This project demonstrates how Airbnb solved a business problem and improved its platform by adopting and spreading usage of a revolutionary emerging technology. User research with remote Airbnb hosts helped us understand challenges to accessing and sharing location info in rural areas & the language and technical skills needed. Our solution – what3words – is designed to work offline, and for both digital & analogue interfaces, so anyone can share it easily by voice or text, and use it with the Airbnb digital platform and app.

Mongolia is experiencing huge environmental and social change, with hundreds of thousands of traditional herders being forced to leave the countryside for the city after drought and famine has made herding life too difficult to continue. By designing a tailored solution based around the needs of rural and nomadic people, what3words and Airbnb have provided a way for them to access the global tourism economy, and to support traditional lifestyles, starting with the Mongolian countryside. Airbnb x what3words is now being used around the world, giving everyone the ability to host on the platform, no matter where they live.

Airbnb helps people to earn an income by hosting guests in their home, but many remote, rural and nomadic people can’t use the platform due to having no address or connectivity. Airbnb partnered with what3words – an emerging global addressing standard which is slowly gaining traction around the world. It provides a user-friendly

alternative to GPS coordinates – 3 word addresses. The what3words offline app enables people with no address, or whose homes are hard to find – like the Dukha tribe of Mongolia – to share precise locations easily without a data connection, and in their own language.

25th July 2018 – MOU signed between the Mongolian Government, what3words and Airbnb at official launch event in Ulaanbaatar.

26th July 2018 – Airbnb host event in Ulaanbaatar to spread awareness of what3words to hosts and potential hosts.

29th July 2018 – Research visit to the Dukha tribe to learn about how they deal with location challenges and their use of technology.

18 November 2018 – Global partnership announcement and awareness campaign centred around the Dukha Reindeer Tribe including a landing page and assets to help hosts and guests use what3words with Airbnb.

Airbnb hosts download the free what3words app for iOS or Android and use it to find the 3 word address of their listing even where there’s no connectivity. 3 word addresses provide hosts with a simple and easy-to use way to share very precise location info by voice or text, so they can give their home’s location to their co-host using 3 words in their own language. The co-host then updates the directions info on the Airbnb listing page, and it is automatically passed to guests in the booking confirmation email. Guests can then use the free what3words app to view the precise location of the Airbnb, and even navigate there offline using compatible apps such as Navmii.

The launch spread awareness of the solution, generating 103 pieces of press in 14 countries and directing both hosts and guests to a dedicated landing page where they could learn about using what3words with Airbnb. Since the November launch, many remote and rural hosts have started using 3 word addresses, both in Mongolia and further afield, with thousands of listings around the world. These include a remote Eagle-hunting family in the Altai mountains, and numerous farm and homestays with traditional herding families. We have seen significant evidence via social media and Airbnb review pages of guests being given 3 word addresses for their airbnb and using the what3words app to find it easily. In response to the campaign, the Mongolian Tourism Board has officially adopted 3 word addresses, and they have also been added to the Mongolia Lonely Planet Guide, showing how Airbnb’s innovation is leading the travel industry forward.