My Story - Airbnb Singapore Resume

WELCOME HOME Read my story & find out how I can contribute

Search Matthew Kumar..

Hey, I’m Matthew!

Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016

Hey, I’m Matthew!

Conversation with Anna - Airbnb

------ ANNA PRE-APPROVED YOU ON 25/04/2016 ------

Hello Anna! Hope you are having a good day! Thank you for giving me the opportunity and taking your time to virtually host me today in your beautiful home in the Airbnb Dublin office, Ireland. I thought I should specially prepare this document for you, so that you would be able to get to know me better. More importantly, I hope this document would be useful for you to find out how best I can contribute to your home and the community in Airbnb. I must also share that I am excitedly looking forward to my stay in Airbnb! Cheers! - Matthew


Hey, I’m Matthew!

Read my story….

As a child, I grew up with ambitions to be a policeman because of my investigative and inquisitive nature of asking questions & reasons. Unfortunately, my folks were against that idea and all they got me was this ‘fake’ police uniform as a keepsake.


In School, I began to have a newfound love for selling ideas. Hence, I pursued a major in Business Marketing. To support myself financially, I developed my entrepreneurial spirit by becoming a Real Estate Agent dealing in rental properties.

Professionally, my experience comes from a research and analytical background; predominantly working on consumer behaviour and employee engagement studies. A huge part of my work also involved conducting ‘mystery shopping ‘audits and analysing trends in customer service and service compliance within many industries in Singapore and the South-East Asia region. This has honed my skills in making prompt and well-thought decisions under time-sensitive situations.

ABOUT ME

Hey, I’m Matthew!

Read my story….


I took the ‘leap of faith’ by staying with an Airbnb Host for the very first time during my Honeymoon. Unlike choosing a typical romance-themed resort, we wanted to try a new experience living with a local. That decision made me fell in love with Airbnb right after falling in love with my wife. We stayed with a musician at his home in Hollywood, California. We spent late nights exchanging stories and learning how we can make life more meaningful. It had such a viral impact on me and my wife that we decided we should spread this joyful experience with others by opening our home as well. It has a been a wonderful journey, as we realised our love and trust for each other has also grown stronger, the more we love each and every guest who step into our home. Sharing stories, inspiring others and learning from one another is now at the heart of what keeps me going every day, and is exactly why I want to belong here in Airbnb.

Hey, I’m Matthew!

What can I contribute to Airbnb?


Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious”. I hold true to that believe. I am always looking for opportunities to seek information so that I can be creative and form better ideas. I learn with openness, humility and honesty. I have, in the past, introduced radical cost & operational efficiency ideas which yielded positive results. I can bring not only my ideas from my previous jobs, but my love for innovation to this community as I’m never satisfied with status quo. More importantly, in 3-5years time, I would also like to see myself as a ‘teacher’ in Airbnb. Given the opportunity, I would love to train and impart the skills and best practices I have picked up to inspire the next generation of employees who join us.

Hey, I’m Matthew!



A. Refining the ‘Guest’ experience B. Refining the ‘Host’ experience

Pairing 1st time Guests with Superhosts The very 1st experience of an Airbnb user will be the ‘game-changer’. We want them to speak positively of their experience! Hence, pairing 1st time guests with an Airbnb Superhost will almost guarantee a wonderful experience! It also avoids the potential risk of 1st time guests booking properties with poor or no reviews.

Building relationships with Guests Hosts who rent out multiple properties on Airbnb need to be mindful to ensure that their focus continue to be building a sense of belonging rather than being profit driven. Hence, Guest reviews on Hosts could go beyond the ratings on their property’s cleanliness, location, etc. It could also include how well they performed in making guests feel like they belong in their community.

Hey, I’m Matthew!


1. Say 2. Show

3. State a 4. Suggest a

C. My simple ‘4S’ model to Customer Service (P.S. this also works really well if we can adopt this model in our personal life..)


An apology usually calms a person down immediately.

Empathise with the person through emotions to show that you understand their concerns and inconveniences.

By suggesting solutions, you have taken the initiative to resolve the issue and offer a

form of ‘closure’ for the person.

By offering an assurance that you are going to look into the matter, you show that you are responsible and accountable.

Hey, I’m Matthew!

So..Why Trust & Safety?

Why work with the Trust & Safety team?


• A Baby calms down immediately when her parents cuddle her because she feels safe and trusted with her parents. Be it in a personal or professional capacity, Trust & Safety are two of the most important elements. As a person, if someone feels safe and trust what you say and do, you would have gained that person’s love, respect and admiration of you.

• Similarly, for any business, when the emphasis is on trust & safety, our customers & users will likely

be loyal, admire the company and also do the job in marketing the business for you. This creates a positive impact on how the public & non-users perceive your brand name.

• Being a parent of a young child myself, I am a strong advocate towards the importance and

responsibility of making sure everyone around me feels safe and trust me. The challenge of building & maintaining that trust is something that I enjoy learning & working on every day in my own capacity. As such, working in a Trust & Safety setting would likely be a natural transition for me.

Hey, I’m Matthew!

What are some ways I can contribute

to the Trust & Safety Team?


1. Trust is always easy to gain, but just as easy to lose.

I feel strongly on ensuring that users do not lose their trust in us. Once it is lost, it is going to be an uphill battle to gain their trust back in us. Besides learning from best practices, I also hope to contribute a fresh perspective in the interaction with hosts & guests to ensure that their faith in the Airbnb community remains strong.

2. Changing people’s impression of ‘Safety’ with Airbnb.

People from various cultures have different perceptions of what ‘Safety’ actually means to them. (e.g. a huge % of risk-adverse people in Asia are still apprehensive about the idea of staying in people’s home because they feel it is unsafe). By contributing appropriate education & marketing strategies, my dream is to see the sceptics of Airbnb turn into advocates of Airbnb!

Our very first guests in Sept 2015! (We had to host via Couchsurf as local regulations do not allow us to host via

Airbnb)

Prepared by: Matthew Kumar

Job Position applied for: Crisis Response Specialist Trust & Safety | Airbnb APAC

Hey, I’m Matthew!

Thank you for hearing my story!….


My Story - Airbnb Singapore Resume

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