The future of Airbnb in Savannah, Georgia.

1. SCAD - Methods of Contextual Research
Cosette Saliba ∙ Eliška Skarolková ∙ Erin Legan ∙ Fernando Loza ∙ Maarsel Atallah ∙ Pranav Ranawat
Client Book
The Local Culture of

3. “The American dream,
what we were taught was
grow up, own a car, own a house.
I think that dream’s
completely changing.
We were taught to keep up
with the Joneses.
Now we’re sharing
with the Joneses.”
-Brian Chesky

4. Airbnb

5. What is it?
“Founded in August of 2008 and based in
San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted
community marketplace for people to list,
discover, and book unique accommodations
around the world — online or from a mobile
phone or tablet.
Whether an apartment for a night, a castle
for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb
connects people to unique travel experiences,
at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities
and 191 countries. And with world-class
customer service and a growing community of
users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to
monetize their extra space and showcase it to
an audience of millions.”

6. Ethnography

7. Contextual
Research
Connecting to others is one of our deepest
desires as humans. Connecting to others not
only anchors us in who we are, but it also
makes us feel like we belong. One of the
ways we, as people, allow for belonging is
through the experiences we walk through
which connect us to others. Thus, in order to
better understand the ethnographic aspect of
these interactions, we chose to study the local
culture of Airbnb in Savannah.
The idea of Airbnb worldwide has been
received in various individuals with hesitation
as well as acceptance. The reason for this is
that Airbnb is based on an entire system of
trust - the host must trust the guest and the
guest must trust the host. This idea of sharing
is part of a bigger idea entitled the sharing
economy, where individuals are borrowing
or trading goods instead of actually buying
them. This concept is widely trending and has
become an integral aspect of the economy.
Due to this we aimed to find Airbnb’s voice
and presence not only in the sharing economy,
but in Savannah as well.
This process book will highlight the basics of
ethnography as applied to our area of study.
The book breaks down the tools used to
find the voice of Airbnb as well as the voice
of the user overall. As the world shifts to an
economy of sharing, we were interested in
the process, possibilities and people around
what makes Airbnb happen.
Become an integral aspect of the economy.
Due to this we aimed to find Airbnb’s voice
and presence not only in the sharing economy,
but in Savannah as well.
This process book will highlight the basics of
ethnography as applied to our area of study.
The book breaks down the tools used to
find the voice of Airbnb as well as the voice
of the user overall. As the world shifts to an
economy of sharing, we were interested in
the process, possibilities and people around
what makes Airbnb happen.
Users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to
monetize their extra space and showcase it to
an audience of millions.”

8. Interview
Insights +
Findings
divided by
Stakeholders

9. Hosts
People hosting vacation rentals in Savannah
like Airbnb because it provides them an extra
income that help them to pay their mortgage
and fix their house. Airbnb allows them
to meet new people and offer a different
experience for travelers. Some the hosts in
Savannah have multiple houses listed on
Airbnb and other platforms which enables
them to create a long term income and have
a job if they are retired or couldn’t find one.
In Savannah there are multiple hosts that
buy houses in poor neighborhoods with the
purpose of renovate them and take care of
these units that are transformed into vacation
rentals, by doing this they help the community
and make the neighbors look better. On the
other hand there are also hosts that only care
about the extra money and do not even meet
their guests or take care of their houses.
As for the taxes, there were hosts paying their
taxes before they were mandatory, they want
to help the city, but they are still confused
about the hotel/motel tax because they do
not consider themselves a hotel or motel. We
found out that hosts living in the city take care
of their guests and houses and do not have
problems with neighbors, unlike the hosts that
do not live in Savannah, and it’s because of
that reason that local hosts don’t like external
investors or people owning vacation rentals
without living in the city.
Some hosts are taking advantage of the
unclear terms and are applying for business
certificates as bed and breakfasts and inn
because these types of accommodations
are allowed in zones where vacation
rentals are not.

10. Guests
Guests like Airbnb because it is cheap,
has flexible accommodation options and it
allows them to have a local experience and
explore places normal tourists don’t, like
local businesses. Since guests are travelers
some of them don’t care about the city,
they are there to have fun, and sometimes
this can cause problems to neighbors that
live next to vacation rentals. Some of the
most common complains about guests are:
noise at night, invasion of private property,
and trash in the streets.
Accommodations
Big hotels brands do not consider vacation
rentals as competitors because they are
targeting another market, hotels and resorts
offer a variety of services like discounts in
local businesses, spas, gyms, restaurants and
reward points that Airbnb is not offering.
On the other hand, inns and bed and
breakfasts do consider vacation rentals and
home sharing competitors because they
target a similar market and offer the same
kind of services, such as common areas and
a local experience for travelers. However,
some bed and breakfasts and inns in the city
use Airbnb as an advertising platform, even
though they consider it a competitor.
In general, hotels, bed and breakfasts and
inns want a level play field, and want vacation
rentals and home sharing to pay the same
taxes they are required to pay because they
are offering lodging taxes.

11. City
The city, including the tourism, zoning
and revenue department, think vacation
rentals are great for the city because they
generate revenue and bring more tourists the
Savannah. On the other hand vacation rentals
are taking off the market affordable long term
rentals for citizens, and are increasing the
property value of the neighborhoods.
The city created the ordinance 2 years ago in
order to control vacation rentals and decrease
the amount of complaints from neighbors
and hotels, however they are ready to expand
the zoning to allow other citizens to get the
benefits from home sharing and vacation
rentals and to spread the tourism across the
city in order to help local businesses.
They are currently monitoring daily illegal
vacation rentals that do not comply with
the required standards, they need to get
control over these types of accommodations
before Savannah becomes Disneyland, full
of tourists, carriages and horse without
the local flavor of the city.
Neighbors
Most of the neighbors are negatively affected
by Airbnb guests and vacation rentals in
Savannah because most of the time travelers
are not aware that they are in residential areas
with families and children, so they party loud,
take off-street parking, and sometimes invade
neighbors property.
Neighbors are worried of losing the local
flavor of Savannah and the city becoming
Disneyland because they have lost complete
blocks of residential properties that are now
vacation rentals, they feel that without locals
Savannah cannot be what tourists want,
that is why they want to limit the number of
vacation rentals.
Generally neighbors living next to a vacation
rental with the host living in the property are
less affected by these accommodations and
even sometimes it benefits them, unlike those
neighbors living next to vacation rentals that
are not controlled by the hosts.

12. The Big
Adventure

13. Solutions
For our offerings, we moved to our final
solutions. We narrowed down 12 ideas
to 7 final solutions to then prevent to our
stakeholders. We evaluated all solutions
based on which of our ideas best reflected
our research as well as best benefited
each stakeholder.

14. Solution 1: Clear terms

15. Issues addressed:
Confusion between accommodation terms.
External investors that don’t live in the city
and don’t care about the properties are buying
multiple houses to rent.
People renting rooms in their residential
properties are known as bed & breakfasts and
Inns, creating confusion between these types
of accommodations.
Vacation Rentals are taking affordable housing
off the market for citizens.
When a vacation rental does not have an
on-site manager guests do not received a
complete local experience, and sometimes
they get out of control affecting the
neighbors.
Complete neighborhood blocks transformed
into vacation rentals.
Stakeholders Involved:
Hosts
City
Accommodations
Neighbors

17. Solution:
Redefining and adding specifications and
limitations for each type of accommodation,
plus the introduction of the term “Home
sharing” in order to create clearer and simpler
terms for citizens.
Bed and Breakfast
Accommodation for transient guests with 1
to 5 guest rooms with guest common areas,
such as a living, a dining room and a garden
or backyard. Owners typically live on the
property and prepare breakfast in the morning
which is generally offered as part of the price.
Inn
Accommodation for transient guests with
more than 8 rooms that offers breakfast and
dinner. This type of accommodation is owner-
operated or manager-operated, and often
the Innkeeper or manager will also live at the
property. They are small hotel.
Vacation Rentals
Accommodation for transient guests where,
in exchange for compensation, a residential
dwelling unit is provided for lodging for a
period of no more than 30 consecutive days.
Such use may include an on-site manager
(manager living in the city) or off-site manager
(manager not living in the city).
On-site manager specifications:
A person living within the city cannot
have more than 20% of the allowed STVR’s
specified per neighborhood. If the host/
manager has more than 5 vacation rental,
he or she is required to have a co-host
per each 5 dwelling units. Understanding
by the term of co-host, a person living
near the 5 units rented that can take care
of the house and the guests.
Off-site manager specifications:
A person not living within the city cannot
rent more than one residential dwelling.
Home Sharing
Residential dwelling unit containing not
more than 4 sleeping rooms that is used
and/or advertised for rent for transient
occupancy by guests, while at least one
of the primary residents lives on-site
throughout the visitor’s stay.

18. Solution 2: Customized Expansion

19. Issues addressed:
Tourism is concentrated in only one
area of the city.
Only few people can rent or
share their dwelling units due
the current zoning ordinance.
Downtown off-street parking has decreased
due the increase of vacation rentals.
Tourists having bad experiences because of
crime or “bad” neighborhoods can become
bad publicity for the city.
Complete neighborhood blocks transformed
into vacation rentals.
Neighbors with families worried about
strangers walking around the streets where
their children play.
Stakeholders Involved:
Hosts
City
Neighbors
Guest

21. Solution:
Creating a customized expansion of the
current zoning for Vacation Rentals and
Home Sharing’s based on a study that takes
into consideration the following criteria
for each neighborhood:
• Demographics
• Parking spaces
• Atmosphere
• Local businesses
• Crime rate.
Since every neighborhood in Savannah
is different, one solution do not fits all.
From the study carried out each neighborhood
will have different regulations according
to its needs and actual context,
these regulations include:
• Limit on number of STVR per
neighborhood.
• Limit of Homesharing per neighborhood
• Parking lots available for tourists.
Hypothetical examples:
Neighborhood 1 Study Results
• Mostly Residential
• Families
• Calm and quiet.
• Limited parking lots
• Safe
Neighborhood 2 Study Results
• Nightlife
• Youngsters
• Trendy and active
• Available Parking
• Safe
Neighborhood 1 Regulations
• 0 Vacation rentals allowed
• Unlimited Home sharing
• Not suitable for
travelers with cars
Neighborhood 2 Regulations
• 18 vacation rentals allowed
• Unlimited Home sharing
• 23 parking spaces, suitable
for travelers with cars.

22. Hypothetical example:
A group of friends are coming to Savannah,
GA for a bachelorette party, they want to have
fun and have their own house so they can
prepare breakfast for the future bride. They
can select the “Party Trip” in the filters, and
Airbnb will redirect them to a neighborhood
in Savannah where they can be loud without
affecting the neighbors, and where
it’s full of young people and pubs.
Airbnb Involved:
This study will not only help the city to know
each neighborhood better and to regulate
the number of vacation rentals and home
sharing, but also will help the city to be placed
into “Airbnb Neighborhoods” page, which
shows featured neighborhoods with their
description, suggested activities and labels.
We are suggesting that Airbnb can include
inside its filters the following purposes of trip
options, so when a traveler chooses his/her
purpose of trip, Airbnb will redirect the user
and show him/her the ideal neighborhoods
for her vacations.
Purpose of trip:
Romance
• New Life
• Family
• Solo Traveling
• Business
• Wellness
• Party Trip
• City Break
• Wedding

24. Solution 3: Restructuring Taxes

25. Issues addressed:
Hosts are confused because they are paying
a hotel/motel tax without being one.
Neighborhoods are not getting
the benefits from the taxes.
Self-reported tax process based on trust,
the revenue department doesn’t has the
security of receiving the right amount of
taxes from hosts.
People renting their houses for only a few
weekends during the year have to pay
the complete hotel/motel tax.
Stakeholders Involved:
Hosts
City
Neighbors
Accommodations

27. Solution:
Change the name
To avoid confusion with the term hotel/
motel tax between vacation rentals and home
sharing owners, were are proposing to change
the name of the tax to “Lodging Tax” which
involves all types of accommodations that
provide this service to travelers.
Re framing the use:
% Percent of the total hotel/motel taxes
collected in the city is used for the purpose of
promoting tourism, conventions, and trade
shows under a contract with a private sector
nonprofit organization, and the other %
percent is used for the purpose of either
marketing or operating trade and convention
facilities. Since vacation rentals and home
sharing’s are across the city and not only
in the touristic area, we are proposing that
the taxes collected from these 2 types
of accommodations can be restructured
to be used % percent for the purpose of
promoting tourism, and the % remaining
for the purpose of renovating and fixing the
neighborhoods where this vacation rentals
and home sharing’s operate.
New Exemption
For people renting their houses for a few
weekends during the year it is not fair for
them to pay taxes as a complete business,
for that reason we are proposing to create an
exemption for those hosts gaining less than
$2,000 USD per month.
Airbnb Involved:
Airbnb can partner with Savannah, GA.
to start collecting lodging taxes on behalf
of hosts, facilitating the mechanism and
providing millions of dollars in revenue to the
city annually, with the exact information and
amount from each host in the city, allowing
the state to focus on broader issues regarding
Airbnb-type businesses. Airbnb has done
this with 200 cities including: Los Angeles,
Connecticut, France, India, Netherlands,
Amsterdam, Lisbon, Anchorage Alaska,
Palo Alto, and Florida.

28. Solution 4: STVR Website

29. Issues addressed:
Long an analog application process.
Confusion about which areas are allowed to
have vacation rentals and home sharing’s.
Neighbors calling the police and not
knowing how to act when they live next
to a vacation rental.
Unauthorized listings operating in the city.
Misinformation of where vacation rentals
and home sharing are operating.
Tourists taking the limited off-street and
on-street parking from locals.
Applicants have to wait for the
zoning department to check and
approve their application.
Stakeholders Involved:
Hosts
City
Neighbors
Guest

31. Solution:
An all-in one website for Vacation Rentals and home sharing with the following features:
Online application process
Website tab where applicants can start
their registration process by filling up
their information, creating a profile and
searching the address where they want to
have these types of accommodations. The
appliers will be able to check if in a map of
the city how many permits are still available
in each neighborhood and come back to
make changes in their profiles which will
update the database automatically.
Parking Availability
Website tab displaying a map with the parking
spots available in the city that tourists can
book and pay for parking their vehicles.
These parking spaces can be uploaded by the
tourism department and by citizens that have
available spaces in their residences, providing
an extra income for neighbors.
Map
Online map showing all the active and
certified listings of vacation rentals and home
sharing in the area, allowing neighbors to
know how many short term renting dwellings
are around their home and providing the
contact information of each one of them.
Ordinance
Website tab displaying a clear and quick list
of the local regulations released by the city
council to make the website a one-stop shop
for referring to the new and upcoming rules
and regulations.
Neighbors
Tab specially designed for neighbors living
next to a vacation rental and/or home
sharing with contact information and
tips of how to act with issues regarding
these accommodations.
Airbnb Involved
We are proposing a new feature for Airbnb
named “Airbnb Parking” where Airbnb users
can list their underused spaces to provide
cheaper and more convenient parking for
guests traveling with cars. Guests can book,
schedule and pay for this parking spots in
the Airbnb app and website and park there if
their house don’t have a parkings space. With
this new feature Airbnb can provide a better
trip experience for those roadtrippers, open
more opportunities to locals with underused
spaces, and giving a better chance for hosts
withouts parkings to be booked.

36. Solution 6: Renovate and Rent

37. Issues addressed:
Unused old buildings in Savannah, GA.
Neighbors believe hosts are not
helping the city.
Savannah, GA. received a great amount
of people that travel for work.
Hosts are buying houses and renovating
them in poor neighborhoods.
Historic buildings, by law, cannot
be demolished and owners have to
reutilizes those spaces.
Stakeholders Involved:
Hosts
City
Neighbors
Guest

39. Solution:
In order to bring back to life the historic
buildings from Savannah, GA and give them
a new use, we are proposing a partnership
between the city and/or the citizens -
depending who owns the building - and
Airbnb to transform these buildings with
great potential into new spaces such as
offices, meeting rooms, pop up stores for
entrepreneurs, and galleries for artists.
Business travelers that come to the city to
work for a period of time, or even citizens that
can’t find a place to have meetings or show
their art, can use these spaces that suddenly
can become networking platforms since
different professionals and entrepreneurs
are working in the same place. These new
spaces can also be transformed into workshop
facilities where travelers can share their
experiences with locals, like filmmakers that
come to Savannah.
Airbnb Involved
We are presenting to Airbnb a new feature
and a new branch for their brand named
“Airbnb Spaces”, which is focused on leisure
(business + leisure) travelers. Guests can
go to the Airbnb app and book an office,
a gallery, or a meeting room for a period
of time and according to their needs and
number of attendees. With this new feature
Airbnb can target a new sector of tourists
and will bring locals and travelers together
to share their passions.
Before
After

40. Solution 7: Boosting Local Economy

41. Issues addressed:
Tourism is centralized in one space.
Travelers are not experiencing the real
essence of the city.
Local businesses far from downtown are not
benefiting from tourism.
Stakeholders Involved:
City
Guest

42. Have a local experience!
You are near Foxy Loxy
Café, try it out!

43. Solution:
Partnership between Savannah and Airbnb
to promote the hidden jewels of the city
inside its “places” tab, that will allow the
city to spread the tourism around Savannah
and help those small businesses that offer
great services, but that now do not receive
a lot of attention.
Currently this feature shows inside a map
the places nearby the guest, and displays a
little description of it, so we are proposing
a new update for this feature:
Each of the local businesses that are part
of the Airbnb community will receive a
customized stamp with the legend “Have a
local experience”, and every time Airbnb users
are near one of this hidden jewels the app
will send a notification to their phones telling
them they are close to an Airbnb space where
they will be able to get special offers, such
as a unique menu experience or great deals,
offering a more directly local experience to
guests that would get more engaged and
involved with the city personality.

44. Solution 8: Airbnb Opportunities

45. Issues addressed:
Travelers are not giving back
to the community.
Travelers do not care about the city
they are visiting.
Stakeholders Involved:
City
Guest
Neighbors

47. Solution:
A new feature for Airbnb named “Airbnb
Opportunities” where guests that are
staying in an Airbnb will unlock a variety of
volunteering/collaboration opportunities to
perform while they are traveling in exchange
of “Airbnb Credits” that they can spend in
local businesses partnered with Airbnb or in
their future bookings.
This opportunities can be uploaded by local
businesses, neighbors, tourism platforms
and Savannah’s tourism department, and will
range from different tasks such as helping in
local events, planting trees, volunteering to
help tourists in a tour, and spend some hours
helping in a local business, all with the same
goal of helping the community.
Before applying to these opportunities
each guest has to upload their skills in their
Airbnb profiles, this will help them to filter
those opportunities that are perfect to them
and that will give them a pleasant local
experience. Once they apply, the “employers”
will receive a notification and will be able to
match those volunteers that they consider are
the best for the opportunity, getting the best
experience from both parts. This feature has
the opportunity to expand to a greater online
job system where travelers who like the city
can find long term jobs and move in.