New "How Airbnb Works" video (shot at 13 locations around world) | Hacker News Reader

New "How Airbnb Works" video (shot at 13 locations around world)

airbnb.com

190 pointsbrianchesky56 comments

Fun facts (directly quoted) from Adam Lisagor, who made the video:

* All the locations are real Airbnb places.

* The pretty lady in the video is Venetia Pristavec, who does all the in-house video content for Airbnb, traveling around to different countries and interviewing hosts. She’s great.

* Where you see people, those are real Airbnb hosts.

* The site is neat, but you should download the iPhone app. It’s one of the best-designed, most beautiful and functional apps I’ve ever used.

* The cinematographer is my friend Rachel Morrison. She’s great.

* That villa with the credit card logos in the pool? It’s in Puerto Vallarta. The crew stayed there for a few days. It’s great.

* My side of the Scrabble board spells out “COOTYS RAT SEMEN”. Venetia’s spells “BEANS”. I won.

Just to check, we read these as if it's Adam saying them?

That is correct. His words, not mine.

Love the Sneakers reference.

Don't get this.

In the movie "Sneakers", "COOTYS RAT SEMEN" is one of the sillier anagrams encountered when the main characters try to use a Scrabble set to figure out the meaning of "Setec Astronomy". It's a classic hacker movie -- highly recommended if you haven't seen it.

Ahh...ok. Will try and get it.

Hi Brian, I met you when you stayed with my cousin Caitlin (using your own service!) in Denver back during the Democratic National Convention in 2008. It is really cool to see how much your company has grown since that time. Congrats! - Jason

Source: http://lonelysandwich.com/

I spy Adam Lisagor.. or some similarly bearded man. He worked on Square and Birdhouse's videos.

Square: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBieYjxUj5Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_u2nMsgjg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSzsFAJAKHI .. wow square has a lot of videos

Birdhouse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8yRaWY1xV8&feature=playe...

Yep. It's Adam.

Yup, he produced the video: https://twitter.com/#!/lonelysandwich/status/230570589620838...

He also did these:

Jawbone's JAMBOX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgC3zjNH1oU&feature=playe...

Couch to 5k (iOS app): http://vimeo.com/15981967

Not only the videos are of very high caliber, he's very, very cute as well. Can't go wrong with that! :)

One of the most compelling things about AirBnB is the gorgeous photos of all those unique places. I don't know how they get them. Do they just have lots of hosts with amazing photography skills or do they send people out to take pictures?

Paying a pro photographer to come take a few shots of the place pays off immensely in the number of bookings. It's just good marketing.

I'm just surprised hosts have enough marketing wherewithal to do that on their own. Though maybe AirBnB makes a point of telling people to get professional photos done.

Why don't any of the major dating sites have contracts with a pro photographer in each city to do head shots for cheap or free? It seems like such a slam dunk idea given the economics, and yet none of the major dating sites want to do it. (Having emailed the staff of some of these sites with this idea a couple years ago on behalf of a photographer friend and receiving no response.)

Major dating sites likely still largely pull revenue from advertisement and pay-to-message hurdles.

As a photographer, however, I can attest that there is a market for people looking to pay to have a better Facebook/LinkedIn/Dating-Site profile photo.

If a good photo dramatically increases the amount of people who want to send you messages, then wouldn't subsidizing your userbase to have good photos be enormously profitable? Especially since getting just 2% of your users to take advantage of the service could make the other 98% much more likely to become paying users.

actually in Istanbul there was a studio that offered a service of making photos that look like shot in different parts of the world, partying with friends, on a sandy beach with cocktails in hand, etc. for people who otherwise never gets to be in those places and envy others on social networks that do :)

A user who does this and is successful will no longer have a need for the dating site profile, or to pay the monthly fee for the site.

Depends on what they're using the site for (e.g. random hook ups means repeat customer).

because the prevailing style of personal photo is "Internet Disease" :P

"Internet Disease means displaying old, faded, blurred or otherwise non-descript photographs of oneself, taken with bad lighting and at awkward angles" - in order to hide obesity and acne. I'd give a link to the encyclopedia dramatica definition of it if it were not for the popups on that page.

You can request to have a professional photographer come out to your listing.

http://www.airbnb.com/info/photography

I just used Airbnb for the first time last week. Had a pretty good experience with it. Stayed at a fellow HN'er's ( ngrandy ) place. A very pleasant experience overall, I'll probably keep using it in lieu of hotels when I travel.

The culture of the site is interesting in itself - it attracts people that don't mind having a stranger in their house. You really have to be a sociable person to allow that, and it shows in the personalities of the hosts (and guests). Makes for a very friendly and welcoming environment.

Some more facts by video creator Adam Lisagor http://lonelysandwich.com/

I wonder how much something like this would cost?

It passed the "my parents understood it test":) Great vid!

Great video - but man I must have trust issues; because there is no way I'd be letting someone stay in my place if I'm just out of town for the weekend.

That's why they have the ebay-like "review" system. It works pretty well for the couch surfing websites, so I am sure it works well here too.

(but yes, I agree with you - I don't know how keen I'd be to leave someone the keys to my place while I'm out either)

I'm always traveling (it's part of my job) and I rent it out while I'm away. Airbnb handles the payment, and the reviews can only be left by people who have stayed through the community so you know they are legit. You can also choose who stays - that's why everyone has profiles. In any case, I offset my rent about $400/month and have "travel fun" money now. I'm 70% to my goal of heading to Thailand in March! Can't wait!

Excuse me for being presumptuous, but it's sort of customary to self-identify in a post like this if you happen to be affiliated with the company.

"The pretty lady in the video is Venetia Pristavec, who does all the in-house video content for Airbnb, traveling around to different countries and interviewing hosts. She’s great."

Sorry, newbie mistake! I was (and am) a host before working at airbnb so sometimes the two worlds collide. Just excited about the video and my first comment on HN. Thanks for watching!

How exactly do you do that if you are away, doesn't some one have to be there to give the guest the key to the place?

Couple handy ways. 1) Taskrabbit.com (I have an awesome runner check people in for me) 2) I just have a friend do it 3) I leave the key at a local cafe for them to pick it up.

Beautiful video.

I might be moving to London for a few months, and the "stay for a month" line certainly persuaded me to take a look when I do.

Over the past year, I've kept Airbnb in mind while doing my travel planning. I've made numerous inquiries to book for multiple trips, but am always rejected. One example would be a trip to NYC I took two months ago. I sent out 10 inquires to hosts but they were all rejected. The typical response is a curt, "No longer available," but in all cases I filtered based on availability.

So, it's not as easy as this video implies. For me, it has been something of a headache and a time waster, which is unfortunate because I think their idea is excellent.

(Maybe it is easy if you're a hot hipster waif?)

When I first heard the Airbnb idea - I was really skeptical. This is one of the cases where the actual implementation of the idea turned out better than the pure idea itself.

I've booked a couple of places through the site when I was traveling in California, and the result in both places was better than I would have expected.

I think it's a fantastic idea I just haven't had the hutzpah to actually book a place in someone else's home yet... yet.

I have been a couchsurfer for years and love the commmunity. airbnb seems to be exactly like couchsurfing except you have to pay to surf somebody's couch.

Comparing airbnb and couchsurfing experience would be a great exercise in understanding the altruism and economics of the internet and online communities.

Great video. At first I wondered "what does she do for a living?" then it inspired me: I work from home now. I'm going to seriously consider renting out my house and work from other people's homes instead.

And the tipping point is reached :-) Congrats and hope the virality ensues!

Watched the video, its definitely interesting. Looks like a super commercial version of http://www.couchsurfing.org/.

I rent an 1-bdrm apt in a small building (about 16-20 tenants) in Los Angeles, CA. It might be obvious if I am having a "guest" over every weekend I'm gone--or for longer trips (like 1-6 weeks traveling).

Would I need to get my landlord's permission? Or is it my right according to CA tenant law? Or somewhere in between?

Great video, but wasn't it fiendishly expensive to make? I assume that means Airbnb is doing well?

Great video - who made it?

Adam Lisagor collaborated with the Airbnb team to make this super cool vid.

Adam Lisagor (@lonelysandwich) - http://twitter.com/#!/lonelysandwich/status/2305705896208384...

how do they prevent renters from robbing the places?

awesome video!!! like, i kinda teared up at the end. really.

nice to see startups produce great videos about service themselves not involving 'creative' studios that would add boring marketing taste

This is going to sound so fan-boyish -- but I really respect what team Airbnb has done. Its so exciting to see them continue to kick so much ass and grow.

I second the Airbnb fanboyism!

and some for Venetia too!

BOING

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