* Should AirBnB target business travelers or vacation travelers or both? Why?

I think AirBnB should target both business travelers and vacation travelers, but for the business travelers, AirBnB need to focus on those who attend big festivals or large conferences and trade fairs. Because the selling point of AirBnB is reasonable price and multiple options, those vacation travelers might have limited budget, AirBnB will be a good choice for them to save money and experience the local family culture at the same time. Otherwise, for those business travelers who need to attend big events/festivals/ trade fairs, the hotel rooms are usually limited and sold out quickly, or the hotel rooms might be far away from event locations, so AirBnB will be another way to help them find a space to stay. Therefore, I think AirBnB should focus on these two target markets.

* How could the AirBnB website (based on Exhibits 3 and 4) have been improved?

For the one on March 2008 (Exhibit 3) was want to target those who attend events, so the website was simply show people they offer a bed, breakfast and a host family for all attendees/travelers. The layout and design were simple but clear. Also it had some references form other sites to support that they are good options for attendees/travelers. Moreover it asked people to consider it as Craigslist, only for hotel rooms, it was good to show people how AirBnB works, but it was bad to make people connect AirBnB with Craigslist scams. The sits had a lot potential to be improved.

When it came to the one on August 2008 (Exhibit 4), the site changed to have a homepage slogan said “Stay with a local when traveling” and put a map with an attractive host family picture and listing price, which told the visitor their unique selling point is experiencing local life with a host while traveling. This improved users’ experience and might