Airbnb’s recent campaign, which launched on New Year’s Eve, caught my attention. I read about the effort while on vacation in the Berkshires. We booked a quaint house in Lenox, Mass., via another popular home-sharing website, Flipkey.
The $1 million Airbnb campaign aligns nicely with the current experiential and sharing economy. As part of the effort, 100,000 Airbnb hosts will receive $10 each to be used in an altruistic way to “help make the world a smaller place,” as the CMO Jonathan Midenhall recently noted in USA Today. Mildenhall says the $10 could be used to buy seeds to plant in a community garden or to purchase art supplies for a neighborhood senior center. Whatever the gesture, hosts who receive the funds are encouraged to promote their good deed on social media and tag it #OneLessStranger.
What I love about the campaign is that Airbnb hosts are encouraged to participate in random acts of kindness with strangers, not necessarily Airbnb guests. The goal of the campaign is to “make the world smaller, one less stranger at a time.”
I believe travel experiences unite us all. During my recent stay in the Berkshires, I felt connected to those who stayed in the house previously as a result of messages they had recorded in the guest book. I thought of their stories as I listened to music playing on an antique record player while my 8-year-old son and I engaged in a game of checkers. Airbnb is tapping into these shared experiences and encouraging its host community to extend the sharing more broadly. This seemingly small gesture builds a wealth of goodwill for the brand.
My own experience further reinforces the influence of home-sharing hosts who work to attend to guests’ needs during their stay. It feels even more personal because you are staying in this person’s home surrounded by their belongings and treasures. Our Berkshires house host was a wonderful resource for us, providing tips on family-friendly dining spots and ski resorts. I know I’ll share my fond experience with my friends and will recommend the Berkshires house on FlipKey.
If I were given $10 from an Airbnb host, I would likely buy more art supplies for the Norman Rockwell museum craft room, which my kids thoroughly enjoyed during our recent visit there. I think that donation would positively impact other families’ experience visiting the museum. If you were awarded $10 from Airbnb, how would you pay it forward?