PVD's Profile

Thank you, Alberto. You mention that their vision is great fares and friendly service, but unfortunately, the few times that I have tried EasyJet I have been horrified by their service. First, their check-in counters are very inconveniently located – often in a completely separate terminal from VAT and requiring quite a long walk to the gate. Second, they are incredibly short-staffed, with often just three or four people responsible for checking in ~150 passengers per flight across multiple flights. And last, they charge extra for everything! While I understand that these policy decisions are likely to keep costs low, do you think EasyJet will be able to achieve passenger loyalty with this kind of service? I wonder, especially considering increased competition and the emergence of other low-cost carriers.

Thank you, Cary. I agree that the main value proposition for doctors is your first point – driving additional traffic to their offices. Unfortunately, however, I have often found that doctors do not provide complete visibility to their schedules on the Zocdoc website, despite the ability for patients to specify whether they are new or existing patients. After trying to schedule one or two appointments myself and not finding a time that fit my schedule, I quickly learned that I could call the office and would be given many more convenient options from which to choose. As a result, I have not accessed the Zocdoc website since, and I fear that many patients might similarly use Zocdoc to find new doctors but abandon it once satisfied. Do you think there is a way to incentivize doctors? And to keep patients coming back?

Thank you, Anny. The biggest question that remains for me is how Airbnb will capture the business traveler segment. In my experience, business travelers make their lodging decisions not based on cost, which you point out is Airbnb’s value proposition to travelers, but rather based on hotel loyalty programs and service. To address the first question, I wonder if Airbnb has considered establishing an Airbnb loyalty program? Or perhaps partnering with a credit card company to create an Airbnb branded credit card? To address the second (and the main reason why I myself am yet to try Airbnb), do you think Airbnb will ever expand their value proposition beyond a cheap place to stay? I wonder if they could partner with a cleaning service to provide daily housekeeping services or perhaps local restaurants to provide “room service” of sorts? Once they have sufficiently expanded to their target countries as Rafael mentions above, I feel that it will be very important for them to fully round out their service model in order to capture a larger share of hotel users.