Airbnb

Vacationing in Europe last year, my family stayed in an Airbnb in Germany’s Bavarian region. The listing promised sweeping Alpine views and invited us to “watch the sun come up over the mountains while you sip your coffee.”

The mountains delivered.

The coffee did not.

We arrived in the evening after a long day of travel and found an empty kitchen with a coffee machine but no coffee. I tried to drive into town, only to learn most stores had closed by 6 p.m. They wouldn’t reopen until after we were scheduled to leave the next morning.

The view was spectacular. The experience was not.

The missing coffee was minor on its own, but it was one of several misses that added up to an underwhelming stay.

As a large family, we often choose Airbnbs. They’re usually more spacious and affordable than hotels, and most of our experiences have been good. But the bad ones tend to fail for the same reason.

The owners think they’re in the real estate business.

When you think this way, success is defined by the asset.

You focus on:

• Location, square footage, and views

• Occupancy rates and nightly price

• Renovations, furniture, and finishes

• Whether the listing photos look good online

From this lens, the job is simple:

Provide a place to stay.

If the bed is there, the roof doesn’t leak, and the photos match reality, the work feels done. Any issues beyond that such as confusing instructions, empty kitchens, or slow responses feel like “nice-to-haves,” not core to the offering.

The owners should understand they’re actually in the hospitality business.

Here, success is defined by the experience.

You focus on:

• Reducing uncertainty the moment guests arrive

• Anticipating needs before they become problems

• Small details that signal care and competence

• How guests feel when something goes wrong

From this lens, the job is different:

Help someone feel comfortable and taken care of in an unfamiliar place.

That means:

• Providing coffee or other refreshments

• Clear, simple instructions that work at 10 p.m. after a long flight

• Fast, human responses when plans change

• Thoughtful touches that remove friction, not add effort

Most hotels understand this instinctively and the best Airbnb hosts do too.

The difference isn’t the asset.

It’s the mindset.

And once you see it, you start noticing the same pattern everywhere:

• Gyms that rent space and equipment versus gyms that provide community

• Software companies that sell endless features versus ones that solve one real problem effortlessly

• Consultants who sell hours versus those who sell clarity

Most businesses don’t lose because their product or service is necessarily bad.

They lose because they misunderstand what business they’re actually in.

I see the same mistake with the businesses I advise. Founders describe what they sell, not what customers are really paying for. They focus on the product and miss the job it’s meant to do or pain it alleviates.

Let’s walk through a framework to make sure you’re not making the same mistake as our Airbnb host.

The Job

What job is the customer hiring you to do?

This is not your product, service or the features of either.

It’s the progress or transformation the customer achieves upon using your product or service.

Ask:

• What is my customer hoping to gain from using my product? It could be time, money, piece of mind, fitness, love, etc.

• What is my customer’s ideal outcome? Describe this in your customer’s voice and list as much detail as possible.

• Why does my customer want the outcome or transformation? There are countless reasons people want more time, money and experiences. You must understand your customer’s why.

What job do Airbnb customers hire for?

• Real estate answer: “A clean place to sleep while on vacation”

• Hospitality answer: “To have a home away from home experience in a new place.”

An Airbnb host with a hospitality mindset will approach their business from a completely different perspective than one with a real estate mindset.

If you can describe the job your business does in the context of your customers’ transformation or progress instead of describing your product features, square footage, or specs you’re on the right track.

The Pain

Often, the job your business is hired to do solves a pain point for the customer or removes an obstacle standing in the way of their transformation.

The pain is often a form of friction, anxiety, unknown, or risk.

You might be solving part of their pain but are you solving all or the most severe pain?

Is the pain your solving table stakes or the bare minimum requirement for being in business to begin with?

Perhaps most importantly, your solution shouldn’t add other types of pain.

Ask:

• What are the emotional costs related to our customers’ transformation?

• When customers rave about us, what is behind the positivity?

• When we or competitors receive a poor review, what is behind the negativity?

What pains do Airbnb customers seek to avoid?

• Uncertainty - Traveler’s are often in an unfamiliar place. The more a host can remove uncertainty, the better the experience for the traveler.

• Hassle - Traveler’s could be on vacation, a business trip or visiting family under good or bad circumstances. The last thing they want to deal with are unexpected errands, chores or other tasks that sap their already limited time and energy.

• Cognitive Load - Too many instructions, messages or decisions force guests to think when they need to focus on relaxing, work or family.

Great hosts don’t just provide space but systematically eliminate pain.

Can you say the same for your business?

The Proof

Happy customers rave to their friends. Unhappy customers complain to everyone.

Most founders and owners equate business success with customer acquisition.

This is wrong. Success equals customer validation.

Ask:

• What details consistently show up in positive feedback? These could occur in reviews, customer service interactions, etc.

• Under what context do referrals naturally happen? Who makes the referrals or what channels provide the most referrals?

• What actions, outcomes or situations generate disproportionate praise?

Examples from Airbnb:

• “Clear instructions, thoughtful touches and fast responses. The stay really added to our trip”

• “The kitchen had all the basics, including coffee, which we really appreciated.”

• “Traveling with kids can be stressful, but this stay made everything easier.”

Positive Airbnb reviews don’t sound like an advertisement for an apartment but a review of an experience.

That’s proof of what business the host is really in.

The Next Step

Businesses often struggle because they’re not clear on what business they’re actually in.

The idea is simple:

Customers don’t pay you for what you sell.

They pay you to do a job that is often removing pain and friction standing in the way of their transformation.

Can you describe your business in one sentence similar to the following:

“We are in the business of [insert job] for [insert customer] by [insert pain mitigation].”

An Airbnb host might say:

“We create effortless, comfortable stays that make guests feel at home in our city.”

When you can describe the real job you’re doing, growth stops feeling forced and starts feeling inevitable.

My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future. 

Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.