Análise da necessidade e das demandas de plataformas de gestão para o controle de hospedagens no Airbnb

Abstract

The technology-linked growth observed in the tourism sector in the past years drove the creation of several mechanisms that seek to aid both the traveler and the professional of the field. The hospitality industry is profoundly affected by these innovations, and the major such example is Airbnb, which has had a strong presence in the short- and mid-term property leasing market since 2008. Along with the growth of the platform and that of its userbase, a new investment opportunity arose. The owners were introduced to the option to capitalize on their property without losing the possibility of making use of it. To ensure a good review from tourists and, as a consequence, better publicity in the application, professionals who are specialized in large-scale management of properties on Airbnb have appeared. These professional hosts make use of tools that help them control these properties. However, among the available platforms, there are only a few pieces of software that offer such services in the Brazilian market. In order to analyze the need for a management platform that meets the demands of these professionals, five online interviews were conducted with companies that manage properties on Airbnb. Regarding the dissemination of platforms of Airbnb property management, it is possible to conclude that the wide variety of software used by the companies shows that the market seeks such technologies besides there still not being an effective tool capable of centralizing and fully meeting the needs of these professionals. It is also worth noting that most such applications have not been planned specifically for the Airbnb property management workflow, which is among the reasons why professionals in this field resort to using several different tools to fill this gap in the market. As for the understanding of the host’s needs, it has been concluded that these platforms fall short of providing the users with the quality expected from the service in terms of functionality, interface, support, and other reported issues. Despite being faced with low-quality service, hosts end up choosing the same platforms. In regard to the perceived value in the platforms’ functionalities, it has been concluded that, although most interviewees have acknowledged the importance of these tools to their services, they all highlight problems or indicate possible improvements to the platforms. When questioned about the platform choice, it has been observed that it is tightly linked to the host’s country. With basis on the assessment of the market’s demand, the need for a platform for the administration of the managerial control of Airbnb hosting was analyzed, which led to the conclusion that it is highly likely that there is a deficiency in the supply of such software.