Product design question

How do you improve the check out experience for Airbnb?

Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.

What this question tests

Tests product improvement thinking for a conversion-critical booking flow, targeting the specific moment where hesitation and drop-off happen.

Scope narrowly to the checkout moment: from selecting dates and a listing to completing payment, not the whole search and discovery flow.
Identify pain points: uncertainty about total cost with fees added late, hesitation about a new host's reliability, and a payment flow that feels slow on mobile.
Propose showing the full price breakdown, including cleaning and service fees, upfront at the listing stage rather than only at final checkout.
Add a trust-boosting element at checkout, host response rate and recent review highlights, right next to the payment button.
Define success as checkout completion rate and reduction in cart abandonment at the payment step specifically.

Targets the exact drop-off point, late fee disclosure, a well-documented real complaint about Airbnb's booking flow.
Adds a trust signal precisely at the moment of hesitation, right before payment, instead of somewhere else in the flow.
Picks a funnel-specific metric, payment-step abandonment, rather than overall booking conversion.

Redesigning the whole search and discovery experience instead of focusing on the checkout step itself.
Ignoring the well-known late-fee-disclosure complaint as the most likely cause of drop-off.

How would you A/B test showing total price earlier without hurting initial listing appeal?
How would you build trust for a brand-new host with no reviews yet?