Airbnb · Product sense · Entry · 45 to 60 minutes

Why is Airbnb adoption uneven?

Airbnb is an online marketplace where people can list their homes or rooms for short stays and travelers can book them. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

product sense
user insight
prioritization
metrics
written communication

The situation

Airbnb is in its early days. A few guests have completed stays, mostly when local hotels were full during big events, and some of those guests say the experience was memorable because hosts were welcoming, rooms were clean, and they got useful local tips. But outside those cases, many people who hear the idea do not move forward. Some potential guests hesitate before booking, and some potential hosts are uncomfortable listing their homes at all. The founders are debating what to build next. One camp wants to improve discovery, listing quality, and booking flow. Another thinks the bigger issue lies elsewhere in how people evaluate the experience before they commit. You are the first PM on the team. Brian, Joe, and Nathan ask you for a recommendation on the next product priority. They want to know what problem is most likely blocking broader adoption on both sides of the marketplace, how to learn from the mixed feedback they are hearing, and what to test first before they scale marketing or add many more listings.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product recommendation memo.

Your answer must

Identify the primary user segments involved and state whether you would solve first for hosts, guests, or both.
Explain what the early positive reactions do and do not prove about the product.
Diagnose the main adoption problem, separating surface friction from the deeper reason people do not proceed.
Recommend one priority roadmap theme and 2 to 3 concrete product changes or experiments for the next quarter.
Define success metrics and leading indicators that would tell you whether to continue, iterate, or stop.
Call out at least two important risks, tradeoffs, or unintended consequences of your recommendation.

Constraints

Assume the team can ship only one focused roadmap theme in the next quarter.
Do not change the core model of staying in another person's home.
Do not rely on a large paid marketing push or on having a widely trusted brand already in place.

Format

Use a short memo with sections for problem, user insight, recommendation, metrics, and risks.

How Airbnb actually played it

Shows how early skepticism revealed trust as the core problem for Airbnb and how the team responded with product measures.

Negative feedback can point to the real problem
Trust is a feature in marketplaces
Separate positive and negative feedback handling

Built from Early rejection and Airbnb's obsession with trust and safety by Sreerag Panat.