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Is owning and running an Airbnb business a lucrative idea in 2020?

Not every new business sees the kind of revolutionary growth that Airbnb has witnessed in its journey. Airbnb is a peer-peer vacation rental marketplace that connects guests with local hosts to rent a space and get homelike amenities depending on their needs and preferences. Today, Airbnb is present in over 81,000 cities across 191 counties across the globe. Not just that, it offers more than 5 million accommodations and unprecedented access to local experiences through thousands of activities run by local hosts. In the past decade, Airbnb has come a long way in terms of the number of users, reach, and revenue. When Airbnb was launched in 2008, it didn’t enjoy the popularity and reach it enjoys now. But, fast forward to 2020, it has 2.5 million rental listings and has already served over 260 million guests across the globe. It started quite small but has grown significantly then.

From a business perspective, these numbers are pretty impressive and inspire many businesses to enter into the industry. But with its unique business model, Airbnb is the biggest name in the hospitality industry. For the same reason, it is not easy for startups to compete with the giant and establish their name in the market. However, the increased demand for affordable vacation rentals among millennials opens up plenty of opportunities for businesses to run an Airbnb business. If you are a business that asks yourselves, should I invest in Airbnb? then this blog post will help you find out an answer. Let’s get started.

Airbnb Business model

To know whether running an Airbnb is a lucrative business in 2020, let’s take a closer look at its business model. Unlike traditional hotel groups, Airbnb doesn’t follow a linear business model that demands investment in millions in owning and maintaining rental properties.

Airbnb’s fundamental resources are its people and there it doesn’t require a huge investment to start your Airbnb business. Airbnb offers a platform for people to list their unused space and make an extra income from the rent they get from travelers. As a vacation rental platform, it allows travelers to connect with hosts and book accommodations and live like locals when in another city. Review and rating systems allow travelers to make better decisions about the hosts and vice versa.

How does Airbnb make money?

In the first quarter of 2019 alone, Airbnb’s revenue grew 31% to $9.4 billion compared to the previous year. So being a free platform for vacation rentals, how does Airbnb make money? Here is how it functions. The hosts list their properties on Airbnb which travelers can book on preferred locations according to their requirements and budget. Both booking and financial transactions take place on Airbnb’s platform. Airbnb gets the main share of its revenue from transactions through two user groups as follows.

Commission from property owners

Airbnb takes a flat 10% commission fee from property owners or hosts for each successful booking. Hosts are also required to pay a 3% processing fee for processing the payments of the guests. 

Transaction fee from guests

Airbnb deducts a 6-12% non-refundable transaction fee for travelers or guests for every booking. As Airbnb has entered a number of complimentary services including experiences, it also earns revenue from those businesses as well.

Will running an Airbnb be worth it in 2020?

Any startup planning to start an Airbnb business must ask this question- Is Airbnb investment strategy a lucrative business idea in 2020? The answer is yes. 2020 without a doubt is the best time to invest in Airbnb business. Here is why Airbnb is a lucrative business in 2020.

The demand for budget travel will continue to grow

One of the most promising trends that have influenced the vacation rental industry in recent years is the increasing demand for budget travel. The demand for spacious rentals among millenials for family vacations has skyrocketed as well. People prefer experiencing a budget friendly local stay rather than expensive hotel stays. This encouraging trend is expected to continue beyond 2020.

Airbnb will beat traditional hotels

Ever since the launch of Airbnb, one of the consistent trends in the vacation rental market has been the increasing demand for budget-friendly vacation rentals. 2020 will be the year Airbnb accommodations surpass traditional hotels. Businesses who enter right now into Airbnb business will reap the complete benefits of the most popular upward trends in the vacation rental market.

Unique stays are becoming popular

Modern travelers prefer to get indulged in a truly out-there experience by staying in a treehouse, a castle, a yacht, or an Igloo during their vacation. While these aren’t luxury stays by any means, they will place you straight in the middle of the places you will visit. Airbnb offers a variety of unique stays like bubble suit, bamboo house, sheep wagon, treehouses, adobe domes, caves, etc. for an immersive vacation experience, you won’t get anywhere else.

The future of Airbnb

Airbnb is a giant in the vacation rental industry with its global presence in almost all countries. The unique revenue model of Airbnb is proven to be really strong as travelers prefer Airbnb over traditional hotels for comfortable and cheap stays. Airbnb also has leveraged technological innovation to create a peer-peer platform that connects people across the globe. Airbnb’s profit continues to grow exponentially as the listings and short-term rental bookings increase every day even though it charges a nominal service fee.

Businesses looking forward to entering the vacation industry can take inspiration from Airbnb’s success to build a similar platform for renting out accommodations. Not just vacation rentals, you can adopt Airbnb’s business model to start a peer-peer rental platform for cars, boats, buses, bikes, machinery, coworking spaces, parking spaces, etc. The Airbnb clone script allows you to launch your peer-peer rental marketplace like Airbnb with the same features and functionalities easily and cost-efficiently. This could be a great idea as starting an Airbnb business doesn’t call for huge investments and ownership of assets. 

Airbnb for x business ideas

The success of Airbnb has given rise to the concept of Airbnb for X, just like Uber for X. If you want to start an Airbnb but have a niche idea, you can adopt the same business model to start your own Airbnb for more niches than vacation rentals. An Airbnb clone script is quite beneficial in building your Airbnb platform as it can be customized to any level to suit your business requirements and goals. Here are some of the rental business ideas to start a lucrative Airbnb business in 2020.

Airbnb for parking space

Just like Airbnb for vacation rental, Airbnb for parking space connects individuals and parking space owners offering free parking lots. Parking owners can list their parking lot allowing car drivers to book empty parking spaces at the location of their choice.

Airbnb for car rentals

Even before Airbnb, this was one of the most profitable businesses in the market. Car rental marketplaces can facilitate business between car drivers and riders with reliable rental services. This business has the potential to earn high revenue when compared to other rental businesses.

Airbnb for equipment

Airbnb is one of the most trending businesses that allow people to rent equipment like office equipment, hunting equipment, water gears, camera, anything, and everything. As buying equipment is a huge investment, it is mostly not affordable for many of the people who need them. By starting a peer-peer rental marketplace for equipment, you allow people to rent equipment in a convenient and cost-effective manner.

Airbnb for Boat rentals

Boat rental business is one of the popular rental businesses in the U.S and the U.K. As more people prefer going for recreational activities on a boat for vacation, this business has more demand and helps in earning a significant amount of revenue.

Airbnb for clothing

Another Airbnb business that has high potential is clothing rental. This could be more helpful for people who like to wear designer pieces which otherwise are not very accessible and affordable for all.

Airbnb for sports goods

If you are looking to specialize in a unique niche, invest in Airbnb for sporting goods that offer a wide variety of sporting goods like training equipment for different sports and related activities.

Airbnb for furniture

This is another valid pee-peer rental business as people who follow a minimalist lifestyle would like to rent expensive furniture rather than owning them. Therefore, you have a niche scope on this rental.

Airbnb for camera equipment

As new model cameras and related accessories get launched frequently, the previous models become outdated soon. That is exactly why Airbnb for camera rentals is a great business idea. Build a rental platform based on Airbnb’s business model that connects people who want to rent their camera equipment to people who are looking for the same on a rental basis.

Airbnb for event venue

Launch an Airbnb for event venue rentals that allow customers to book event spaces for a short span of time for events like baby showers, wedding functions, office celebrations, business dinners, workshops, meetings, etc.

Wrapping it up!

The peer-peer rental industry is expanding and growing like never before. With the rising popularity of on-demand rental platforms like Airbnb, where anyone can rent and book a

Vacation rental has disrupted the industry. While Airbnb is already a multibillion-dollar brand and is sure to grow further, if you have a similar idea where you can make the process of rental easy, reliable, and efficient, it’s possible to thrive in the industry with your Airbnb business.

Though the vacation rental industry is becoming more commercialized, the future of rental marketplaces, in general, looks promising and is predicted to grow bigger. To establish a successful peer-peer rental marketplace like Airbnb, entrepreneurs need to traverse that extra mile and leverage the latest technologies to provide top-notch services.

Why Is the Right Software so Important to Run a Small Business?

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are constantly on the lookout for solutions to optimize their day-to-day operations and simplify their work in general. This, in turn, is meant to boost productivity for themselves and their employees, and not to mention help them focus on clients and their satisfaction. Luckily, the world is getting more refined software solutions every day, and with access to automation tools that enable your business growth, you can allocate your resources towards more essential tasks.

However, picking the wrong software can actually cause bottlenecks and delays. If it takes too much time to master, if the tool isn’t intuitive, or if the features the tool offers aren’t enough to give you what you need – you’ve wasted both your funds and your time. The right software choice, on the other hand, can make all the difference for your business. 

Accounting and invoicing made simple

Money management is perhaps one of the greatest issues small companies face when they are looking to build stability for all of their operations. That is precisely what software for accounting does: it ensures that you can automate a range of financial transactions, keep track of them through a unified software dashboard, and keep your company and client data safe and secure at all times.

Software tools with more advanced features can also help you make sure that you’re in line with all your tax compliance needs and that your business can effectively manage the available funds for smarter money allocation and cutting expenditure. 

Take charge of your manufacturing process

Manufacturing is definitely one of the most complex processes the any small business needs to tackle, especially since it involves a range of other departments in order to go smoothly. Companies now use comprehensive manufacturing software for small business operations to integrate all of those moving parts into a single, well-oiled process. 

They combine your sales cycle, work order launching, inventory management, and drop-shipping among many other segments to make sure your manufacturing is seamless and your workers can focus on the more hands-on assignments within your business. The software in this particular department needs to be highly customizable to meet your business standards and to allow you to use it to full capacity for your specific needs. 

In-house communications with a techy twist

Today’s businesses have in-house staff scattered all over the globe. However, even if some of your employees work across the state, you can maintain regular and effective communication with them through more than email updates. 

Use instant chat platforms and video conferencing tools that allow your remote teams to join each meeting, share their ideas every day, and of course, stay involved with your brand. Task and project management tools can be of great help for teams even without remote workers for more effective workload distribution and project tracking, as well. They help you prevent missed deadlines and ultimately keep your clients happy with your service.

Managing your HR efficiently

Even if you have no more than a dozen employees, managing their portfolios, performance reviews, regular training, and education, and letting go means that your HR team constantly has their hands full of chores. Digital options for HR management help companies track employee performance more effectively, collect their feedback, manage their leave, vacation, and benefits, and of course, hire qualified staff with ease.

Social media done right

Not a single company can survive the digital realm without a powerful social media strategy. Alas, as more customers start using social networks as a customer support channel, and engage with brands regularly to find out prices, ask for advice, or simply share their experience, brands need to go out of their way to make sure everyone is taken care of.

To simplify your social strategy, you can and should use a range of software tools for social listening to capture opportunities for mentions and engagement, as well as automated scheduling and posting for your social content. 

Check your current workload and your capacity to control all of the tasks at hand – wouldn’t your company life be much easier with a few software solutions at hand to help your teams, focus on growth, and invest time in other, more pressing matters? The software has become the answer to so many small business problems, and it’s time to embrace these ever-evolving solutions to give your business the advantage it needs to grow and succeed.


Web Design Trends for 2020 That Are Here to Stay

2019 has not been a breakthrough year for web design. There were no fantastic new features or innovations on desktop, mobile, or wearable platforms. However, during the last 12 months  several trends have seen further development, and some are likely to dominate the next year. For you to keep up with the competition and offer your clients or users the best web design possible, you need to choose a web design agency.

3D Motion

3D graphics have been one of the hottest trends of 2019 and will likely continue to be. The more financial and human resources a design team has, the more time and money can be spent perfecting eye-catching visuals, the quintessence of which is 3D motion. To keep user’s attention, designers use simulation of lifelike and artificial materials, substances, surface, and various compositions of them.

Despite keeping the user’s attention, these visuals are very time-consuming to create and are hardware heavy. But in 2020, mainstream mobile and desktop hardware will be powerful enough to support such visuals, so you might consider spending a portion of your budget on some eye-candy.

Unique 2D and 3D Illustration 

Custom unique illustrations with varying degrees of weirdness have taken over the landing pages, onboarding screens, and email templates of virtually all significant products oriented towards the millennial customer base. The weirder, the better. There are now even creative commons tools used to copy and paste what attracts those oh-so-unique trendy humans.

Jokes aside, it’s getting harder to attract new customers in this information-overloaded age.  Unique, vivid, and attractive illustrations help entice those picky Millenials and Zoomers. Even better if the illustrations are dynamic, which leads us to the next trend.

Micro-Interactions and Animation

You don’t have to boast a mind-blowing million-particle 3D bonanza on your website to attract people (unless you are a design agency specializing in 3D). If you are developing an app, micro-interactions are what set you apart and produce those nano dopamine spikes that keep users engaged. Spend some extra designer hours on polishing those details to increase retention, and you’ll stay on top in 2020 (provided your core features are good enough).

Ubiquitous Dark Mode

2019 has been the year of dark mode. All major platforms have offered a dark mode experience to its users. 2020 will finish the transition to adaptive day/night UI for those night owls among us.

Oversized, Bold Typography

Over the past five years dominating minimalism and flat design have gradually shifted to more experimental forms. Fashion and millennial tastes have influenced the shift to trendier designs. Even companies like the world’s largest fully online bank are beginning to use bolder typography in their branding.

Brutalism

Another development in the avantgarde of web design is a shift to the 90s-nostalgic brutalist aesthetic. If your product is geared towards a more artsy audience, brutalism might be an excellent aesthetic choice.

Broken Grid, Asymmetrical Layouts

Generally, as digital products mature and grow in numbers, more effort and experimentation are required to differentiate from competitors, functionally, aesthetically and visually. Experimenting leads to more uncommon webpage layouts to help spark interest while scrolling through a page. This ultimately holds users attention. 

Storytelling and Copywriting

Visuals may be enough to attract your users, but it’s the content and message that prevents them from leaving and ensures their return. With the right choice of words, the narrative engages users with the brand and makes them associate themselves with it. It is vital for loyalty. That is why copywriting is becoming a separate role in design teams.

Personalization

Providing more options while not being obtrusive is a pinnacle of web design. More and more apps offer deep customization options to make the web design sincerely yours. You can also learn top web design courses online.

Adaptive Colors

Many major brands like Spotify, Dropbox and Facebook have adopted adaptive color schemes for their branding, depending on the medium and the message, in the last couple of years. This trend is likely to continue.

Digital Wellbeing

iOS and Android now feature built-in screen time tools. Social networks begin to offer options to self-limit your time on the apps and set mindful reminders to take a break. Mindfulness apps become unicorns. The digital wellbeing movement is on the rise, and more and more people begin to seek time well spent and avoid addictively dark patterns. It’s better to ride the wave than to be hit by it. Consider these things while designing your next app in order to promote healthy behaviors while earning money.

Accessibility and Inclusiveness

Show you care. Just by carefully choosing your color schemes, you will attract users who otherwise would not check out your app. Make the changes to maintain initial interest in your app from a range of people. 

Outro

This is by no means an exhaustive list of trends, but some of the most prominent ones. Keep an eye out for new developments, and while staying in the know, maintain your agenda, visual style, and identity.

Voice Interface Designers: Who They Are and What They Do

There are more and more voice interfaces in the world today than ever before. Everyone knows Siri from Apple, Alice from Yandex, and Alexa from Amazon. But there are also many niche chatbots, as well as bots for businesses. They all communicate with millions of users every day. Both developers and users want to make these communications more convenient and efficient, so professionals who dedicate themselves to this endeavor have started to appear. They are called Voice Interface Designers. 

What Do Voice Interface Designers Do

The main objective of a Conversation Design or Voice Interface Design is to create custom dialogues. Success here is measured by the depth of the conversation, the number of replicas and user satisfaction. In some scenarios, voice interfaces (VUIs) are more efficient than graphical interfaces (GUIs). And the voice UX/UI designer’s task is to find and implement such scenarios in a way that gets the user to switch to them. There are already a number of situations where this is the case  – for example, phone communication, in the car, in the kitchen while preparing dinner, etc.

It’s not easy to come up with dialogue for these scenarios. But it’s even more challenging to make such a dialogue look natural and not like you’re communicating with a robot.

There are different ways to achieve this. A designer might include metaphors. It turns out that the use of this literary tool makes the dialogue more familiar to the user and increases user conversion. 

  • For example, for the statement  “Turn on the light in the hallway”, if there are no bulbs in this room, Alexa will say something like this: “Sorry, I can not find any connected bulbs”. Siri will respond differently: “Devices in this room are not connected. “ 
  • The difference between the two answers is that Alexa uses the phrase “I can not find”.  Another version of her response was the phrase “I do not see any devices.” Of course, we understand that she can neither “find” nor “see” things,  but at the same time, the very use of natural-sounding phrases makes the conversation more comfortable.

VI Designer Mission

The goal of the VI design is to help the user access the product naturally. It’s tough to create the illusion that a human is communicating with another human and not a robot. But, that is your ultimate goal. 

It is essential not to give the user a lot of information to listen to. Take for example a job search engine. If the system finds several suitable vacancies, we cannot immediately voice them all together with the conditions, because then the user will have to listen to this information for several minutes. Listening to information for people is a passive activity. It is effortless. Yet it can also lose user attention here. 

In Google Assistant, when scoring search results, this moment is also taken into account, and Assistant does not say all the results at once, but first references only the most relevant one. It would help if you also were prepared for non-standard use cases.

In each interaction with the user, it is necessary to preserve the principle of dialogue.  Be as human as possible. For example, the phrase “Your request has been accepted” should be changed to “I understand you.” Even though we often use more mechanical phrases in GUIs, it is worth considering that the paradigm of perception of these communications in humans has changed. If earlier people communicated with a website, a program or some abstract system, now they interact with an assistant who has a name, who knows a lot about the user, can maintain a conversation and even makes jokes.

Google Home

In addition to designing the dialogue itself, its branches, and phrases, it is also necessary to consider non-standard cases. For example, when a user interrupts a robot or answers a question with a question. There are, of course, technical limitations, so the Conversation Designer works very closely with the developers. 

You can also analyze user speech. For example, to understand when someone is aggressive or decisive, and to build dialogue dependent on this. Technologies provide more and more opportunities for improvement in this area, so the number of features will only grow.

Large tech giants have their guidelines for voice and dialogue interfaces. For example, directions from Google are available.

Career opportunities for voice interface designers

Now let us have a look at what prospects you have if you decide to start your career as a voice interface designer.

Which companies recruit these specialists

In the United States, a simple LinkedIn search gives you hundreds of jobs. Large technology companies like Amazon and Google are also hiring, as well as a vast number of startups. UX/UI design agencies that develop customizable interfaces for software systems and applications are also interested in expanding their opportunities. It’s hard not to notice the growing number of positions for specialists in this field – the demand for which will only continue to increase.

Pre-Requisites to Becoming a VI Designer

The market has not yet formed precise requirements, so many companies are experimenting with people with entirely different backgrounds. Usually, companies choose linguists, and that’s a good choice. They understand the structure of language, the etymology of words, and literary techniques. Some require copywriting experience or a technical degree for these positions, but professional education is rather unnecessary here. 

Summing Up 

Voice interface design is still a relatively young field. Therefore, if you or your friends do not have a technical degree, but still wish to join the world of technology and innovation, working on dialogue systems and similar professions can open up new possibilities to enter the world of IT.

Reasons for Sales Forecasting In Business

Sales forecasting essentially refers to the prediction of future sales. It utilizes information gathered from your past performance to form a basis for making predictions on future performance. Investing in detailed sales forecasting may help your business in making decisions for the future needs of your business. This is likely to increase the chances of successfully running your business irrespective of the prevailing external factors. Here is further insight into the importance of sales forecasting to your business.

Positive Cash Flow

Correctly carrying out a sale forecast often gives you a basis for making financially sensible decisions. This is especially important in balancing out your incomes and expenses to come up with positive cash flow. Information on how your products performed in terms of sales may help you choose whether to continue producing it in the future. Poorly performing products can be replaced with ones that you perceive to be more in demand. You can thus make necessary cash adjustments to facilitate their production early enough in order to be ready to capture potential clients.

Managing Cost of Sales

The amount you spend on producing a commodity for sale is referred to as its cost of sale. Forecasting sales usually helps you to determine if a product is worth all the expenses it takes to produce it. Predicting the pattern of a commodities’ sale may also guide you in planning for the timely acquisition of components used in its production. Businesses that fail correctly plan ahead of time may run out of raw materials during peak season and may be required to pay extra or scramble for them. Alternatively, sales forecasting helps you to avoid overstocking raw materials during off-peak seasons, which may end-up expiring and incurring you a loss.

Guides You in Staffing

Sales forecasting assists you in managing your staffing needs. It may offer guidance when coming up with a staffing schedule by informing you how busy your business is likely to be at specific times. You can thus have ample time to notify your employees of the expected increase or decrease in their working hours with the associated rise or dip in their wages. This may go a long way in improving your relationship with your employees by also providing time to dialogue or for them, voice their concerns.

Sales forecasting enables a business owner to make predictions intended to maintain positive cash flow, manage the cost of sales and guide them in staffing.

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