Airbnb · Strategy · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Airbnb drive usage between trips?

Airbnb is an online marketplace where people discover and book places to stay from hosts around the world. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Strategy
Prioritization
Metric design
User segmentation
Experimentation

The situation

You are a PM in Airbnb's guest product organization, and your VP wants a recommendation for the next planning cycle. Airbnb is highly useful when someone is actively planning travel, but many guests stop opening the app once a trip is booked or completed. That makes it harder to stay top of mind, learn user preferences over time, and create repeat behavior in a product that is naturally used infrequently. Leadership is asking whether Airbnb should invest in guest-facing experiences that create more reasons to return between booking moments. At the same time, there is real concern that chasing generic engagement could pull the company away from its core travel job or create activity that does not matter for the business. Assume fewer than 20 percent of past guests open the app in a typical month when they are not planning travel, while nights booked remains the main company metric. Your task is to recommend whether Airbnb should pursue this strategy, and if so, which product direction is most promising and how to judge success.

What to produce

A 2 page strategy memo.

Your answer must

State the core product problem in the current guest usage pattern and why it matters now.
Choose one primary user segment or between-trip moment to focus on first, and explain why.
Compare at least two strategic product directions for increasing frequency, then recommend one.
Define a metric tree that connects leading signals, such as opens or saves, to nights booked.
Outline a phased test plan, key risks, and the evidence that would cause you to change course.

Constraints

Keep nights booked as the ultimate success metric, not engagement alone.
Focus on product changes in the guest experience, not acquisitions or unrelated new businesses.
Use a 12 month horizon for the recommendation.
Do not harm trust or make the core trip planning and booking experience more complex.

Format

Use sections titled Problem, Target User, Options, Recommendation, Metrics, and Risks.

How Airbnb actually played it

Explains Airbnb's push beyond bookings into daily life using nights booked as the North Star and ideas like weekly suggestions based on interests to drive app opens.

Expand frequency to move beyond infrequent bookings
Link new surfaces to the North Star
Personalized prompts support habit building

Built from Airbnb Strategy 2026 by Technomanagers.