Strategy question
How would you determine how to sell hotels on Airbnb?
- Airbnb
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Strategic thinking about entering a new supply category and whether it fits Airbnb's brand and marketplace dynamics.
How to approach it
- Clarify the goal: is this about revenue diversification, filling supply gaps in business travel, or competing with Booking.com and Expedia.
- Assess market size, hotels are a much larger addressable market than home shares.
- Evaluate fit against Airbnb's core value proposition of unique, host led stays versus standardized hotel inventory.
- Weigh the risk of brand dilution and channel conflict with existing hosts against incremental revenue and traveler coverage.
- Recommend an approach, e.g. curated boutique and independent hotels rather than chain inventory, to stay on brand.
- Define success metrics such as hotel booking share of nights and traveler retention after a hotel stay.
What a strong answer includes
- Ties the recommendation to Airbnb's stated strategy of becoming an end to end travel platform, not just a homes marketplace.
- Distinguishes independent boutique hotels, which fit the unique stay narrative, from chains, which compete head on with OTAs.
- Addresses the two sided marketplace risk: will adding hotels reduce demand for existing hosts.
- Proposes a phased rollout, starting with markets where home supply is thin, as an assumption.
Common mistakes
- Treating this as a simple yes or no without weighing brand fit.
- Ignoring the existing host base and possible cannibalization.
- Not mentioning any competitive context, Booking.com and Expedia.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you price hotel listings relative to homes on the platform.
- What metrics would tell you this initiative is cannibalizing home bookings.
- How would you convince hotel owners to list on Airbnb instead of only OTAs.
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More questions from Airbnb
Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop