FINAL ASSIGNMENT Airbnb

Morgan Bush
April 29, 2016
CLIENT: Airbnb
Problem:
Airbnb has risen in popularity extremely in the past few years; however, that
rise has come hand-in-hand with some major criticisms. Companies and
individuals call attention to the lack of safety regulations for travelers
choosing to use Airbnb over a standard hotel. According to these critics,
Airbnbs safety policies are deficient and incomplete, and put travelers at
risk.
Research Questions:
1. Who is most likely to hold the opinion that Airbnb rentals are unsafe?
2. To what extent is the opinion that Airbnb rentals are unsafe shared?
(combine 1 & 2)
3. How can Airbnb best create and maintain an image of safety and validity
to its potential users?
RESEARCH PLAN:
Secondary/Syndicated Research:
To begin a study into Airbnbs public perception, it would be crucial to
start with secondary research in order to get the necessary background
information. This is the clear first step because it is inexpensive and because
there is so much information already out there. The knowledge gained in this
step would lead the remainder of the research plan, guiding the process of
planning focus groups and interviews, and streamlining the investigation.
Without the information gained from secondary research, there would be no
basis upon which to choose interviewees or to formulate questions.
The best place to start looking for qualitative data about public
opinions concerning Airbnb would be travel blogs. As blogging becomes more
popular, millions of people are beginning to narrate their travel adventures.
This is extremely popular among younger travelers, who are also more likely
to utilize Airbnb above the more standardized hotel options. On these blogs,
one could expect to find uncensored opinions on travel destinations and
accommodations. These blogs could tell the stories of specific positive or
negative Airbnb experiences, or could point to underlying patterns and
trends in what individuals view as positive or negative in their traveling
experiences.
Another place to look would be travel forums and sites like TripAdvisor,
Lonely Planet, Fodors Travel or Yelp. Although both were more traditionally
used for restaurants and sights, TripAdvisor and Yelp have become popular
forums for conversations about all things travel-related. In such forums,
findings could be gathered from conversations about specific experiences as
well as general opinions about traveling and safety what people like or
dislike about certain accommodations and what people look for in their travel

experiences. This would be a great way to see what travelers potential

clients of Airbnbs services think about the company and the experience.
Through searching travel forums, travel blogs and sites such as
TripAdvisor, I would hope to find patterns and trends in thinking I would be
especially interested in finding differences in opinions, in general, between
different demographics; specifically between generations of travelers. My
expectation, though only a hypothesis at this point, would be to find that
younger travelers (those aged 18 to 35) would be more likely to have a
positive view of Airbnb than their counterparts aged 35 and up. I expect that
the older generation would be more hesitant due to safety concerns. I expect
to find this trend based upon the difference in worldviews held by younger
and older generations. To me, it seems likely that older generations, with a
more conservative mindset, would be more hesitant toward risks and
changes from the norm, which I believe to be hotels over Airbnb rentals. I
also assume younger populations to be more adventurous and less cautious
perhaps more likely to choose alternatives to the norm. Though purely
hypothetical at this point, if I found this trend, I would focus subsequent
research efforts on potential travelers aged 35 and up. This would influence
the people I choose to include in focus groups, in-depth interviews and to
whom I would send a survey. If I were to find this assumed trend, I would
most likely choose to separate the generations in focus groups. Perhaps the
generational difference will later help to explain why some people are more
likely to view Airbnb rentals as unsafe.
Focus Group:
Following secondary research, I would conduct focus groups. Focus
groups are a clear choice as the first primary method because they allow a
researcher to figure out overlying patterns and trends to then delve deeper
into in interviews. In focus groups, I would hope to get a clearer sense of why
people may distrust Airbnb and how people communicate with one another
about travel concerns and influence one anothers thoughts on safety and
travel. In a focus group, I can gain insights about these conversations
between individuals and reactionary responses, which I could not see in a
one-on-one interview setting. Additionally, I may be able to more accurately
define what travelers see as unsafe or untrustworthy about travel and
accommodation services in these focus groups. I also could gain general
insights into what people like and dislike about hotel experiences that could
push them toward considering a provider such as Airbnb. I consider focus
groups a setting in which its more possible to find trend-based findings over
experience-based findings. Due to the time constraints, I believe that I would
be likely to hear more general opinions and thoughts over specific, detailed
experiences that I could delve into in later interviews. For example, in a focus
group I would expect respondents to give positive or negative opinions about
Airbnb, based on experiences or stories. However, in an interview, I would be
able to have a respondent give a full explanation of their specific experiences
with Airbnb and explain how and why that has affected their opinions.
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In order to gain the necessary insights from these focus groups, I would
recruit people from a variety of sources. First, I would choose a group of
experienced travelers, including perhaps professionals working in travelrelated industries, such as travel agents. I would group these people
together because they have similar knowledge of the industry and
regulations. I think they would be likely to have deeper insights into specific
experiences as well as trends and changes in the travel experience over
time. Additionally, I would avoid having these respondents in focus groups
with the general public because theyre unlikely to be swayed in their
opinions, while people without much experience may be swayed in such a
way. If someone who wants to travel but hasnt done much of it and doesnt
know much of the ins and outs of the process hears a travel agent, someone
seeming to have a strong background in the subject, saying certain things
about Airbnb, they may be swayed toward having an opinion that they did
not previously have. This could skew results and lead to groupthink. Such
group dynamics are likely to change the outcomes of the research and
portray trends that do not actually exist. For example, I may find, in this
situation, that more people view Airbnb rentals as unsafe than, in fact, hold
that opinion. In order to accurately answer the research questions and find
the extent to which people view Airbnb as unsafe, groupthink should be
limited.
For the general public, I may consider splitting up males and females.
Though the subject isnt necessarily gendered, its suggested that women
and men have different levels of concern when it comes to safety and
security. For example, a woman is more prone to having feelings of anxiety
and vulnerability in certain situations, as opposed to a man who may not feel
the same. Though a generalization, it is possible that a woman would feel
less confident expressing her safety concerns in a focus group environment if
she does not feel as if those opinions would be shared, or if she feels as if
she may be judged for feeling the way she does. For this reason, it would be
important to make focus group environments as comfortable as possible, and
one way of ensuring that could be through gendered separation.
I would also consider breaking up the groups based upon age. Perhaps
interviewing 18 to 35-year-olds separately from 35 to 65-year-olds. I may see
value in this separation based upon my findings in secondary research. If
what I find aligns with my hypothesis that the younger subsection is less
likely to view Airbnb rentals as unsafe, I would want to separate the
demographics in order to better assess this idea. If the younger group feels
strongly that rentals are safe and there is a focus group in which it is 5
people aged 18 to 35 and only one 40-year-old, that 40-year-old may feel
pressured against sharing his true thoughts. This potential groupthink
emergence could significantly skew findings. However, if I had no reason to
believe this trend from secondary research, I would not have any inclination
to separate the age groups.
These focus groups could be held in many different settings. I would
suggest a room with a table in which respondents can sit looking at one
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another, to make the style more conversational and interactive. The

environment should be comfortable, to ease respondents feelings and make
them feel comfortable discussing potentially sensitive subjects. The ideal
size of the focus group would be between six and eight respondents
enough to have a conversation, but not so many that it takes away from the
conversation. Respondents must feel heard and valued in this setting, not
overpowered by the size of the group. This is important because some
respondents may feel less comfortable sharing their personal experiences
with a large group. In a smaller, more intimate group, people can discuss
certain points at length and the conversation is more easily curved in the
direction in which the moderator decides. Having as few as two more people
would take up more time and give each respondent less time and attention
under which to give their opinions.
Additionally, to maintain that comfortable factor, the focus groups
should not be much longer than an hour. First, people wont be as willing to
take the time out of their day if its too long. Secondly, people will lose
interest in the conversation if its forced to carry on past a certain point. The
ideal length would be in between half an hour and an hour long enough to
have detailed and deeper conversations, but not long enough to bore
respondents. In order to get a somewhat representative grasp of opinions, I
would hold at least five focus groups of each group (experienced travelers
and travel industry members, and potential travelers). If I have a significant
amount of focus groups from which to find trends, its likely that thematic
qualitative patterns would emerge. Such patterns are necessary in order to
influence interview questions and what Ill want to observe and survey later
on.
In asking questions, I would begin with the more definitional questions
before leading into more specific and detailed questions. This is the proper
order because the respondents should first become comfortable with the
setting, process and moderator before answering the more sensitive
questions. In this situation, I could follow this recipe by first asking questions
related to general preferences in travel and accommodations before the
more personal questions about safety and experiences with Airbnb. This
order follows the trend of general to specific and non-sensitive to sensitive.
Question Battery 1: Accommodation Preferences
1. What aspects of an accommodation are most important to you in
choosing where to stay when you travel?
a. Price.
i. Why is price important to you?
1. Im on a tight budget
a. What considerations do you make when
budgeting?
b. Location
i. Why is location important to you?

1. I want to be close to the best parts of the city Im

visiting.
a. What is it that makes one part of the city better
than others?
c. User Reviews
i. Why are past reviews important to you?
1. I dont want to stay somewhere in which other
people have had a bad experience.
a. What do you look for in reviews?
2. How do additional amenities or services improve an
accommodation?
a. What other services or accommodations are important to you?
i. Concierge services
1. What do you use concierge services for? What are
you likely to ask a concierge for/about?
3. Based on your experiences, what most needs improvement in the
hotel industry?
Question Battery 2: Airbnb Opinions
1. What sorts of stories or opinions have you heard about Airbnb
experiences?
a. How has that story impacted your openness to using Airbnb in
the future?
2. If you have used Airbnb, please explain why you chose it over other
stay options such as hotels or hostels.
3. If you havent used Airbnb, please explain why not.
a. You cited safety concerns as a reason not to use Airbnb. Can
you elaborate on the aspects of the company or its
accommodations that make it unsafe in your opinion?
b. In what other situations have you felt unsafe?
To analyze the findings from focus groups, I would search notes and
transcripts for themes and patterns. I would hope to find connections
between demographics and points of view or perhaps between two variables
related to safety. The trends I find may point to larger relations and thematic
patterns to be further analyzed through interviews and then quantified
through a survey. For example, perhaps many women, regardless of age,
cited reading user reviews when choosing a place to visit or to stay. If those
same women said that they used reviews in order to assess how valid and
safe an accommodation is, that might point to a trend in women claiming
reviews as an important piece in choosing a travel accommodation and
reviews as an important indicator of whether or not a place is safe. This sort
of finding may lead me to test the prominence of this trend in the greater
population in my survey. Trends, overlaps and relationships between
responses can direct my subsequent research plan, influencing the question
map in interviews, participant observation variables and survey questions.
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In-Depth Interviews:
Interviews are most logical immediately following focus group
interviews because they allow further delving into topics and conversations
that may be more complex or more sensitive. In a one-on-one situation,
respondents may feel more at ease to share personal opinions and
experiences than they might have been in a group setting. However, due to
the increased time needed to interview respondents individually, in-depth
interviews are more costly in both time and money. For this reason, its best
to have a clearer grasp of the information desired, based upon focus group
findings, before going into the interview itself.
In considering interviewees, I would choose a couple people from each
category described in the focus group section above: two or three travel
agents/those working in the travel industry, two or three women from each
age category and two or three men from each age category (if my previous
research suggested there being a difference in opinion between the age
groups). This number of interviews provides enough repetition for trends to
be established, but wouldnt be so many that it costs too much time, money
and effort. Its important to interview more than one person from each
category in order to see if viewpoints and opinions are shared to better
understand differences that may exist between the groups of interest.
The settings should be similar to those described for focus groups, but
on an individual basis: informal, casual and conversational. I would want to
the interview to last close to 30 minutes - not so long that the respondent
becomes disinterested from the subject or feels that it would take too much
of their day, but long enough to allow a relationship to form between
interviewer and interviewee to establish a level of comfort. A substantial
level of comfort between the interviewer and interviewee is vital to gaining
perspective regarding more personal and specific experiences and opinions.
If an interviewee feels uncomfortable with the interviewer, he/she is unlikely
to be open and transparent in his/her responses to tougher questions.
Questions: I would use the same question batteries as I used in the
focus groups with one key difference. I would place a substantial emphasis
upon experiences and stories. I would push the interviewees to answer the
questions with specifics and delve deeper to get motivational and emotional
responses. The goal of these interviews would be to hear more about
detailed experiences and interactions, both positive and negative about the
hotel, hostel or Airbnb experiences had by interviewees. Additionally, I would
want to get more of a grasp of times in which the respondents have felt safe
or unsafe, to understand what variables are associated with those feelings.
The element of time is what allows for this difference between focus groups
and interviews. With the extra time from having six less respondents, the
individual interviewees are able to take their time and leave no detail spared
in their interview sessions.
To analyze these findings, I would follow the same formula I did in the
focus group section, finding trends, patterns and potential relationships
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between variables. The thematic qualitative patterns I found in my focus

group research could be reinforced or countered within my interviews. In this
way, interview findings build upon what was found in both secondary
research and focus groups in order to move forward in participant
observation and then to test with quantitative methods.
The most evident design differences between a focus group and
interview that would be conducted in this study would be the amount of
depth and room for experience-based responses. I would want to use the
focus group as more of a measure of general opinions and trends in thinking,
only touching upon the deeper motivations behind these frames of mind. In
one-on-one settings, it would be much simpler and a better use of time to
delve into the emotional and motivational answers underneath the
respondents ideas. Specifically, Id want to hear detailed, specific answers
from interviewees about their opinions and experiences the reasons behind
the opinions that I gathered data on in focus groups. This is true of an
interview versus a focus group due to the sheer difference in size. In a group
of six to eight, time is better spent finding trends rather than asking each
respondent to share specific, personal experiences, due to time constraints
as well as the general group atmosphere. For example, a young woman who
had a traumatic or sensitive travel experience may be unlikely to share the
details and emotions behind that experience in a group setting with half a
dozen strangers. Its likely that shed feel more at ease having such a
conversation in a one-on-one setting. However, its also possible that trends
in thinking are evidenced through group dynamics in a focus group that
would not come about in an interview. The conversational and debate style
of a focus group might, for example, bring up ideas about Airbnb amenities
that individuals may not have thought of otherwise.
Ethnography:
Ethnography would be the next and last logical step in a qualitative
research plan. Participation observation is another method through which to
assess peoples opinions and preferences through observing their behavior.
The key difference between this method versus interviews and focus groups
is that it assesses behavior, meaning underlying opinions and trends that
people may not report about themselves can come to light. For example,
perhaps people utilize certain services within a hotel that they dont even
realize they take advantage of. Or perhaps assessing individuals level of
comfort through their appearance will show more than their yes or no
response to whether or not they feel safe.
This method makes sense following both focus groups and then
interviews because both are likely to influence where the observation is
chosen to take place and what is being looked for in the ethnography.
Without the findings from the other two forms of qualitative research,
planning and executing an observational study would be less informed and
more difficult. Lastly, I wouldnt move to quantitative research until Id
exhausted the qualitative methods in order to get a clear grasp of which
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qualitative trends I wish to assess. Through qualitative research, I would

explore my hypothesis and pull together various trends and insights that I
could then test through quantitative means to see how generalizable the
theory may be.
An ideal place to conduct this ethnography would be at a hotel, hostel
or bed and breakfast. I would want to observe travelers in their places of stay
in order to see their interactions with other guests and use of the services
provided. Hearing the questions asked of concierge services and the
concerns brought to the managements attention could be telling of general
preferences in the travel industry. Additionally, observing travelers
tendencies in common areas, their levels of comfort at their place of stay
through their willingness to relax and interact with others within the hotel.
I would consider conducting said ethnographies in multiple scenes,
perhaps a couple bed and breakfasts, a couple hostels and a couple hotels.
Most likely in different locations: both tourist hotspots and less common
destinations to see the variance in services utilized and preferences. This is
an important element of the study because there are likely to be major
differences in what people desire and require in a city like Paris versus a
more remote location in Chapel Hill. These differences could be telling of
larger trends in the travel and stay experience. For example, in Chapel Hill,
perhaps people are more likely to utilize concierge services to find a
restaurant than in a big city like Paris in which it may be less likely to find
favorite local spots. Or, perhaps, people are more likely to feel unsafe in a
city in which they dont know the language or the culture because they feel
uncertain about their interactions.
The most opportune time to conduct the studies would most likely be
afternoon to evening, when people are checking in, and, therefore, most
likely to be interacting with staff and management at the accommodation.
Additionally, within this time frame, its likely to see people passing time and
hanging out in common spaces like the lobby. Two to three hours in these
locations would be most sensible considering the possibility of lulls within the
time frame. Within this amount of time, its likely that observers would be
able to watch people check-in and then perhaps come back to reception to
plan their afternoon or get more information about their places of stay. This
timeframe allows observers to listen to and see enough interactions to form
theories about trends and to see repetition and differences in preferences of
some guests over others. Observing individuals level of comfort in the
common spaces could be quite telling of their feelings of safety. Do people
seem relaxed? Or do they seem nervous? Do parents keep their children
close? Or do they allow their children to roam the area freely with comfort?
These could all be findings to evidence more general trends in feelings of
safety, or lack thereof.
These trends would be noted and later considered within the larger
study to find greater patterns. In analyzing the data gathered through
participant research, I would hope to see certain variables coming together
that might point to a larger finding. For example, if I were to find that the
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people who were able to speak with the concierge service and staff at the
accommodation were more likely to be found looking relaxed and at ease, I
may be able to assume that familiarity goes hand-in-hand with comfort and
feelings of safety. I could also look at that from the opposite point of view
and think that language barriers create a primer leading to feelings of being
unsafe. Perhaps that first point of unfamiliarity or foreignness puts travelers
in a position that they see as insecure. This is just an example of a way that
different behavioral observations within a place and time can lead to larger
findings that could not necessarily be found through focus groups or
interviews, in which respondents must be open and aware to disclose such
correlations.
Survey Research:
Survey research is best conducted after the culmination of qualitative
research in order to test the hypotheses gathered throughout the previous
methods. Through a survey, trends and ideas can be tested for prevalence
and generalizability. I would take the findings from qualitative research
those trends and patterns in order to create a question map that helps me
test my theories connecting Airbnb and lack of safety for validity and
reliability. I want to find that my theories are shared by a significant
proportion of those surveyed in order to find representativeness.
Question Battery 1: Individual Experiences:
1. Have you ever stayed at an Airbnb location?
a. Yes (If yes, proceed to Question 2)
b. No (If no, proceed to Question 5)
2. How many times have you stayed in an Airbnb location?
a. 1-2 times
b. 3-5 times
c. More than 5 times
3. Please rank your overall experience with Airbnb locations below (scale
1-5: 1 being very bad and 5 being very good).
4. Please rank your overall experience with Airbnb hosts below (scale 15: 1 being very bad and 5 being very good).
5. Please indicate the importance of the following aspects in choosing a
travel accommodation (scale 1-5: 1 being not important at all and 5
being extremely important)
a. User reviews
b. Location
c. Amenities
d. Price
6. Should anyone be permitted to rent out rooms within their homes to
travelers?
e. Yes, it should be allowed.
f. No, it should be banned.
g. Yes, but there should be a one-time verification process.
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h. Yes, but there should be a regular check and regulation process.

i. No preference.
Question Battery 2 Safety in Different Locations
1. How likely are you to research safety ratings of a destination before
traveling there? (Scale 1-5: 1 being not at all likely and 5 being very
likely)
2. Which of the following circumstances would make you feel unsafe?
a. Alone in an alleyway in the daytime
b. Alone in an alleyway in the nighttime
c. In a bar in which you dont speak the language everyone else is
speaking
d. In a building that is not up to code
e. In an apartment from which you can hear the neighbors yelling
at each other
f. On a crowded subway car full of strangers
3. Please rank the likelihood, in your opinion, of falling victim to the
following crimes while traveling (Scale 1-5: 1 being not at all likely
and 5 being very likely)
a. Identity theft
b. ATM fraud
c. Mugging
d. Physical assault
e. Verbal assault
As can be seen in the above question map, I would flow the survey
from more general questions to more emotional and personal questions later
on. This follows the logical flow of non-sensitive to sensitive questions that
exists in order to ensure that youre not priming or leading the respondents
in any way, and to create some level of comfort before getting into the
sensitive topics. Additionally, this order should be consistent in keeping
simpler questions first and more complex ones last. In order to, again, create
a level of comfort and familiarity with the survey and topics. In a survey such
as this one, I would not want to lead with the questions about safety and
dangerous situations before asking about opinions about Airbnb because that
could lead respondents toward connecting the two and responding in a way
that they would not have otherwise, perhaps correlating Airbnb and lack of
regulation, etc.
My analysis would most likely be bivariate and multivariate, looking to
find any correlations between variables that could be telling of trends.
Already I may see value in creating a cross tabulation between how
important respondents find user reviews to be in picking a place to stay and
how likely they are to read reviews for safety reasons. As far as measuring
the data, I would use nominal measurements for the few multiple choice
questions included in my survey, in order to find the frequencies of each
response. Then ordinal measurement would come into play with the scalar
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questions. This form of measurement provides much richer insights through

central measures such as medians and means and standard deviation, which
can tell me a lot about the response Ill have received.
In sending out the survey, I would want the distribution to be crosssectional, to get as representative of a sample as possible. My goal would be
to reach potential travelers, people who are likely to be considering Airbnb or
to already have opinions about it. This is an ideal target audience because it
is made up of people who are likely to have ideas about travel and safety
and are potential customers and users of Airbnbs services. I would want to
have a large sample of respondents in this case because the population of
travelers is diverse and the variables Im testing are complex. As this survey
would be not be geographically-specific, but available to people around the
country, I would want to survey about 1000 individuals. The return on
investment will diminish after 500, as weve studied; however, this public is
quite diverse, and I want to reduce margin of error as much as possible to
have representative findings. The sites that Im proposing to use to reach my
intended respondents receive hundreds, perhaps thousands of American
visitors each day, so a sample size of 1000 is not unrealistic.
To reach potential and current travelers, I would go back to the places I
first did my research. Sites like travel forums and TripAdvisor have user
accounts and some sort of subscription service. Perhaps I could have a
survey link go out to the websites followers and users through an email
listserv or e-newsletter sent out by the site. Additionally, I could pay for an
online advertisement on sites such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, Fodors
Travel or Yelp, which would direct people to the survey link. This way, I would
reach potential travelers people who are researching for future travels or
commenting/posting about past experiences. This method would allow for a
broad spectrum of respondents, from various ages, genders and
demographics. In this way, I would have a variety of respondents, which
could make my findings more generalizable and representative. By targeting
visitors and subscribers to these sites, I would connect with my desired
audience of potential travelers the point at which individuals are most likely
to be considering Airbnb alongside other accommodation options.
The key to the success of this distribution would be that it would be
web-based and fully electronic. This is not only much cheaper, but much
more practical as well, considering how difficult it may be to track down
addresses for a large group of people and then get them to also mail
something back. Additionally, relying on the Internet is quite a bit faster than
relying on snail mail or calls to individuals. Of course there are still positives
and negatives to this method, including the fact that electronic surveys have
a fairly low response rate. To combat this concern, I could include incentives
to encourage responses. Perhaps five random respondents will receive their
next Airbnb stay free of charge. This would certainly incentivize many people
to participate who previously may not have; however, it may also have
numerous negative effects on my results. First of all, the incentive could
attract respondents that I may not wish to attract. For example, I could get
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respondents who want a free trip, but dont really have any opinions about
safety and travel, or who respond quickly and carelessly to the survey, just
to get through it and enter the drawing. Additionally, to receive an incentive,
a respondent would have to provide personal information, which jeopardizing
the potential anonymity of a survey another consequence to consider.
However, an incentive can also help to encourage people to take the time
and effort to answer a survey. Ultimately, I would not include an incentive,
due to weighing the negative consequences and concerns over the positives.
I want to be sure that I have not skewed my results, even if theyre less
representative as a result.
This survey would be concept testing; testing the ideas and trends, not
actual written materials. The goal of this research is simply to test general
attitudes, which would likely precede some copy creation for a subsequent
campaign; however this research is not presenting any physical materials to
test, its only exploring concepts and ideas. I hope to answer my research
questions and find explanations as to the prevalence of the opinion that
Airbnb rentals are unsafe and the reasons why people may have these
opinions. Copy testing might, however, come later if I were to find
substantial information through concept testing and create promotional
materials based upon those findings. To test those promotional materials, I
would then use copy testing.
CONCLUSION:
In summary, I have designed this research plan in order to find the
prevalence of the opinion that Airbnb rentals are unsafe and to explain why
these opinions may be held. Through secondary research via travel blogs,
forums and sites such as TripAdvisor, I would find the background
information necessary to inform my focus groups and interviews. During the
focus groups and interviews, Ill hope to find general trends and thematic
patterns in respondents opinions concerning the travel industry, specifically,
as it relates to safety. When I move forward with participant observation, Ill
study the behavior of travelers in actual hotels, hostels and bed and
breakfasts in order to assess their levels of comfort and abilities to relax,
given the environment and other variables. Finally, Ill take the thematic
qualitative patterns found throughout the previous four methods in order to
create a survey and test the extent to which my theories can be supported
quantitatively. The analysis of the survey data will hopefully support my
theories and help to provide answers to my original research questions;
therefore, informing a promotional campaign or messaging by Airbnb to
potential users to combat the idea of their rentals being unsafe, addressing
the problem the company is experiencing, to which I referred at the
beginning of the research plan.

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PEER EVALUATIONS
Group Member 1: Emily Sullivan
He/she was always present and on time for any in-class workdays or
out-of-class group meetings: A

He/she always fully participated during any in-class workdays or out-ofclass group meetings: A

He/she worked well with the group, offered critical feedback, and was
pleasant to work with: A

He/she was a necessary member of the team, made the project better
overall, and would be great to work with again in the future: A

Overall, Id give this team member a grade of: A

Other Notes: Emily was always eager to go above and beyond. She was
extremely responsive and very much available with input and
recommendations.

Group Member 2: Ashley Fox

He/she was always present and on time for any in-class workdays or
out-of-class group meetings: A

He/she always fully participated during any in-class workdays or out-ofclass group meetings: A

He/she worked well with the group, offered critical feedback, and was
pleasant to work with: A

He/she was a necessary member of the team, made the project better
overall, and would be great to work with again in the future: A

Overall, Id give this team member a grade of: A

Other Notes: Ashley was a strong team member. She was constantly
available and eager to put in the necessary (and even extra) work and
hours. She also brought in ideas and skills from other classes that we
were able to consider and implement.

Group Member 3: Olivia Buffington

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He/she was always present and on time for any in-class workdays or
out-of-class group meetings: B+

He/she always fully participated during any in-class workdays or out-ofclass group meetings: A-

He/she worked well with the group, offered critical feedback, and was
pleasant to work with: A

He/she was a necessary member of the team, made the project better
overall, and would be great to work with again in the future: A-

Overall, Id give this team member a grade of: A-

Other Notes: Olivia was participative and helpful; however, she was
often unavailable or unresponsive in the group message and on the
Google Docs that we used to coordinate and discuss.

Yourself:
I was always present and on time for any in-class workdays or out-ofclass group meetings: A

I always fully participated during any in-class workdays or out-of-class

group meetings: A

I worked well with the group, offered critical feedback, and was
pleasant to work with: A

I was a necessary member of the team, made the project better

overall, and was a major factor in the groups overall project: A-

Overall, Id give myself a grade of: A

Other Notes: I was often the one to begin and carry out the
conversation in the group message about planning work and projects. I
feel that I contributed significantly to all of the group portions by often
being the one to email you on behalf of the group and compiling
individual portions into the final content.

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