An Analysis of Quality Management Issues at Airbnb: A Detailed Report

This report provides an executive summary and detailed analysis of quality management within Airbnb, a leading accommodation service. It begins by defining quality management and its importance, then explores the historical context of quality control. The main body of the report identifies a...Read More

Airbnb

Executive Summary
The role of quality manager is to ensure that all the services provided to customer are of
good and high quality. It is essential for all the companies to be provided with quality and good
services. Airbnb is one of the leading accommodation service that has started in California. This
company is used for considering the requirements and needs of customers for accommodation
service.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................4
Identify and describe the concept of quality management .........................................................4
Outline the problems being currently experienced by Airbnb....................................................8
Assess the impact of KPI in delivering consistent and effective quality management............10
RECOMMENDATIONS ..............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Quality management is defined as process that is used by organisations for sustaining in
market. Providing effective and good service to customers and clients is essential for building
competitive advantage. The quality management and continuous development as well as
improvement are essential part of any organisation (Altinay, Paraskevas and Jang, 2015).
Hospitality industry includes various services like reception and entertainment of guests, visitors,
strangers with good will. This business helps in making profits by doing business such as
cafeterias, canteens, commercial hotels, etc. The company which is used for analysing the
concept of quality management is Airbnb. This is an online marketplace that offers lodging
services, home stays or tourism experience. It was founded by by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia
in the year 2008. This company is named after the concept of it's owner i.e. Air bed and
Breakfast. There is discussion on quality management in Airbnb, problems faced by this
company and impact of KPI in delivering good and quality services.
MAIN BODY
Identify and describe the concept of quality management
Quality management is defined as the set of ideas and opinions in order to improvise the
services and products offered by any organisation. The main objective of having good quality
management is to satisfy customers and survive within market. The quality gurus or experts
plays significant role for expanding and transforming aspect of quality. One of the quality guru
named Deming has worked with statistical sampling for improving quality and introduced
variance concept. Dr. W. Edwards is one of the influential gurus of quality management in US as
well as Japan. The concept of quality management is visual perception process which is related
to different activities and tasks that are done within the company. The manager of Airbnb
focuses on providing superior quality products to its customer in order to satisfy them. The
purpose is to provide high quality goods for survival in the marketplace. The supervisor
emphasised on making an effective strategies, plan and policies for satisfying the wants of
consumer in an suitable manner. Also this helps company in accelerating the productivity and
profitability of business organisation (Dredge, Airey and Gross, 2015). It is essential for
company to provide good quality products to its customer in order to increasing competitive

advantages over rival firms. Quality management plays a very important role for future success
and development of the business organisation.
History of Quality
The concept of quality management was first found in early 1920s with the introduction
to the statistical theory that is applied to product quality control. The concept of quality has
developed in 1940s by some Americans like Deming, Feigenbaum and Juran. Earlier, the focus
is on quality of products but now quality also includes different issues of the organisation.
Inspection
This consists of measuring, examining,
processing and servicing against specified
requirements for determining conformity.
Within the production process of any
organisation, use of inspection is must.
Fredrick W Taylor focused on satisfying the
needs of customers. Inspection plays an
essential role in today's world for doing
practices.
Quality control and Statistical Theory
This includes detection and fixing of problems
and production line for preventing the issues of
faulty products. The statistical quality control
emphasises on product and detection of quality
products.
Total Quality
This term – total quality was used in paper of
Feigenbaum at the first international
conference on quality control (Evans, 2015).
This means company is having good quality
control which includes employees of top
management, workers and quality control.
This is defined as process in which major focus

Total Quality management is on providing good service to the customers
by improving production process.

Different phases of quality control
Quality control: According to this step, various processes are examined such as testing,
examining, measuring as well as verifying quality of project. It is ensured that they are given
service according to the expectation of stakeholder. The main thing is to control the quality of
service provided to customers (Lundberg, and et. al., 2017). The managers of Airbnb focuses on
providing good and standard accommodation service.
Quality Assurance : This step explains that supervisor is emphasised on conducting
project life cycle. This includes verifying work performance and providing satisfaction to the
stakeholders about tourism and accommodation services. In context of Airbnb, it is ensured that
there are various activities like cleaning, washing, clean bedding and working equipments. All
this is needed for maintaining the quality of service provided by this accommodation and lodging
service.
Total Quality Control: From this step, it is concluded that the controlling of quality
service is also essential. This means that all services like home stay, accommodation, cleaning,
etc. is done properly. It is ensured in Airbnb that all the services are controlled in effective
manner. The services offered by this organisation must focus mainly on security and safety of the
customers.

Total Quality Management : This is defined as development of quality of the present
process used by the company in providing service or product (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez,
2018). TQM is basically market oriented and consumer led because the process starts with the
buyer itself. The different phases which are considered in TQM are planning, realising,
evaluating, achieving and improving quality. In reference to Airbnb, it is concluded that there is
need for managing all the services provided in effective manner so that quality of the service do
not deteriorate.
Outline the problems being currently experienced by Airbnb
There are a lot of problems, issues and challenges faced by Airbnb and these have
negative affect on brand image. Some of the challenges of Airbnb quality managers are
mentioned below -
 Airbnb is facing problem of cancellation of booking of millions of people at last time.
Due to this, foreign customers are badly affected. According to the legal regulation of
America, it is not allowed for any person to provide accommodation and lodging service
at homes especially to foreign people. The cancellation of booking resulted in decline of
sales.
 The other major problem faced by Airbnb is data scam. A case happened in this
organisation where data of different customers who stayed in Airbnb was hacked. There
was problem as customer's personal information and account information got hacked.
The website of Airbnb was hacked and money was sent to hacked accounts (Ouyang,
Gursoy and Sharma, 2017). This created development of negative image in front of
customers.
 Other problem faced by Airbnb organisation is legal issues. There are some properties of
Airbnb which are lot legal. This created problem to customers who are staying at rented
rooms and apartments. It must be ensured by Airbnb management that all the properties
which are offering accommodation service have legal rights.
Reliability This is known as ability of a company to
provide effective services to clients and
customers. In reference to Airbnb, customers
are having trust and loyalty issues as more

than million of bookings were cancelled.
Responsiveness This is defined as willingness and ability of the
company for giving quick response to the
customers. This develops negative impact on
the clients and customers. In context of Airbnb,
it is concluded that this organisation is facing
lot of problem in building the image and
reputation again.
Assurance According to this term, there is willingness of
employees and staff for developing loyalty and
trust among customers (Prebensen, Chen and
Uysal, 2018). They must provide good service
to people so that trust can be build among
clients. An employee has power to offer
quality service to customers. Airbnb is unable
to increase the quality of service offered. Thus,
there is need of providing effective training
and development sessions so that their service
will improve. Trainings will help in enhancing
skills and knowledge of staff about providing
quality services.
Empathy According to this step, it is concluded that
employees must provide effective care to
customers and clients so that a good relation is
developed among customers and managers. In
context of Airbnb, it is seen that this company
has to do put lot of efforts to improve relation
with customers.
Tangibles This consists of services offered by an
organisation and these are tangible in nature

(Raj, Walters and Rashid, 2017). These
includes physical facilities, ambience,
employees, communication medium, etc.
Airbnb provides accommodation service and
clean, tidy rooms for people to stay.
Airbnb can sustain in market and provide quality services by using a technique i.e. Key
performance indicators. It is essential for hospitality organisations to use KPI's for measuring
effectiveness of business. KPI's are necessary as they can support business for making better
decisions and maximising profits.
Assess the impact of KPI in delivering consistent and effective quality management
KPI: This is defined as the way of measuring d evaluating performance of the company.
This technique is used for enhancing the way in which business organisations can maximise their
profits and money (Robinson and et. al., 2016). The KPI is used within Airbnb for increasing
sales of the company and building trust and loyalty within customers. This company is using KPI
approach for improvising services offered. KPI indicates the success of a company or activity.
There is a proper set of values which are measured for improving the performance of company.
It is ensured that all the activities and tasks are made strategically and they help in achieving
organisational goals in specified time frame. The Airbnb is providing accommodation and
lodging services across the world. But, this company is unable to build trust and loyalty among
customers. This is the reason of this company's failure. The advantages and disadvantages of Key
Performance Indicators are defined below:
Advantages of KPI:
Measurable Results: KPI provides an advantage for measuring the performance and sales
of company. This gives proper evaluation and results of company's performance in the form of
numeric terms. Airbnb is benefited by tracking and measuring progress of the company.
Future Plan of action: By using this technique, companies have advantage of modifying
and formulating effective strategies that will help for better performance (Smit and Melissen,
2018). By using the KPI technique, it is easy to measure present performance of the company
and formulate strategies that will provide help in enhancing growth and profit in business. KPI is

used by managers of Airbnb for analysing the ways by which performance and productivity of
the company will be enhanced.
Rewards & Benefits: This includes providing rewards and benefits to employees whoa re
working extra ordinarily and developing new and innovative ideas for profit maximisation. This
includes assisting employees for tracking and measuring the efficiency level for making
improvements in business. Different executives sitting at top of the organisation have to make
employees of lower and middle level to work according to proper guidance and plan
(Theodorakis, Kaplanidou and Karabaxoglou, 2015). The distribution of rewards and money is
helpful to motivate staff to do effective work and achieve organisational goals.
Disadvantages of KPI:
Short-term focused: This technique is useful for organisations in order to attain
organisational goals in specified time frame. KPI provides information and strategies that are
related to short term planning and growth of the company. It is ensured that KPI must be
developed so that long term goals are developed using the technique of KPI.
Decline in Quality: Key Performance Indicators are focusing on short term aims and
objectives. This creates decline in the quality in which work is done. Employees are not able to
perform well within the company. In reference to Airbnb, KPI is used for making proper
strategies and plans for the company and improving employee performance. The technique of
KPI is helpful in achieving financial goals. On the other hand, this affects negatively the
authenticity and quality of service.
Standardization: KPI is a result oriented technique and this minimises innovative thinking
and creativity of employees and staff. Airbnb was using traditional way of working. This is the
reason for it's failure. Thus, it is suggested that this company must innovate the services it is
offering in order to increase number of loyal customers. Also, it is important for Airbnb to
improve the quality of services it is offering (Wise and Harris, 2017). The main factors on which
service quality of Airbnb depends are cleanliness, security and safety. This company must use
various new and innovative techniques like camera security, safe lockers, automated locks,
digital locks, etc. All these services are helpful for maximising the customer engagement and
trust.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Airbnb must focus upon providing five star services to customers. This company has to
provide happiness to customers and occupancy rates reflects the efforts. Airbnb has lot of
attractive properties and main challenge is to make these properties crowded. From the above
discussion, there are some recommendations made for improving the quality offered by Airbnb.
These are mentioned below -
Welcome Packs – The managers must analyse expectations and needs of guests and
ensure that services are delivered within time. The managers must provide information about the
property as well as local area to the customers and make the stay of customers enjoyable. Some
necessary services that have to be improved are Wifi facility, kitchen equipments, etc. The
welcome pack can include city guide for customers who have come from different countries.
Complimentary amenities – Airbnb can add value and convenience to customer service
by providing some free services like bathroom essentials and toiletries. As other standard hotels
provide kits for bathroom, Airbnb must also provide this service. The host can offer few kitchen
goods that are essential such as coffee, milk, tea, sugar, biscuits, cookies, fresh fruits, bread
butter, etc. This has good impact on customers.
Entertainment – The property of Airbnb can provide few additional services like games,
books, magazines. The host can also provide access to digital streaming platform like Netflix or
Amazon Prime. Such few additional services will improve quality of service offered by Airbnb.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is concluded that quality management is most essential for
any hospitality organisation as this will help in sustaining in market for long period. If good
services are provided to clients and customers, they will promote the service of hotel to others. In
this way, any lodging and accommodations service can increase the number of customers taking
service of the organisation. Different benchmarks are set by organisations to improve their
quality as per the set targets. There must be improvement in food, services, greeting, staff
gesture, etc. for increasing the customer perception towards organisation.

References
Books & Journals
Altinay, L., Paraskevas, A. and Jang, S. S., 2015. Planning research in hospitality and tourism.
Routledge.
Dredge, D., Airey, D. and Gross, M. J. eds., 2015. The Routledge handbook of tourism and
hospitality education. London: Routledge.
Evans, N., 2015. Strategic management for tourism, hospitality and events. Routledge.
Lundberg, E., and et. al., 2017. The value of events. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Ouyang, Z., Gursoy, D. and Sharma, B., 2017. Role of trust, emotions and event attachment on
residents' attitudes toward tourism. Tourism Management, 63, pp.426-438.
Prebensen, N .K., Chen, J. S. and Uysal, M. eds., 2018. Creating experience value in tourism.
Cabi.
Raj, R., Walters, P. and Rashid, T., 2017. Events management: principles and practice. Sage.
Robinson, P., and et. al., 2016. Operations management in the travel industry. Cabi.
Smit, B. and Melissen, F., 2018. Sustainable customer experience design: co-creating
experiences in events, tourism and hospitality. Routledge.
Theodorakis, N. D., Kaplanidou, K. and Karabaxoglou, I., 2015. Effect of event service quality
and satisfaction on happiness among runners of a recurring sport event. Leisure
Sciences. 37(1). pp.87-107.
Wise, N. A. and Harris, J. eds., 2017. Sport, events, tourism and regeneration. London:
Routledge.