Rosie Spinks, It’s getting harder to see where the hotel industry ends and Airbnb begins, Quartz, April 26, 2018
Morphing to Mega
Meanwhile, both Accor Hotels—which owns Airbnb’s luxury competitor OneFineStay—and Hyatt have also made moves in the private accommodation market previously. And Booking.com recently announced that it had 5 million “alternative accommodation” listings on its platform—a number which currently outnumbers Airbnb’s amount of apartments and homes available for rent.
All of which is to say: If you can book hotel rooms on Airbnb and book a home share via Booking.com or a major hotel brand, is the accommodation industry just turning into one big mega-offering? At Skift Forum Europe in Berlin on Thursday, Skift’s hospitality editor Deanna Ting asked Airbnb’s managing director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa for his view on these new entrants into the private accommodation space.
Through the WI lens
In the Travel & Tourism industry, everybody knows that Airbnb has become a dominant industry player, encroaching on hotels’ business. Fewer understand that the same phenomenon is happening, but in reverse, with some major hotel groups. Today, Marriott and Accor are encroaching on the business that traditionally belongs to Airbnb by entering the home share market, thus becoming competitors of the platform in the private accommodation space. As product offerings tend to evolve towards a form that is less and less differentiated, the competition between hotel chains and digital platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com will increase. The traditional large hotel companies that don’t pick up on the trend will progressively fade into extinction.
Pluses (and minuses) Of Positive Thinking
What this article goes on to explain is how positive thinking – described here as ‘thriving’ – can counter the effects that come from the negativity outlined above, from reduced memory to diminished performance. Based on studying people in a series of organisations in different industries, one of the authors has found that people who attain this state are more resilient, experience less burnout, and are more confident in their ability to take control of a situation
Working With Nature
“Behind the jargon what this is really about is how we address the challenge of biodiversity under threat, move away from fossil materials like plastic and concrete, and use nature in a sustainable way, all of which could be summed up by “living in harmony with nature”.”
Resetting Company Culture
“In the new ‘consensual contract’ between employer and worker, what’s required is a commitment from the employer to safeguard the wellbeing of their people, and a commitment in return from employees to take personal responsibility for their performance of their job.”
Countering Loneliness
“Could loneliness not only be damaging our mental and physical health but also be making the world a more aggressive, angry place? And if so, what are the implications for a cohesive society and democracy?”
Staking The Moral High Street
“On such fragile foundations are built the first steps towards a more ethical kind of business, and who knows what virtuous circles might result?”
Breathe Easy
“Scientific evidence recently emerged that, contrary to earlier beliefs, Covid-19 can be spread by tiny droplets that we breathe out when we respire, called aerosols.”
Why Obesity Needs Weighty Solutions
“Economic wellbeing is part of the story, but it is also about finding less stressful lifestyles, in which healthy diet figures as a meaningful measure of success.”
Pulling Together Out Of Lockdown
“The industry has every asset needed to be a guiding light in the shift toward personal health priority. Will that become a prevention legacy, a ‘phoenix rising’ from the Covid-19 ashes?”
Opening The Right Doors
“Looking at the bigger picture, putting the measures in this order represents a lost opportunity that the pandemic could have offered for a cultural pivot pivot towards getting people more focused on their health, a powerful statement of intent.”
Home (working) Truths
“Employment is necessary to fulfil our most basic human needs such as food and shelter. Any significant increase in long-term unemployment will spell a retrograde step for human wellbeing like no other.”