Read the case in Chapter 3 and conduct your own research. Prepare DETAILED analysis for the following questions: Identify Key PESTEL factors for Airbnb and explain the significant positive and negative impacts on the business. Part I and Part II of case study is attached.

CHAPTERCASE 3 Part I Airbnb's Pandemic Pivot Not too long ago, it would have seemed impossible for a startup to disrupt the entire hospitality industry. The busi- ness had been long dominated by giants such as Marriott and Hilton, which took decades to become successful global brands. Yet in 2022, Airbnb had 4 million hosts in over 100,000 cities in some 220 countries offering guest stays in almost every region across the globe. Guests can make reser- vations for low-budget spare rooms or entire islands and castles. With its asset-light approach based on its platform strategy, Airbnb can offer. more accommodations than the three biggest hotel chains combined: Marriott, Hilton, and Intercontinental. And just like global hotel chains, Airbnb uses sophisticated pricing and reservation. systems for guests to find, reserve, and pay for rooms to meet their travel needs. Three people took them up on the offer, and the two roommates made some money to subsidize their rent pay- ments. But, more importantly, Chesky and Gebbia felt that they had stumbled upon a new business idea: Help people rent out their spare rooms. They then brought on computer scientist Nathan Blecharczyk, one of Gebbia's former room- mates, to create a website where hosts and guests could meet and transact. The three co-founders named their site AirBedandBreakfast.com, later shortened to Airbnb. The three entrepreneurs tested their new site at the 2008 South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, which celebrates the con- vergence of the tech, film, and music industries. SXSW also We miss traveling too. -Airbnb Airbnb's strategic pivot turned the Covid-19 pandemic into an opportunity. A massive amount of real-time user data from the company's website allowed CEO Chesky to quickly notice emerging travel trends. Guests searched for local travel accommodations with remote working capabilities. As city dwellers left the crowded apartment buildings, they also booked longer stays. With ads like the one shown here, Airbnb encourages its users to think beyond renting accommodations for pandemic-related work arrangements but consider leisure travel again as Covid-restrictions have eased around the globe. Source: Airbnb, Inc. In 2008, Airbnb was a fledgling startup on a shoe- string budget. Today, it is a multibillion-dollar company. that competes globally. The company, for instance, reached a significant milestone (in 2021) with 1 billion guest arrivals. Airbnb's success is even more stunning given the high entry barriers traditionally protecting incumbent firms. How did Airbnb disrupt the global hospitality industry? Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, the founders of Airbnb, were roommates in San Francisco (in 2007) struggling to make rent payments. Both were industrial designers, people who shape the form and function of everything from coffee cups to office furniture to airplane interiors. On a whim, they decided to send an e-mail to the distribution list for an upcoming industrial design conference in their hometown: "If you're heading out to the [industrial design conference] in San Francisco next week and have yet to make accommo- dations, well, consider networking in your jam-jams. That's right. For an affordable alternative to hotels in the city, imagine yourself in a fellow design industry person's home, fresh awake from a snooze on the ol' air mattress, chatting about the day's upcoming events over Pop Tarts and OJ." serves as an informal launch pad for new ventures. Twitter, for example, was unveiled at SXSW just a year earlier to great fanfare. However, Airbnb's launch at SXSW flopped. The conference or- ganizers had exclusive con- tracts with local hotels, which the Airbnb founders did not know. As a result, the confer- ence organizers didn't drive any traffic to Airbnb's site. Undiscouraged, Airbnb decided to take advantage of the anticipated shortage of hotel rooms in Denver, Colorado, at the Democratic. National Convention (DNC) in 2008. After all local hotels were booked, the founders prepared media releases with pithy titles such as "Grassroots Housing for Grassroots Campaign." This messaging resonated with Obama support- ers. As a result of their shrewd guerrilla marketing, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal wrote effu- sively about Airbnb. The newly designed Airbnb website facilitated about 100 rentals during the DNC. Soon after the event, however, website traffic to Airbnb's site fell back to zero. To generate some cash to continue their venture, Chesky and Gebbia decided to become cereal entrepre- neurs, creating "Obama-O's: The breakfast of change" and "Cap'n McCains: A maverick in every bite," featuring illus- trated images of the 2008 presidential candidates on 1,000 cereal boxes. After sending samples to their press contacts and the subsequent media coverage, the limited-edition cereal sold out quickly, providing Chesky and Gebbia with additional revenue to continue marketing Airbnb. 81