Key Insights

Q1: Prior to booking, there are three factors that customer pay attention to: 

Neighborhood: based on the interviews, the signs of a good neighborhood are as follows: proximity to hotels, proximity to residential areas, people walking on the street. On the other hand, the signs of a bad neighborhood are homeless people, heavy presence of cops, proximity to pawn shop, proximity to motels, garbage on the side of the street, dark streets, and window bars.

*The guests mentioned that they find out about these features via google map and other online sources.

Host: based on the interviews, reviews about the host, host description, host picture, and host response to guest inquiry are the most important factors when booking an Airbnb home.

Guest: based on the interviews, guests’ physical features and the number of guests play an important role when deciding on an Airbnb place.

Q2: There are certain things that customers who have experienced safety and security issues look for when on property:

Door locks, windows, fire alarm, and hidden camera.

Q3: What are Airbnb homes’ safety issues?

Host: based on the interviews, illegal rental (no ownership), unmentioned animals, fake host picture, mentally unstable host, druggy/drunk host are the most important safety issues.

Property: based on the interviews, bed bugs, electrical hazard, old home picture, chemical odor, deceptive picture angle, Nest cam, wrong home description, steep stairs with no banister, cockroaches and spiders, dirty fridge, dirty sheets, dirty bathroom, unannounced strangers, and lack of smoke detector are the most important safety issues.