Don’t Call It An “iWatch”

I no longer think about my Apple Watch, and that’s the genius of its design.  But does it live up to the hype?

This June I went all-in with wearables and gave the Apple Watch a try.  Since then I’ve fielded as many questions from strangers about it than my iPhone, back in 2007.

Actually, if anyone from Apple is reading; I’m pretty sure I sold a few, little something for the effort?  In a year full of cool new devices, Apple Watch is my favorite.

THE GOOD

I like my Apple Watch, it’s the first wearable I feel compelled to… um, wear, and all the time.  It’s light, modern, and swappable bands keep it fresh and right for every occasion: work, working out, out on the town, a band, a style for it all.   

My Top 5 Uses

Aside from telling the time (duh!) here’s how Apple Watch is now integrated into my life:

1. On time, with a haptic little nudge of reminders and calendar alerts, Apple Watch keeps me ahead of my schedule.

2. Healthy, Apple Watch tracks footsteps, heart beats, calories as I move through my day.  It nudges me after too much sitting (the new smoking) and actively tracks my workouts, except in the pool, although some have taken the plunge

3. Politely Informed, I check text messages, game scores (go Stanford!) without being rude, sneaking a quick glance, avoiding a glare from my wife, across the dinner table.  

4. Calls, driving, cycling, whatever, I take calls without missing a beat, the speaker is clear and even better with a bluetooth headset.  Also with a bluetooth headset, my Apple Watch is a stand-alone music source for playlists, no iPhone required.  

5. Payments, I’ve tried many and this is the best; double-click the side button, quick, easy, more secure than plastic, done.  Apple Pay is accepted by most of my usual spots, here’s a list of major stores  with smaller shops covered by the new Square NFC/chip reader. 

"Siri, directions to Michael Mina."

Honorable Mentions

1. Uber, order a car from the Apple Watch, very James Bond.

2. Directions, follow guided turn-by-turn directions, without your nose in the phone like a tourist.

OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVEMENT

As I said, Apple Watch is a strong first version and these are just #firstworldproblems.  

1. Longer Battery life, for a typical day, it’s fine, using about 50% battery after 10 hrs.   For long hikes and heavy usage it lasts just 6 hours, while not great, is still longer than my Garmin.  Also, I can’t track sleep if it must be charged every evening.  Full disclosure, two or three times, the battery didn’t make it past 3PM, no warning, bu-bye.  

2. No GPS, for accurate GPS, you still need to take along your iPhone, which is redundant.  awk. ward.  

3. Not Guaranteed Waterproof,  I want to track distance swam and until I have a guarantee, this Apple Watch is not getting wet.  

Seriously, I feel like the guy on a plane next to Louis C.K., complaining about weak WiFi, really?! we’ve conquered flight and he’s complaining because he can’t check Facebook?!   And poor me, my super watch isn’t waterproof with GPS and a 5 day battery life - extraordinary is the new ordinary.

FUTURE

This first gen Apple Watch is just the beginning, Apple is committed to wearables and making technology more seamless, organic.  Future iterations should support more untethered use cases, like GPS for cycling and built in camera for facetime, while moving towards even integrated with the iPhone and other devices, like direct connection to my Mac/iPad.   Someday, in the future, the Apple Watch may simply contain the entire OS, something like Her, without the safety pin.

BOTTOM LINE

The Apple Watch is an awesome product.  If you’re on the fence, go for it!  You won’t regret it.  The first gen iPhone sold 5 million in the first year; compared to the iPhone 6/s which sold 232 million in the most recent four quarters.  Sure there are some things like battery life and GPS which could be better, but don’t be afraid to take the plunge; not literally, until Apple confirms it’s waterproof.  

Does AirBnB Need A Lobby Boy?

It’s no secret AirBnB wants to go from managing one part of travel, the room, to the entire experience, but can they deliver?

While AirBnB’s main growth driver is booking their more than 2 million worldwide listings; expanding into additional services will help them keep customers they grab - both Guests and Hosts.  

This year my wife and I became AirBnB Hosts, so far it’s been great; but we’re still newbies, learning as we go.  Case in point, this summer while in Sardinia we tried an advanced move: back-to-back bookings of our home in SF, having to coordinate:

• check-out/key drop-off,
• house cleaning, restocking,
• welcome gifts,
• check-in/key pickup

all from six thousand miles away, no sweat? yeah, no!  

With beginner's luck, a diving save by our neighbors, it all worked out.  But the experience brought to light opportunities for improvement around core Host Use Cases.

We're obviously stressed.

Let’s take a closer look at how adding basic hospitality services can help AirBnB go beyond the room and enhance their offering, creating an unfair competitive advantage over hotels.       

HELP THE HOSTS

At the heart of the AirBnB experience are Hosts; without them, there are no rooms, no guests, no stays.  Airbnb will never be as consistent as hotels, but that’s the point, right?  there’s charm in a unique experience, not the same monotonous room in every city; all powered by their robust Host community.  While this works, there’s still room for improvement.  I’m not suggesting turndown service, yet, but let’s start with a few thoughtful and much needed tools to help Hosts, well, be better hosts.   

1. Check-in/Key Pickup

2. Cleaning/Restocking

3. Local Insights  

Check-in/Key Pickup

In the time between starting and posting this blog (it was a busy month) August Smart Locks announced integration with AirBnB, so now guests can receive an August Smart Lock code for dates of their stay.  If you don’t know, August adds a cover plate to your door’s deadbolt lock to control remote access and with AirBnB access the code guests receive is active for Check-in and expires upon Check-out.  This, is progress!  

AirBnB Message Center With Pillow and August Alerts

Clean & Restock

As my wife and I soon discovered, when it comes to AirBnB related stress, Cleaning & Restocking is top of mind.  This includes cleaning, fluffing pillows, replacing fresh towels and linens, restocking shampoos, welcome gifts.  It’s great AirBnB gives an option to add in a cleaning fee (ours is $100) but it would be even better to completely take this off our hands.  

AirBnB should offer tight integration with vacation rental services like Pillow (www.pillowhomes.com) so I can schedule cleaning & restocking services through the AirBnB app and then receive reminders and notifications related to these services.

Locals Rule!

Beyond the room, there’s the setting, the sense of place.  

Locals Map To Guide Guests

AirBnB offers guests to feel like a local; it’s touring without being a tourist.  

Along with our House Guidelines (my wife’s handy work) including our favorite local spots from restaurants to grocery stores, a list of “must” things to do in our neighborhood.    

The AirBnB app should allow Hosts to curate their Locals Map for guests to get acquainted with the area; local spots not in tourist maps or guidebooks.  The Locals Map should be situationally aware and two taps away for say an espresso macchiato emergency.

BOTTOM LINE

As AirBnB continues to disrupt the travel industry; hotel incumbents are not going down without a fight; AirBnB will have to answer by expanding further into the travel experience.  A great place to start, their core asset, Hosts and tools to empower them while being situationally aware and not getting in the way of the core experience.  Integration with August Locks is a great start, it’ll be interesting to see what’s next, as they try to go beyond the room.   

AirBnB, Regulators Mount Up!

With listings in over 34,000 cities throughout the world, AirBnB is on target to clear 80 million bookings this year, but will regulators soon run them out of town?  

Which side are you on?  don’t hate? or regulate?  The AirBnB backlash has come in three forms, we covered Trust and Safety in the previous blog, if you haven’t already, check it now and come back; here, we’ll dig into the third, Regulations, and later take a closer look at ways they can hold customers they grab and offer a more complete travel experience.   

 

REGULATIONS

If you haven’t heard, AirBnB has been the target of regulators... not these regulators... but city regulators wanting to reign in their disruption of the travel industry.  In my city, San Francisco, next month, we’re voting on a ballot measure attempting to add even more regulations on short term rentals.  But beyond SF, the crux of the issues center around:

1. Taxes - hotels cry foul and cities want their share

2. Dwelling Laws - who can rent what when?

3. Safety - who decides if an AirBnB room is unsafe?

While keeping focus on product, and not on politics, let’s take a closer look at ways the AirBnB Mobile App can address these issues.  Add your thoughts in the comments, it’s what we do here.

AirBnB Credits

Host Profile With AirBnB Credits

One way to relieve the Host’s tax burden is to not pay them.  Say what?  As a Host, I want the option to not accept payment.  AirBnB would still charge their fee to the Guest, but the Host’s portion would be converted - tax free - to AirBnB Credits, used at a later date, when the Host is a Guest.  Similar to airline or Amex reward miles, I could book my next AirBnB stay with AirBnB Credits.  I admit in advance, this may need more research into tax law, but it’s worth considering.  And this is AirBnB we’re talking about, so disrupt now, ask for forgiveness later.    

Charge Occupancy Tax

Hey here’s an idea: automate this already, com on!  At this time, AirBnB collects occupancy tax for just 18 cities throughout the world (and all of India).  If a city has hotel occupancy tax, AirBnB should pass it through to its guests; remove this from the conversation.  Because, eventually, the tax man cometh, ask Amazon.

Automate Regulations

Message Center, Regulated

If Google can map every street in the world, AirBnB can keep track of legal restrictions in all 34,000 of their cities.  At least start with major cities, like Paris, with over 60,000 AirBnB listings.  The AirBnB, self help, host community is nice, but not enough.  These rules must be built into the user experience, with logic to, say, prevent me from breaking the law. okay!  The stakes are high enough; since their Hosts hesitating to list would be a sea-change difficult for AirBnB to navigate.

Here’s some example rules for the San Francisco Law:

• Countdown timer for the 14 tax-free days per year

• Prevent the 91st rental day within each year

• DocuSign or other digital proof of landlord approval

These rules should guide the user experience with regulations related reminders in the Message Center.   I mean, you can be laissez-faire about this when you're a startup selling cereal, but if you want to be worth the $40 billion price tag, time to deal with these less fun issues.  

Safety Inspections

Listing Page With "Inspections" Section

To spruce up your online listing, AirBnB offers professional photographers - it’s a great service and it free!  AirBnB should offer the same for safety inspectors.  This option would give Guests and Hosts piece of mind and maybe reason to offer these listings at a premium.  Also, categories, like “childproofed” could be used to help parents filter listings.

BOTTOM LINE

AirBnB is an awesome service and the mobile app is clean, well designed.  But there’s an opportunity to carefully address regulators while instilling in Hosts a sense of confidence that they’re keeping up with short term rental regulations, improving their user experience.  Otherwise, fear, uncertainty, and doubt will creep in, causing Hosts to rethink listing and with them go AirBnB’s room inventory.