Online short rent: China has no airbnb! is the best mode for the Business-to-consumer?

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Source: I black Horse author: Wang Yu Wang Zesen

"I Black Horse Guide" Airbnb hot online short rent, but China does not have to transplant its soil, the local "Airbnb" What is the president?

Just entered the 2013, short rental industry suddenly lively up. First ants short rent, pig short rent, respectively, received nearly tens of millions of dollars of financing. In early February, the network also announced the completion of two rounds of financing, the total amounted to 400 million yuan. Is the spring of the online short rent coming?

In fact, under the line, the demand for short rental housing has been there, the most typical of the hospital, the school surrounding a large number of short rental, but the internet of short rent exploration has been slow. I love my family has launched in 2005, "Short Rental house" business, but has not been done scale. During the 2008 Olympic Games, the demand for short-term rents in Beijing was high, but as the games closed, demand calmed down and failed to promote the industry of short leases.

The domestic short rent start Year is 2011 years. This year, Love day rent, ants short rent, travel the world, passers-by and other short-term rental sites are on the line, respectively, to deal with the city short rent, travel short rent and other types of demand. The market's total plate has also grown rapidly since 2011.

Although the short term rental market has just begun, the battle of the routes has emerged. One is the ant short rent as the representative of the Consumer-to-consumer model, this model to build online platform for tenants and landlords to communicate directly, because the comparison of grassroots, also known as the rental industry, "Taobao." The second is a pedestrian network for the representative of the business model, this model for tourism to do house hosting, that is, from leasing, trading, to the line of property management, by the passers-by in escrow, walking is the high-end commercial routes. In fact, in addition to the pedestrian network, most of the online short rental companies are Consumer-to-consumer mode. According to the data released by Eric, the current Consumer-to-consumer model occupies most of the market share.

But will the short-term rental market in the future be dominated by the Consumer-to-consumer model? Will the business model have a chance to turn over and become the mainstream of the short rental market?

Airbnb has spawned a short online lease

To answer the above questions, you must first understand the birth process of online short rent.

The originator of the online short rent is the Airbnb of America. Founded in 2008, the website is dedicated to moving online short term rental business online. At present, Airbnb business in 167 countries, nearly 8,000 cities, known as the housing leasing industry, ebay. Last July, Airbnb announced the completion of a second round of financing. Recently, Airbnb completed a new round of financing, the company's valuation reached 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. At present, Airbnb's business is still developing rapidly.

The birth of Airbnb was a mere coincidence. His founder, Chesky, was embarrassed when he arrived in San Francisco and couldn't afford to pay the rent. There happened to be a design convention in the vicinity, and the surrounding hotels were almost full. Chesky Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb, had three beds, and they had a whim: they could rent the beds if they rented them out. So they set up a website within 72 hours and eventually recruited three customers.

After this, Chesky that it is possible to book someone else's house like a hotel reservation. Now the Airbnb is from this idea development.

See here, you must have understood that Airbnb is Consumer-to-consumer mode. It connects tenants and landlords through a network platform and then collects commissions from completed transactions. In 2011, Airbnb's income amounted to 500 million dollars.

China has no Airbnb

Everything seemed perfect, but Airbnb encountered some problems in other countries when he entered China. Where is the reason?

The biggest problem is honesty. Hanyan, executive director of Speed of Light, said to the entrepreneur, "foreign consumer-to-consumer online short-term and identity-proof web sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and contacts with real landlords, experience is good." ”

However, Chinese people often distrust each other. A recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows that about 70% of Chinese people distrust strangers. It's a challenge to make them choose to live in a stranger's home.

In addition, the domestic consumer-to-consumer short-term rental sites, a considerable part of the housing from the real estate intermediary. While this can increase revenue, it is actually repeating the mistakes Airbnb have made.

In the summer of 2009, Airbnb began to focus on real estate intermediary users and even developed tools specifically for them. But Chesky personally experienced that the room provided by the housing agency is like a hotel, there is no feeling of home, and the individual tenant usually interacts with the tenant, this social will bring the tenant different experience. He rented a couple's room in Paris and the couple took him on a tour of the city. Since then, Chesky that individual tenants are the Airbnb of the most concern, not the real estate intermediary.

But put Chesky's conclusion to China, there will be a paradox: in order to increase the availability, Consumer-to-consumer short-term rental web site can not abandon the intermediary, and the intermediary will reduce the user experience. "Consumer-to-consumer mode, although the price is very cheap, but you contact in addition to the landlord and intermediary, may be fixed half of the flight list," Hanyan said. And that's why he's not bullish on the Consumer-to-consumer model.

Therefore, although many domestic online short rent all say oneself is the consumer-to-consumer pattern, but in provides the experience and Airbnb has the essential difference.

is the best mode for the Business-to-consumer?

Come back to see the network of the passers-by mode. Although the network has repeatedly said that it is not the usual short-term rental site, but in the provision of online listings for tenants, it is no different from other short-term rental sites. The difference is that in the docking process between the tenant and the landlord, the passers-by do not want to just be a middleman, but want to control the whole chain to make business more controllable. It changes the tenant's view of the traditional short term rent by centralizing the availability of the listings, unifying the management, and standardizing services as much as possible.

Generally speaking, tenants in this mode, the direct face of the network, rather than a remote somewhere in a stranger. Compared to the lack of integrity of the system of individuals, an organization to be trusted to a higher degree, especially the network has Ctrip, HomeAway and other powerful shareholders to endorse for it. General Consumer-to-consumer online short rent common "photos and the scene does not match", "Midway Flight List" and other circumstances will not appear here.

In addition, in transit home network platform, there will be no intermediary to direct docking with you. You can think of the pedestrian network as a "big intermediary", it has done a lot of preparation online, the tenant simply click on its Web page, choose the room you want to stay. According to the passers-by network, they offer a room that is more cost-effective than the same standard hotel.

"Pure Consumer-to-consumer mode is usually put a list on the website, then collect commission, control is weaker, many is the housing intermediary in the participation." The pedestrian network represents a more solid model, compared to grounding gas, more in line with China's national conditions. Hanyan that the future of the model will become the mainstream of domestic online short rent.

Ant Short Lease CEO Gong also said, although the current in addition to passers-by, we do is consumer-to-consumer, but look at the evolution of Taobao can know that the future of the Consumer-to-consumer will become a company, then there will be low-end short rental upward compatibility, or high-end short rent backward-compatible trend.

Products and services in the final analysis

Although the pedestrian network represents a more optimistic mode of the company, but also face a lot of challenges.

First, there is not enough mature brand. Brand recognition determines the degree of trust, and before it is widely known, people have to discount the amount of trust in short leases.

Secondly, the market needs further education. Budget hotels Everyone knows, but many people do not know how short rent is the same thing. The availability of short online rentals also needs to be subdivided to meet the needs of different travel styles.

The third is heavier than the C2C,B2C model. For example, the home network, in addition to the online platform, there is a huge "ground troops" to collect housing, provide standardized services, the number has reached 2000 people, this management put forward a very high demand.

In addition, although the online short rent is still in the germination period, but there are many giants eyeing. Five-star hotels, down to budget hotels, have paid close attention to online short rent, waiting to move. Although there is no direct competition, but online short rent once bigger, will inevitably divert both passenger flow. The future collision must inevitably.

In overseas, online short rent has been verified to be the real demand, but ready-made model can not copy, the key lies in how to find a pattern in line with China's national conditions. At this point, the competition is still products and services. What is the price/performance of your product? Is the service honest and trustworthy? And that's the nature of business.