The entry of Airbnb into the travel category stole market share from traditional hotels by offering a tech-based, low-cost alternative.

We focused on the commercial advantage we have that Airbnb cannot compete with: our ability to provide a service-based hospitality experience with unmatched amenities.

A thorough study of Airbnb’s most sought-after listings gave us the blueprint to redesign and upgrade our rooms, allowing us to appeal to the tastes and sensibilities of Airbnb’s target market. We provided a renewed experience, taking the best of Airbnb’s and adding our own: a 360 experience that forced them to reconsider their previous choice.

Since opening in 2008, Airbnb has had over 500 million guests stay in its listings. Of those, 60% report that after their experience, they prefer Airbnb over traditional hotels. Operating under a friendlier regulatory regime than that applied to hotels, Airbnb can afford to provide a lower-cost alternative. This, combined with the ease-of-use of its digital platform, successfully convinced a large portion of the market to switch over, in many cases no longer even considering more traditional options.

Our objective was clear: to combat this trend and recover a portion of Honduras’ increasingly competitive $700 million tourism market. To do this, we had to leverage our primary differentiator: top-notch customer service, unmatched facilities, and many amenities. Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, increasingly serves as a hub and launchpad for tourists to experience our unique culture and natural beauty. But how could we convince them to give us a try?

It occurred to us: if Airbnb’s market wasn’t coming to us, why not go straight to them?

After all, Airbnb hosts are all regular folks. People who want the opportunity to be great hosts to the tourists coming to their hometown. People who believe they have a place where these visitors will feel comfortable, welcome, and free to experience the best of our country. We realized that we have people like that, too: our employees.

And they had such an elegant, easy-to-use platform. We had long since gone to the trouble of listing our hotel on all the popular online directories: Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Trivago, Tripadvisor... you have to, nowadays. It’s just common sense.

So why not one more? Why not use the very same platform that’s been steering away potential customers to instead bring them straight to our doorstep?

Our target was the millennial generation (ages 18-35), taking into consideration that by 2025, they will account for 75% of all travelers. Approximately 60% of Airbnb users are in this target demographic. Particularly of interest to us was the fact that this is a demographic that prioritizes travel over purchasing a home or saving for the future. We found that in general, they do not consider hotels as an option out of concern that their experience will be artificial or inauthentic.

Our approach was to create Airbnb listings that showcased our location in one of Tegucigalpa’s trendiest neighborhoods, with bohemian coffeeshops, artisanal beer and cigar shops, and the hottest nightclubs in the city all within a 2-minute walk from the hotel. We knew that with this method, we would engage the target during the Consideration phase of the journey, allowing us to make the conversion via text message conversations.

To successfully use this platform to flip the situation in our favor, we had to analyze Airbnb’s most popular listings in our region to identify the common stylistic choices in photography, descriptions, and host profiles. We decided to list our medium-low priced rooms on the platform.

We redesigned and refurnished the rooms, in keeping with the trends that appeal to our target market: painting the walls, replacing outdated furniture, and putting in accent pieces to give each room an individual identity.

We created user profiles for our employees, including a photoshoot for the profile picture. We created individual bank accounts for each employee and assigned a digital team to help them keep track of incoming requests and inquiries, and follow up to ensure guests left reviews. Our hosts welcomed the guests personally and showed them all the amenities they were getting for the price of a spare room.

If Airbnb could generate double-digit growth, why couldn’t we? Our strategy set our business objective at a 15% increase in bookings by the end of Q2 2019. After 3 months, our profiles had received a combined 4,200+ visits. Bookings began to rise, with a cumulative 32.5% increase over 90 days, far exceeding the target with room still to grow. Currently, 93% of our accounts have received at least 2 bookings.

Our digital team made sure to stay active on the platform, following up immediately (when they are most likely to provide a response back) with satisfied guests and ensuring that 87% of them left reviews, which averaged 4.8 stars across our accounts, 62% of them saying they would recommend the hotel to friends and family visiting Honduras. With our profiles so validated, we expect to maintain or build booking momentum as the initiative continues.