Superhost Program Delighted Hosts Without Moving Metrics

Airbnb's Superhost Program: When Delight Doesn't Move Metrics

During the conversation with Nasreen Shengal about product delight, Lenny Rachitsky shared an insightful case about his experience building the Superhost program at Airbnb.

Situation

• Airbnb needed ways to differentiate quality levels among hosts on their platform
• The idea for Superhost came from Chip Connolly, a longtime hotelier who had joined Airbnb
• The product team initially had significant concerns about implementing the program
• There was no clear metric-driven reason to build the feature - it wasn't designed to solve a specific KPI problem

Actions

• Despite internal skepticism, the team proceeded with building the Superhost program
• They created a badge system that would recognize top-performing hosts
• The program reset every three months, evaluating if hosts maintained Superhost status
• They later added celebratory elements like confetti animations when hosts retained their status

Results

• Hosts responded emotionally to the program - they genuinely wanted to achieve and maintain Superhost status
• The program created strong emotional connections with hosts who felt recognized for their efforts
• Interestingly, the program initially "didn't actually move any metrics" according to Lenny
• Despite not driving immediate business impact, the feature remained and potentially created long-term value

Key Lessons

• Emotional value can precede metric impact: Features that create emotional connections may not immediately move business metrics but can still be valuable
• Status and recognition are powerful motivators: People will work toward achievements even when there's no clear functional benefit
• Expert intuition matters: Sometimes industry veterans (like hotelier Chip Connolly) intuitively understand what will resonate emotionally with users
• Contrarian projects can succeed: Features that don't fit neatly into metric-driven roadmaps can still create meaningful user connections
• Celebration matters: Adding moments of celebration (like the confetti animation) reinforces the emotional reward of achievement
• Long-term impact may differ from short-term results: Features that don't immediately move metrics might still contribute to platform health over time

This case illustrates how product features that primarily serve emotional needs can create user attachment even when they don't immediately drive traditional success metrics. It demonstrates the value of considering emotional design alongside functional requirements.