Sponsor Community case study: Airbnb Founded in 2008, Airbnb has a community of four million hosts around the world, and its global community center as established five ears a o, managed by Airbnb and community specialists Standing on Giants. Alongside opportunities for gaining insight into the needs of its hosts, the community center aims to encourage more personal and meaningful connections, offering access to content and discussions that will help members to host better. When the pandemic hit, the business was immediately under threat: guests ere unable to travel, inco disa e eared and hosts livelihoods ere at risk. Airbnb decided to use this as an opportunity to adapt its business. he ob ectives o the co managing those relationships. In that sense, it can be like going to confession if youre Catholic. Its a non-judgmental expression, and it can be cathartic to get things off your chest. These more personal conversations are also taking place in communities in very different sectors. Dominika Wintersgill is research manager at National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), a workplace pension provider, and another of InSites Consultings clients. NEST has three core audiences: employers, members (pension-holders), and intermediaries (financial advisers, pension administrators and accountants). Its research community consists of more than 2,000 members and has been running for almost a year. While community members have always interacted with each other to some degree starting threads to ask uestions or offering tips around organising their finances Wintersgill says it has, typically, been fairly limited. As a professional organisation that looks after peoples money, its important for moderators to maintain a certain professional tone in discussions. However, the organisation did some work with its community on Covid-19, and people have been very unit shifted to support two key priorities: Create opportunities and a space for hosts to stay connected with Airbnb and each other. Prioritise helping them navi ate ne t es o business, best practice, and tackling the loneliness and isolation associated with lockdown. Support hosts to safely execute rontline sta s the co an s initiative to accommodate 100,000 health workers who needed to isolate from their families. Airbnb opened a dedicated space for hosts to ocus on ovid discussions, centralising related questions, and left other areas of the community free for other conversations he co an successfully housed 100,000 health workers safely within two weeks. obbie earn, co ounder o tandin on Giants, says: In times of crisis, an online community really can be more than a collective o our custo ers it can be a lifeline for your business. n irbnb s case, it beca e even ore than that. The company could work with its co unit o hosts to achieve something that neither they, nor the hosts, could have done on their o n he dee value o the co clear for all to see. unit beca e 26 Impact ISSUE 31 20_pp20-29_Report.indd 26 18/09/2020 11:39