Welcome Home. Read my story & find out how I can contribute to the Trust & Safety team at Airbnb APAC (Singapore Office)

1. WELCOME HOME
Read my story & find out how I can contribute
SearchMatthew Kumar..
Hey, I’m Matthew!
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 1

2. 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
Page 2Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016

3. 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.
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 3
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

4. Hey, I’m Matthew!
Read my story….
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 4
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.

5. Hey, I’m Matthew!
What can I contribute to Airbnb?
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 5
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.

6. Hey, I’m Matthew!
What can I contribute to Airbnb?
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 6
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.

7. Hey, I’m Matthew!
What can I contribute to Airbnb?
1. Say 2. Show
3. State a4. 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..)
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 7
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.

8. Hey, I’m Matthew!
So..Why Trust & Safety?
Why work with the Trust & Safety team?
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 8
• 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.

9. Hey, I’m Matthew!
What are some ways I can contribute
to the Trust & Safety Team?
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 9
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)

10. 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!….
Specially prepared for my Host, Anna Steel (Trust & Safety Operations Manager), on 25th April 2016 Page 10