Sounding Off: The right strategy can alter a brand's course

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered on our site that week.

The coronavirus outbreak is inspiring travel brands the world over to rethink how they operate, from efforts in the short-term to assist healthcare professionals to fundamental changes on their proposition in the future.

Furthermore, big-picture, strategic choices are being made everywhere - some are vital to survival, many are simply to do the right thing under the circumstances.

The sudden onset of issues impacting what is undoubtedly one of the travel brands of the decade, Airbnb, is serious and has numerous elements.

The company's public listing, slated for 2020, is clearly in doubt and some financial commentators are even questioning the ability of its CEO to lead the business through the upcoming months and beyond.

But there is a very important and rather subtle change in its strategy, as the InPhocus podcast highlights this week.

Airbnb undoubtedly did the right thing and offered refunds to guests as COVID-19 took hold across the world, not least because it had no choice as its competitors (Booking.com and Expedia, for example) had already led the way with the same strategy.

But this put it at odds with hosts, many of whom were suddenly without an income and felt cast aside.

For a company that always talked about the community of hosts being a key pillar of the brand, doing the right thing for its traveling guests has had an altogether different consequence elsewhere.

It will be an important period ahead for Airbnb, for many reasons.

But a critical element will be how it demonstrates to its hosts that are still special and that are not just the supply chain in the same way that property owners are for countless other platforms.