Airbnb’s Secret To Scaling In Cuba

When Omar Fonseca received the call that Airbnb needed to meet with him in Havana this iciness, he might infrequently consider it.

“Are you certain? Airbnb?” he excitedly asked the client who had referred to as to tell him the information.

For the prior 5 years, Fonseca had been building a industry in Cuba that used to be not in contrast to Airbnb. In a rustic where most residents should not allowed to have personal internet get entry to, his firm connects casas particulares, the title for houses that employ rooms to travelers, with the internet. He posts the properties on web sites, communicates with foreign travelers via e mail, after which communicates their reservation requests to deal with house owners by phone. “i attempt to study the market at all times,” he says. “i attempt to learn at all times. So I knew Airbnb.”

Airbnb’s group had just realized about Fonseca, they usually were as a minimum as excited to fulfill him as he was to fulfill them. on the time, they had been working out how an internet firm that facilitated credit card transactions might launch in a country where the general public don’t have web get admission to and do industry completely in money—a role they at the beginning idea may require cellphone make stronger to relay bookings or some type of SMS-primarily based app. current travel companies like Fonseca’s changed the calculus solely.

Cuba, in contrast to most places the place Airbnb operates, already has an authorized industry that revolves round personal properties renting out rooms to vacationers. a majority of these properties to find shoppers by phrase of mouth, and referral charges are so popular that there’s a industry license for individuals who do nothing but refer tourists to casas particulares. Fonseca charged those self same referral charges, but he found his vacationer purchasers on-line and thru relationships with foreign commute businesses as an alternative of on the road. He had began by means of reserving reservations for 10 homes owned by way of friends, the usage of an internet connection to be had to him thru his work as a human instruments skilled. but through literally going door to door as he visits new areas in Cuba, he has constructed a portfolio of more than 900 houses, each and every of which can pay him a fee if he finds them people who book reservations. “For us, it’s essential that our owners know our workforce personally,” Fonseca says. “We see that it generates a real trust relationship.”

instead of creating this belief firsthand, Airbnb may to find folks like Fonseca; they were already helping casas particulares keep in touch online with doable clients. via launch, Airbnb had discovered eight of them. “It wasn’t about doing something new,” says Jordi Torres Mallol, Airbnb’s common supervisor for Latin america. “It used to be about plugging into one thing present.”

once paired up with Airbnb, Fonseca gathered his two companions and 5 staff in a private home in Trinidad, and so they started making calls. Casas particulares are accustomed to being paid immediate in money, and a few were suspicious of a machine that required them to wait. however Fonseca had worked with many of those houses for years. They trusted him. “I’d name and say that an important shuttle agency on the planet is coming to Cuba,” he says.

Of the 1,000 rooms that Airbnb had on its website at launch, about one hundred of them had been from Fonseca’s crew and partners. by the point he met me in a Havana café closing week, he had put about 200 of his more than 900 listings on the website online. Gregarious and enthusiastic, he couldn’t have been happier concerning the consequence. the primary month on Airbnb, he booked six reservations on Airbnb. The 2d, he booked 17 reservations. The 1/3, he made 29 reservations. He already has 50 tentative reservations booked for July.

Airbnb does now not pay him, however each home he books during the Airbnb website can pay him a fee for the lead, just as they might if he posted the property on his personal website online. He supplies funds to purchasers in individual, in cash.

firms like Fonseca’s aren’t the one manner that Cubans are the use of Airbnb. One Airbnb host I met in Havana, for example, has an Italian neighbor who, as a foreigner, is allowed to have an internet connection in his residence. She helps him pay the bill, and he lets her use the web. some other lady’s home is managed on Airbnb by a son who lives in Brussels. Some professionals in Cuba have get right of entry to to the web at work, they usually, too, can handle their very own Airbnb listings without a 0.33-birthday celebration middleman to correspond with shoppers. in the event that they don’t have bank accounts, Airbnb promises money to them via a remittance company based totally in Miami.

however even with these workarounds, companies like Fonseca’s represent crucial part of Airbnb’s portfolio. Torres Mallol says that between 70% and eighty% of the 1,200 listings that Airbnb has delivered in Cuba considering that launch have come from these managers. when you scroll during the listings, you can discover profiles of individuals like Michael, some of the two employees at Fonseca’s team totally dedicated to Airbnb listings. His profile page lists 230 properties.

people like Michael do more than just relay knowledge to hosts. If Airbnb users aren’t ready to e-book their first possibility for the evening, he’s going to send them an electronic mail with hyperlinks to other houses. If something goes flawed with the credit card transaction, his firm will pay the home owner while waiting for the difficulty to be resolved.

For now, it’s a symbiotic relationship. webhosting companions like Fonseca have helped Airbnb to launch and scale quick in Cuba with the aid of bringing their portfolios to the site and clearing the hurdles of internet get entry to and funds. Airbnb provides Fonseca new demand from the U.S. on which he is happy to capitalize. but what occurs to this relationship when Cuba comes online?

Some hosts will, no doubt, take care of their listings instantly on Airbnb and retailer the price of paying some other third birthday party for referrals. but Fonseca additionally manages listings throughout a couple of sites, answers TripAdvisor questions, and works with commute listings. he is hopeful the web is not going to put him out of business, citing the hassle issue and required expertise. “If everyone learn the rules,” he says, “then no person would need a lawyer.”