Airbnb Product Manager Mock Interview: Increase Airbnb Bookings

SUMMARY

Phil Ou, a Google Product Manager, demonstrates a mock Airbnb strategy interview, outlining ways to boost bookings by targeting low-intent leisure travelers through inspiration and exploration features, emphasizing authentic travel experiences.

STATEMENTS

Airbnb's core value lies in providing unique, authentic travel experiences that immerse users in local cultures, differentiating it from generic hotel chains.
Success in increasing bookings should align with Airbnb's mission of enabling authentic travel, avoiding value-destructive tactics like spamming notifications or unsustainable price cuts.
The north star metric for success is increasing the number of nights stayed per user per year, reflecting how often Airbnb becomes the top-of-mind choice for travel.
Travel is inherently seasonal with natural plateaus, making it unrealistic to expect users to book drastically more nights annually without changing fundamental behaviors.
User segmentation should consider dimensions like business versus leisure travel and high-intent (actively booking) versus low-intent (not currently planning) travelers.
Business travelers prioritize convenience and existing corporate partnerships with hotels, making them a poor fit for Airbnb's authenticity-focused model.
High-intent leisure travelers face pain points in price, location, supply, discovery, and booking friction, areas where Airbnb is already investing heavily.
Low-intent travelers represent an opportunity because they eventually become high-intent, and solving their current pain points can make Airbnb top-of-mind later.
Airbnb currently functions as an ad-hoc booking tool, but shifting toward a destination for inspiration could increase engagement without forcing immediate bookings.
A key hypothesis is that more frequent visits to Airbnb for browsing correlate with higher future bookings, which should be validated with data before major investments.
Potential features include redesigning listings to highlight host stories, encouraging user-generated content, or enriching the wishlist for personalized inspiration.
Prioritizing the wishlist expansion as a Pinterest-like experience allows experimentation on a non-dominant user journey without disrupting core booking flows.
The MVP for testing should start small, such as a newsletter to inactive users showcasing unique experiences, to measure engagement and correlation to bookings.
Launch strategy involves monitoring post-newsletter behavior, like searches or wishlisting, to guide further investments in exploratory features.
Feedback highlights the importance of structured thinking, handling pushback gracefully, and demonstrating principal thinking over being "right" in interviews.
Strategy questions test conversational skills and adaptability, treating the interview as a colleague discussion rather than a quest for perfection.
High energy and enjoyment during interviews can make the experience positive for interviewers, who face heavy workloads.

IDEAS

Reframing bookings growth not as absolute numbers but as making Airbnb the default choice for authentic travel during users' limited annual trips.
Segmenting users by intent level reveals low-intent travelers as a latent opportunity, since external factors like salary increases or post-COVID recovery inevitably trigger their planning.
Airbnb's evolution from couch-surfing origins underscores its strength in cultural immersion, which could extend to pre-trip inspiration to build brand loyalty.
Turning Airbnb into a "destination" app for browsing and learning about places shifts it from transactional to relational, fostering habitual engagement.
Validating hypotheses with correlational data—e.g., visit frequency versus future bookings—grounds ambitious strategies in evidence before scaling.
Enriching wishlists into immersive, personalized boards mimics successful discovery platforms like Pinterest, tailored to travel without relying on user-generated content.
Newsletters as an MVP low-cost test can reveal user preferences for exploration, using existing infrastructure to highlight unique listings proactively.
Ruling out business travel avoids strategic risks like onboarding new supply types, preserving focus on leisure where Airbnb's authenticity shines.
Low-intent personas, like those with vague New Year's travel resolutions, seek non-generic inspiration, positioning Airbnb as a one-stop hub over scattered blogs.
Exploratory UI changes, such as immersive scrolling feeds of destinations, create a dual-app experience: one for booking, one for dreaming.
Prioritization balances expected impact on nights stayed with development costs, favoring extensions of existing features like wishlists for quick wins.
Macro events influence intent shifts, but Airbnb can control top-of-mind status by solving inspiration pain points unrelated to immediate travel triggers.
Interview success stems from fun, energetic dialogue that showcases adaptability, turning the session into an enjoyable collaboration for the interviewer.

INSIGHTS

Authentic experiences define Airbnb's edge, so strategies must enhance immersion pre-booking to convert passive browsers into loyal bookers without diluting core value.
Low-intent targeting sidesteps saturated high-intent markets, leveraging inevitability of travel triggers to build habitual engagement through inspiration.
Data-driven hypothesis testing, like correlating visits to bookings, prevents wasteful investments, ensuring strategies evolve from validated user behaviors.
Dual-mode apps—transactional for now, inspirational for later—can transform ad-hoc tools into ecosystems, increasing lifetime value per user.
Segmentation by intent over demographics uncovers hidden opportunities, as low-intent users represent untapped volume in a seasonal industry.
MVPs like newsletters minimize risk in pivoting toward content-like features, using engagement signals to refine exploratory experiences iteratively.
Prioritizing non-disruptive extensions, such as wishlist enhancements, allows bold experimentation while safeguarding the primary booking journey.
Business travel's incompatibility highlights the wisdom of niche focus, avoiding dilution of authenticity that could erode Airbnb's unique positioning.
Principal thinking in interviews—adapting to feedback and maintaining energy—matters more than flawless answers, mirroring real PM collaboration.
Travel's natural limits demand realistic metrics like nights per year, reframing growth as share of wallet rather than infinite expansion.
User-generated content risks FOMO-driven distractions, but curated, host-focused stories align better with ethos, fostering genuine connections.

QUOTES

"The unique value Airbnb provides is that it's the best possible way to experience travel that's unique and authentic to the destination you're going to."
"What we really want to accomplish is that whenever someone wants to travel, hopefully Airbnb is more frequently the service that's top of mind for them."
"Our north star should really be in a given year how many nights is someone staying on Airbnb."
"The premise of this entire strategy is predicated on a belief that if people visit Airbnb more frequently just to browse... then when it does come time for them to travel they'll book with us more often."
"Instead of just being an ad hoc tool, it's more of a destination maybe a place you can learn more about different areas maybe a place where you find travel inspiration."
"They're not looking for you to be quote unquote right in the 45 minutes you have they want to know like is this someone that's a principal thinker can they get feedback."
"Try to have fun with it too because... do as much as you can be high energy and make that 45 minutes enjoyable for them."

HABITS

Structure responses with clear signposting, like four-step frameworks, to organize thoughts and guide the conversation logically.
Ask clarifying questions upfront about role scope, user segments, and constraints to align on assumptions before diving in.
Pause for reflection when needed, such as thinking through segmentation, to ensure thoughtful, non-rushed analysis.
Handle pushback gracefully by acknowledging feedback and adjusting reasoning, demonstrating adaptability in real-time.
Maintain high energy and enthusiasm during discussions, treating interviews as enjoyable collaborations to engage interviewers.
Validate ideas with data hypotheses early, like correlating behaviors, to ground creativity in evidence-based decision-making.

FACTS

Airbnb originated from the concept of crashing on couches in private homes, emphasizing cultural immersion over hotel convenience.
Travel typically occurs three to four times per year per person, with stays totaling 10 to 14 nights annually on platforms like Airbnb.
Business travelers often prioritize hotel chains for points, status, and services like room service, tied to employer partnerships.
Android Messages, as a pre-installed app, reaches nearly every Android device, focusing on enhancing conversational connections.
Exponent's platform has helped users land roles at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and startups, with courses licensed by Stanford and Yale.
Strategy interviews test principal thinking and feedback responsiveness more than perfect answers, lasting about 45 minutes.

REFERENCES

Airbnb's mission statement on authentic travel experiences.
YouTube TV's advertising platform (Phil's prior project).
Android Messages app for texting and connection features.
Pinterest as a model for personalized, visual discovery boards.
Google, Kayak, Expedia as starting points for high-intent searches.
Super Hosts designation on Airbnb for highlighting quality listings.
Exponent's PM interview course and YouTube playlist for mock interviews.
Newsletters and email outreach infrastructure at Airbnb.

HOW TO APPLY

Define success by aligning with core mission: Start by articulating Airbnb's unique value in authentic travel, then set a north star metric like nights stayed per user annually to guide all tactics.
Segment users thoughtfully: Categorize by leisure vs. business and high- vs. low-intent, prioritizing low-intent leisure travelers for their conversion potential while ruling out mismatched segments like business.
Brainstorm hypotheses: Generate ideas like host stories, user content, or wishlist enhancements, then prioritize based on impact to bookings and implementation cost, favoring low-risk extensions.
Test with an MVP: Launch a simple newsletter to inactive users showcasing unique experiences, tracking clicks, navigation, and wishlisting to validate engagement correlations.
Monitor and iterate: Analyze post-engagement behaviors, such as searches or bookings, to refine features like immersive exploration pages, ensuring data drives scaling decisions.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Boost Airbnb bookings by inspiring low-intent travelers through exploratory features that make authentic experiences top-of-mind.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Target low-intent leisure users with inspiration tools to build habitual engagement, increasing future bookings without competing in saturated high-intent markets.
Validate strategies via data correlations, like visit frequency to bookings, before committing resources to avoid macro-dependent risks.
Extend existing features like wishlists into Pinterest-style boards for immersive browsing, minimizing disruption to core booking flows.
Start with low-cost MVPs such as targeted newsletters to test exploration appeal and user navigation patterns.
Focus on curated host stories over user-generated content to preserve authenticity and avoid FOMO pitfalls.
Segment rigorously, excluding business travel to concentrate on leisure where Airbnb's immersion strengths yield highest ROI.
In interviews, prioritize structured thinking, feedback adaptation, and high energy to demonstrate collaborative PM skills.
Reframe metrics around realistic travel patterns, emphasizing share of annual nights over absolute volume growth.

MEMO

In a simulated Airbnb product strategy interview, Phil Ou, a Google PM specializing in Android Messages, tackles the challenge of increasing bookings with a focus on preserving the platform's ethos of authentic, immersive travel. Rather than pursuing short-term tactics like price slashing or aggressive notifications—which could erode user trust—Ou reframes success around making Airbnb the instinctive choice for travelers' limited annual trips. He defines a north star metric: boosting nights stayed per user per year, acknowledging travel's seasonal nature caps realistic growth at 10-14 nights for most.

Ou segments users along key dimensions: leisure versus business travel, and high-intent (actively booking) versus low-intent (passively considering future trips). He dismisses business travelers, who favor hotel chains for convenience and corporate perks, as a risky pivot requiring new supply without aligning to Airbnb's cultural immersion roots. High-intent leisure users already engage via searches on Google or Expedia, where Airbnb competes on price and discovery but leads in unique local listings. The real opportunity, Ou argues, lies with low-intent users—those with vague aspirations like New Year's travel resolutions—who lack inspiration for non-generic itineraries and scatter across blogs for ideas.

To capture this group, Ou proposes evolving Airbnb from an ad-hoc booking tool into a dual-purpose destination: one side for transactions, the other for exploration and dreaming. He brainstorms features like spotlighting superhost stories to humanize listings, prompting trip photos for social proof (though he flags FOMO risks), or transforming wishlists into personalized, Pinterest-like boards of destinations and activities. Prioritizing the wishlist for its low-disruption potential, Ou envisions an "Explore" tab with immersive scrolls of stunning locales, fostering frequent visits that correlate to later bookings—a hypothesis to test first with internal data.

For rollout, Ou advocates a scoped MVP: a newsletter to lapsed users highlighting curated unique experiences, leveraging existing email systems with minimal engineering. Success hinges on metrics like click-throughs, subsequent searches, and wishlisting, revealing if proactive inspiration drives engagement. If validated, this scales to richer UI, turning passive browsers into active bookers by embedding Airbnb in their travel mindset. Interviewer Kevin Way praises Ou's structured approach, graceful handling of pushback, and personal twist—despite not being a frequent traveler—emphasizing that strategy questions reward principal thinking and energetic dialogue over flawless solutions.

Ultimately, Ou's vision positions Airbnb as a holistic travel companion, not just a marketplace, potentially lifting bookings by inspiring the 80% of time users aren't planning trips. This thoughtful pivot, grounded in mission alignment and iterative testing, exemplifies how PMs can innovate within constraints, offering actionable lessons for aspiring leaders in tech's evolving landscape.