User Stories for Airbnb Long Stays
For those who may not be familiar with Airbnb, it’s an app that allows for hosts to share their more homey space with travelers or vacationers.
This is also the perfect type of rental agreement for those who may need to live in more than one country throughout the year. Hotels and longer rentals are difficult to book with when it comes to anything longer than a couple weeks and anything shorter than 6 months.
At the moment Airbnb does not have a built in system other than a price change that occurs when someone searches with dates beyond 28 consecutive days. However, I’ve found this to be insufficient in catering to this kind of user.
The User Story:
Below you’ll find the user journey of Lauren, the user who wants to visit her mother for 28+ days in Lisbon.
Take a closer look at the user journey for “Airbnb Experiences”
In order to understand the hierarchical tasks required for Airbnb Experiences, I went through the booking process myself. I thought this would be important since often times users may feel like they don’t know what to put into the search function.
I think that the ability to discover the experiences that Airbnb hosts beyond just search and filter provides a better overall digital experience. I also want to note that my hierarchical task diagram primarily focused on the booking process for someone looking to enroll in an Airbnb experience rather than a host looking to book attendees. It’s important to keep these two diagrams separate since the user will be fairly different for each.
The long stay user and their needs
I will focus on this design from the perspective of the user that books rather than the host for this project. The user in focus will be:
Those who would like to book long-term airbnbs (i.e. 1-3 months)
Users who may want to specifically book with hosts that don’t live in the home they’re renting out
Someone who wants to rent from a host who is comfortable renting out for longer periods of time
Someone looking for places that have sufficient amenities for long-term bookings: Washing machine, pet friendly, full kitchen
Ultimately, the user will be looking for a series of search parameters that exist within Airbnb but require more work/research to find.