Roundtable Discussion with Chip Conley

GW at the Airbnb Office.

I’ve become very familiar with Chip Conley within the last year as he has attended and been a speaker at several top conferences in the meetings and event industry. Therefore, I was very excited to meet and talk with him during our class visit to the Airbnb office. Chip is a hospitality guru as he owned his own boutique hotel chain, so I appreciated his insight regarding the ineffective feedback system used by hotels. Currently, hotels don’t really have a feedback loop. The way the system works now is after checking out, the guest is sent an email survey from the hotel requesting feedback. In the small chance that the guest even completes the survey, that information is at best discussed by hotel management at a monthly meeting. Chip shared that Airbnb, on the other hand, has a feedback system in which the guest is asked to complete a review of the experience within 14 days (a recent reduction from the previous request of within 30 days). At the same time, the host is also asked to complete a review on the guest. Neither review is shown to the opposite party and the guest’s review is not posted on the property listing until both parties write a review. As an Airbnb guest, I thought this review system was easy and creative but I had no idea that it was also effective. Chip reported that 75% of guests and hosts completed reviews under the currently used feedback system.  

The Airbnb office embraced the aesthetic of an open layout.

Chip Conley

Another take-away from our time with Chip Conley was his continued support in employee wellness and feedback. Chip has published several books conveying the importance of self-actualization and work/life wellness. During our meeting, he boasted about how Airbnb gives its employees $500 in Airbnb credits each year, with the option to carry over any unused credit into the next year. I remember thinking how awesome and smart that is for the senior management to offer, as it promotes employee wellness, implements the platform’s motto of traveling like a local, and allows the company to collect internal feedback. Overall, after meeting with Chip Conley, I was not disappointed and look forward to following Airbnb’s growth because, as Chip said, if comparing the company’s growth to a baseball game, “Airbnb is only in the third inning”.