel, I expect some things to go wrong. When they do, it may require me to (gasp) leave my rental and venture into the local community. A non-exhaustive list of examples:

• My wife or I get sick and need to go to the urgent care
• My dog swallows my fob key and needs to see the vet
• My fictional child laughs at dog eating fob key and bumps their head
• I wake up with bad hair and need to see a barber
• I wake up with a pinched nerve and need a massage

Before the pandemic, these were inconveniences, but manageable. Now, I’m hesitant to leave my rental, especially to spend an afternoon in the urgent care. Therefore, I’m less likely to book my trip in the first place.

Fortunately, there are many concierge services popping up that will visit you in the home. For one, my wife started a concierge pediatric practice in St. Petersburg/Tampa that sees patients exclusively in their homes. She even does COVID-19 testing in the home. There are also mobile vets, mobile barbers, mobile massage therapists and more.

In Airbnb home listings, there is an Amenities section with many categories. One category called ‘Services’ includes only four services: breakfast, cleaning before checkout, long term stays allowed, and luggage dropoff allowed. What if we supercharge this section with an expanded list of in-home concierge services vetted by Airbnb? Here’s how I see it working:

• Concierge service providers can apply to be a service amenity
• They submit their company info and what zone they visit, pricing, etc
• If approved by Airbnb, the amenity appears in any listings within the specified zone
• Hosts have veto power to hide any service if they are uncomfortable with it
• Guests can schedule and book the service directly from the listing
• Airbnb gets a commission on each booking
• Based on level of interest, ratings and reviews, multiple service providers of the same type could be listed

One way to think about it is like an Airbnb Experience but only 1 guest (or 1 known group of guests) and always in the home. This is a win for everyone. Guests get an in-home service that otherwise could derail a trip. Concierge services get more exposure and more bookings. Home hosts and Airbnb both get more bookings because travelers know there are easy solutions when things go wrong. And Airbnb earns the service booking commission. Airbnb will also get more hosts in the ecosystem. They start as service hosts and eventually become experience hosts or home hosts.

I’ve tested this locally in St. Pete with my neighbor who runs a family friendly Airbnb. I pitched the idea of having my wife’s pediatric service in the listing to put guests at ease. He jumped at the idea especially because it wouldn’t cost him anything to give bookers that piece of mind.

Disclosures: I own stock in Airbnb