Product design question
How would you improve the Airbnb Homes product?
- Airbnb
- Product design
- Easy
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What this question tests
Tests product improvement thinking for a mature, trust-dependent product: identifying a real host or guest pain point and proposing a focused, testable fix.
How to approach it
- Identify both sides: guests want accurate expectations and trust in a listing; hosts want fewer disputes and higher-quality, respectful bookings.
- Identify a specific pain point: listing accuracy (photos or descriptions not matching reality) remains a persistent source of guest disappointment and host disputes.
- Prioritize this problem since it directly drives cancellations, bad reviews, and support costs, more than a purely cosmetic feature would.
- Propose the solution: a periodic listing accuracy verification (photo re-upload prompts, guest post-stay accuracy ratings feeding into listing quality scores) surfaced to future guests.
- Define an MVP: launch a guest-rated 'accuracy score' visible on listings, tested first in a high-dispute category like entire-home listings.
- Define success: reduction in accuracy-related cancellations and complaints, and improved guest satisfaction ratings on affected listings.
What a strong answer includes
- Picks a specific, well-known Airbnb pain point, listing accuracy, rather than a vague 'improve the homes experience' answer.
- Addresses both sides of the marketplace, guest trust and host accountability, with one connected mechanism (an accuracy score).
- Chooses a testable MVP (accuracy score in one listing category) instead of a broad platform-wide change on day one.
- Ties success directly to the pain point, fewer accuracy-related cancellations and complaints, not a generic satisfaction metric.
Common mistakes
- Proposing a broad, vague improvement with no specific pain point or mechanism behind it.
- Ignoring the host side of the trade off, such as how an accuracy score might be perceived as unfairly punitive.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you prevent hosts from gaming or disputing the accuracy score unfairly?
- How would you roll this out without alarming hosts who already have strong track records?
More product design questions
- How would you design a bicycle renting app for tourists?Google · Product design · Medium
- Design a driverless car pick up service for kids.Google · Product design · Hard
- Give an example of a badly designed product.Adobe · Product design · Easy
- Imagine you’re a Product Manager at Airbnb. You have been assigned the task of adding a new feature that could be useful to the Airbnb user base. It must include an integration with an external third-party/non-Airbnb API.Airbnb · Product design · Medium
- Design a way for people to find apartments.Google · Product design · Easy
- How would you improve Airbnb in 6 months?Airbnb · Product design · Hard
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 7: AI UX and human oversight: design for a system that is wrong sometimes
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop