Airbnb, a web site that lets people rent out their home or apartment by the night, has launched a Hospitality Lab to teach the hosts listed on their site the best practices for customer service, according to ABC News.
Airbnb is in 192 countries and in over 32 languages. They have decided to introduce hospitality standards to create a level of consistency across guest experiences, representatives for the company told ABC.
"With over 500,000 listings in over 35,000 cities around the world, we have a huge opportunity to connect people from different cultures together," Emily Joffrion, a representative for Airbnb, told ABC New. "But cultural differences can mean challenges in expectations.
"Through education, we hope to standardize elements of a stay that address universal basic needs, while continuing to encourage intensely local experiences," Joffrion continued.
The standards for listing accuracy are being established by Chip Conley, of Joie de vivre Hospitality. He will standardize the listing to provide accuracy, cleanliness and appropriate response time.
"I became a boutique hotelier because I wanted to shake up the conventional wisdom that - in order to offer quality - hospitality had to be conventional," Conley said in a statement. "Nearly 30 years later, Airbnb is now on the forefront of a new type of innovation built from the same components: meaningful host connections, great design and local experiences."
Conley's staff is based in Dublin and has begun coordinating workshops, webinars and hospitality tips to dispense to hosts as part of a pilot program. The lab focuses on nine hospitality standards. However, company representatives didn't name any beyond response time, listing accuracy and cleanliness.
Airbnb won't be supplying bed linens or personal toiletries to guests as some other vacation rental sites do, according to representatives from the company. Hosts are welcome to do so, however.
"We believe that with the right guidelines, these hospitality standards will become the norms that the community upholds without Airbnb involvement," Joffrion said.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
