Reporters and editors in the news media have a guide called the Associated Press Stylebook that’s our bible when it comes to our day-to-day communication tasks. The AP Stylebook provides consistency in how things are presented on Hotel News Now and I would guess thousands of other media outlets around the world.
Some of the entries cause uproar among the nerdy editorial community. For example, when the AP earlier this year decided to allow using “over” as a substitute for “more than,” you would have thought the End was near. Many editorial types headed to our local watering holes to voice our concerns and drown our sorrows. “What would Royko say?” was all I could mutter between guzzling beechwood-aged libations. But such is the life of a word nerd.
Other interesting entries of note are about avoiding the use of brand names. For example, at one time the use of “dumpster” was forbidden unless the garbage receptacle was a Dumpster-branded model. It is now accepted. But some brand names Americans relate to products in general are still taboo. Those rules apply for photocopies (Xerox), facial tissue (Kleenex) and online search (Google). Sadistic copy editors who silently correct everyone’s grammar squeal with delight when they get to tell a writer he or she cannot use brand names as generic terms in a story.
Why does this matter to hoteliers? Because there’s this little thing called Airbnb that is rocking the hotel industry’s boat on many levels.
The pages of HNN have meticulously documented Airbnb’s impact (or lack of impact, depending on who you talk to) on hotels. What our editorial team can’t completely agree on is exactly what executives always mean when they talk about Airbnb. Are they specifically referencing the San Francisco-based company or are they referring to all accommodation platforms in the sharing-economy space? The guess is that they mean the San Francisco startup, but that presents a problem because while it is the most visible player in the space, it’s not the only one and therefore theoretically shouldn’t be representative of the entire sector.
Lodging rentals have been around for a long time. The digital revolution has provided a much broader base and has allowed companies such as Airbnb to achieve astronomical market values ($25 billion for Airbnb, according to published reports!).
So the question is: Does Airbnb define the sharing-economy accommodations industry as a whole?
Until last Wednesday, it was difficult to argue that point. But the notion changed when Expedia announced it was acquiring HomeAway, a vacation-rental platform that most certainly falls into the sharing-economy discussion. Since it was launched in the innards of Microsoft in 1996, Expedia has excelled at a number of things—but arguably none more than marketing. It’s another of those monikers that borders on being the definition of an entire business model.
It’s not likely that Expedia bought the platform to simply marvel at its presence. I suspect the folks at Airbnb took notice and are battening down the hatches for an intense storm of aggressive marketing and increased competition from Expedia.
As HomeAway grows—and I wouldn’t be shocked if a rebranding is in the cards at some point—the sharing-economy accommodations sector will grow with it. No longer will it be Airbnb & others.
I had the pleasure of recently discussing the name of this segment with Randy Smith, founder and owner of STR (the parent company of Hotel News Now). We agreed that while short-term rentals was interesting in part because it too would be known as STR, it really didn’t define the segment as separate because that’s what hotels are, too.
It is clear that the name has to imply paid accommodations because the couch at your frat brother’s golf casa doesn’t count as a competitor to hotels.
Smith threw out “non-hotel paid accommodations” as a suggestion. NHPA. Hmmm, it sounds like a government agency, so I’m not sure if that will fly. I like it because it succinctly summarizes the sector, albeit in a non-buzzword kind of way.
The simple solution is to “generalize” the name to “airbnb” with a lower-case “a” similar to what the AP has done with dumpster. It’s a headline writer’s dream as it takes up little space. But I don’t think other sharing-economy accommodations platforms will be thrilled with that solution.
Do you have a suggestion for what to call the sharing-economy accommodations sector? Let us know in the comments below.
Email Jeff Higley or find him on Twitter.
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