Defining and Raising Airbnb Quality With a Six-Month Product Plan

You have six months to make Airbnb a higher-quality product. What would you work on, and how would you show that quality actually got better? ```hint Pin down quality "Quality" could mean the stay, the listing, the booking flow or the support when something goes wrong. Choose a definition you can measure from both the guest's and the host's side before picking initiatives, and let the six-month window limit the scope. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does quality mean the stays and listings themselves, the app and booking experience, or how problems are handled when a stay goes wrong? - Should I improve quality for guests, for hosts or both, and are quality problems concentrated in particular markets or listing types? - At the six-month mark, should the result be a measurable shift in an outcome metric, or launched initiatives with early signals? - Are there limits on adding requirements for hosts, given that stricter standards could reduce the number of listings? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A measurable definition of quality from the guest's and the host's perspective, and a diagnosis of where it breaks down today - A focused choice of what to fix first, justified by severity, frequency and what six months allows - Concrete initiatives sequenced across the six months, including host incentives and enforcement - A primary quality metric with leading indicators and guardrails for bookings and host supply - How results are validated in a two-sided marketplace ### Follow-up Questions - Stricter standards would remove listings in a market where supply is already tight. How do you decide whether to enforce them there? - Three months in, your quality metric is up but bookings are down. What do you investigate, and what do you do? - How would you measure quality for stays where the guest never leaves a review?