Velma Corcoran
Tourism And Hospitality

I love adventure, I love travel, I love people. There was a role that was advertised by Cape Town Tourism, a friend sent it to me randomly, for Head of Marketing. I thought, "That looks interesting!" Didn't know a thing about tourism, but had lots of opinions on many, many different things. I somehow managed to get that role, and I think that was such an incredible transition for me.

Airbnb is built on three principles. The first principle is that we're a community that's based on connection and belonging. That's very much talking to our community of hosts and guests, and if you ask what we are, that's what we are. The second thing is that we're a creatively-led company. Our founders are designers and that's the way that we approach and solve problems, the way that we approach our design. Creativity is absolutely at the heart. And then the third is we see ourselves as a 21st-century company.

So we realised that there were these barriers, and we designed a programme called the Airbnb Entrepreneurship Academy. It's really to try and take young, emerging entrepreneurs in tourism through a programme that then sets them up for success on Airbnb so that they too can become part of the tourism economy.

We have different models. Typically, we would find a partner, someone based in the community who has got access into that community, and they would help us recruit. Then, depending on the tech capabilities, we would either do a one or two-day workshop or maybe two-hour sessions over three or four weeks. And then generally, what would happen is that for up to six weeks after the programme, there are regular coaching and mentoring sessions to make sure that our house is set up for success. That's the one model.

We also have vibrant communities - we have people with big smiles and warm hearts and real friendliness that makes this day incredible. And then, maybe more specifically for Cape Town, but actually the whole of South Africa, we have great weather when the rest of the world has terrible weather.

So the 'I'm Flexible' feature was something that we built in and that people really use. Allowing people to search by type of accommodation rather than where they were going. And then we also built in a lot of features on the guest side for the host side, to make hosts feel more comfortable. So, things like asking a super host to help you on your journey.

The most tangible benefit, I suppose, is the share price and the fact that we have a very, very valuable company. And I think that shows that you don't need to be invested in a bunch of different things and you can be successful by being focused. But the other thing, the very tangible thing, is that we now run our company off one roadmap. We have one roadmap we're very clear on - every year we have two product launches.

One of the biggest concerns around coming to South Africa is safety and security, and how do you manage that? I think that it's really about ensuring that your guests feel safe, but also to find a balance because you don't want to overwhelm them when they come into the place and say, "Oh, this is a very dangerous area and you need to have the alarm and this is how you set the alarm and don't dare step out of the door without that".

The first step is to create a profile on Airbnb. And then you can literally go to Host My Space and start to list your space there. We've actually simplified the process so much that you could do it in ten minutes.

You literally just need to go to Airbnb and list your property. I actually asked some of our hosts - we've got a group of host club leaders - and I said, "I'm doing this thing. What advice have you got?" and the first thing was, "Don't wait, just get started. Start doing it". We have a host club you can join to get some advice or to ask a super host through the journey.