Podcasts
VRS102 – Expedia, Home Away, Airbnb and Giving Back with Matt Landau
It wasn’t unexpected.
The acquisition of Home Away by Expedia should not have come as a surprise, but for many owners and managers, the announcement delivered a wake-up call. And who better to ask about the impact, repercussions and potential fallout of this than Mr. VR Marketing himself, Matt Landau.
Fresh off an interview with the prestigious Huffington Post this week – where I discovered Matt’s connection with Einstein – Matt has had a busy week but took the time to explore a range of current issues with me.
We kicked off with his recent, and exclusive, interview with Shaun Stewart, Airbnb's Global Head of Vacation Rentals where Matt was able to deliver ‘hot off the press’ information on how Airbnb is re-engineering its approach to whole-home rentals.
By simply asking the question, ‘What are the reasons you don’t use Airbnb?’, they were able to establish 16 of the most critical arguments owners and managers raised in response. These are topics we are all familiar with such as cancellation policies, low cleaning caps and lack of support for dynamic pricing. Matt’s post on his interview shares some of these.
Of course, the acquisition news was the major topic of conversation and Matt’s take on it is refreshing and enlightening as he encourages us to use it as a springboard to take action.
As always when I talk to Matt, I ask about his Esperanza project and we finished our session sharing ideas about how we can all give back to our communities in some way or another. There’s a couple of links below to give some examples.
Links to sites mentioned in this episode:
Matt's Interview With Huffington Post
Airbnb CEO Speaks at Fortune Global Forum
Matt’s Interview with Shaun Stewart of Airbnb
Expedia Buying Home Away Should Inspire (Not Frustrate) You
Sun Realty Food Donation Programme
Esperanza gang reintegration programme
Listing Site Independence Workshop with Matt Landau
Who's featured in this episode?
