20150163

Sab Bueno

BSBA- Financial Management

Travel and Tours Management

Read the following Virgin Trains Case on Implementing a New Vision. Choose a firm in the
tourism/hospitality industry and look at its company vision. Critically evaluate which departments are
operating aligned with its vision. Is the company vision clearly cascaded to the employees? Is everyone
working toward the fulfillment of the said vision. Try to identify in which areas can you introduce changes
/ implement a new vision in order to yield improved business results.

It was just recently that I started to develop an interest with different hospitality, interior, and
architectural related series on Netflix. Some of which are Instant Hotel (Australian show), Stay Here
(American show), and The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes. This might be a bit of an exaggeration but
these shows had me wanting to learn more about these different industries so bad that I sacrifice my
sleep sometimes just to watch.

For Instant Hotel, which is mainly a hospitality show, I’ve learned that four things must be taken
into consideration: The House, Location and Attractions, Good Night’s Sleep, and Value for Money. They
taught me how critical it is to maintain an image for the guests. One of the Judges, Juliet Ashworth, who
is an award-winning hospitality expert and has been designing world-class luxury hotel and resorts for
over twenty years, was very insightful when it comes to the details and even the tiniest of things like white
must be the color of the beddings as much as possible because it screams cleanliness, the color palette
and themes of different rooms must be aligned, the space has to be enough for the guests, and that too
much of everything is an eyesore. This series was in partnership with Airbnb, a website where users can
find, list, and rent lodging. It is revolutionizing the lodging market by keeping hotel or home rates in check
and making additional rooms available in any country's hottest travel spots during peak periods when
hotel rooms often sell out and rates skyrocket. As I’ve personally experienced booking in AirBnB, I went
on to a realization that it has become a huge part in the tourism and hospitality industry of today.

AirBnB’s vision is “Belong Anywhere”. It has been building its culture through the sense of
belongingness. It has different locations in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France,
Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, India, Russian Federation, China, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Brazil,
Ireland, and Denmark. I’ve researched tons of news and stories about Airbnb and how it changes the
game. Its main departments are Marketing, Operations, HR, Engineering, Design, and Customer Support.
Each has a lot of small teams but with one global mission, namely: Agency Temp Work, Business
Development, Community Support, Data Science/Analytics, Design, Employee Experience, Engineering,
Experiences, Finance, Information Technology, Legal, Luxury Retreats, Marketing/Communications,
Operations, Product, Public Policy, Research, Samara, Trust, and Worldwide Sales Operations.
 I found an article stating Airbnb CEO and co-founder, Brian Chesky’s open letter. He wrote, "I
would say its purpose is to realize its vision. But even this is no longer enough. We must realize our vision
and ensure our vision is good for society." This is such a strong and powerful message from its CEO.
Cultivating empathy and understanding is part of belonging, and to that end, CEO Brian Chesky likes to
say that they started the company as hosts not as guests, and so he is encouraging all employees to be
hosts and helping them where they can to have that experience. Besides that, Airbnb’s Global Head of
Employee Experience, Mark levy said in an article from Culture Amp that Airbnb focused on starting with
its employees, and shifted them up the commitment curve, to the point now where it talks about how it
treats the employees like founders. The culture Airbnb has managed to create is underpinned by not only
its commitment to its mission and values, but also to its unrelenting belief in honest, two-way
communication: the rule of thumb is that nobody should hear about anything externally, until it has been
told internally.

But did everything they say reflected the same to the employees? According to Comparably,
67% of Airbnb employees are motivated because of its vision, mission, and values. For about 70% of the
employees, the company’s goals are clear and that they are invested in them. 25% of employees say that
the main reason they stay at Airbnb is because of the Airbnb company mission. Having all these said, it is
good to know that 100% of the employees are proud to be a part of the company. Comparably data clearly
shows that a focused mission statement and cohesive core company values are vital to maintaining
employee alignment.

Moreover, the employees gave Brian Chesky an overall rating of 77 out of 100. He received an
average score of 69 among female employees that is 12% lower than their male counterparts. When it’s
by department, the marketing rated the CEO the highest while the customer support rated the CEO the
lowest. There is also such thing as Culture Report Card. Work Culture is at 76 (B), CEO rating is at 77 (A),
Perks and Benefits is at 70 (B+), Executive Team Score is at 72 (B), Compensation score is at 65 (B-), and
Office Culture Score is at 68 (B). There is also racial diversity among the Airbnb employees.

All of the information I gathered, in all honesty, wasn’t so bad. Airbnb had its fair share of ups and
downs that resulted to the above statistics. Looking through the employee testimonies at Indeed, I noticed
that each employee has his/her own pros and cons list for the company. Some of the cons I’ve seen were:

1.) Unless you're good at sucking up to management, your hard work goes unnoticed and
unappreciated.
2.) It seems great in the beginning, but after 1 year I have had 6 different team managers.
This means everyone has different rules, and it’s impossible to build rapport with your
leaders.
3.) Almost too stressful sometimes, not good for people with anxiety
4.) Extreme hours
5.) Great company but as much as they preach a work-life balance, they do little to
nothing to give that as a real opportunity to have that balance. The company wants
you to participate in EVERYTHING giving no time for a real life outside of the company
6.) The entire experience was meh. Terrible leadership, very macho sexism, atleast in my
team. They push you along, no real training, and everyone is just vying time to get
someone else's job.
7.) Limited to no growth potential
 8.) Strong lack of work/life balance
9.) Highly inexperienced management
10.) Lightning fast pace/ Burnout Environment

Seeing these make me think that there is no such thing as a perfect company. And that one really
has to dig down to know what’s happening internally. What I can recommend to Airbnb basically is to
improve on employee-employer and employee-employee relationships. They can’t just let these slip away
because employees are stakeholders of Airbnb. Going back to the statistics, 30% of the employees said
that the company’s goals aren’t clear and they are not invested in them. Also, there was this question,
“To whom do you feel most loyal at work?” and a quarter of the employees said no one. Airbnb has to do
something with this and especially in their case that they’re diverse in culture. They have to take care not
just of the guests or hosts in their website but also the employees who make and give effort to keep
Airbnb running. They have to be transparent and vigilant to their employees’ concerns. Airbnb’s top
management must show TRUE humility, openness, purpose, care, and motivation. Airbnb’s vision must
not just stay as “Belong Anywhere” for its guests, but also “Belong anywhere” much more for its
employees. The true sense of belongingness must start within the four corners of Airbnb.

References:

https://www.comparably.com/companies/airbnb/mission

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2018/02/27/the-airbnb-effect-cheaper-
rooms-for-travelers-less-revenue-for-hotels/#2c85395d672f

https://mashable.com/2018/01/25/airbnb-open-letter-vision-facebook/

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Airbnb/reviews

https://careers.airbnb.com/

https://blog.cultureamp.com/how-airbnb-is-building-its-culture-through-belonging