I think this (experiential vs bland) and parent (urban vs rural) are huge components of the AirBnB experience.
Generally speaking, most people prefer bed and breakfast experiences at their best:
- Interesting home
- Home furnishings / kitchen
- Optional home cooked meals
- Local recommendations
- In a residential community
However, there are only so many of those. Especially in urban areas, where an efficient supply of hotels already existed.
Far fewer actual bed and breakfasts than AirBnB needs, once it went public.
Consequently, it pulled an eBay/Amazon/Etsy and lowered its standards to increase volume to drive revenue.
And in doing so, diluted and devalued their own product, because the worst experiences are synonymous with the best.
What AirBnB should have done was recognize that they want to provide fundamentally different things:
{Boutique bed and breakfast experiences} that meet strict standards but have lower volume (especially in urban areas)
{Bland housing} that meets minimum standards but has higher volume
Not doing so was an egregious marketing and product design failure on their part.
