How I helped Airbnb save $5.2 million

Airbnb had an unwieldy collection of about 900 haphazard help articles for both hosts and guests. They were pretty gnarly — off-brand, incorrect, and incomprehensible. They weren’t helping anyone.

Starting with the most viewed articles, I rewrote them for accuracy, clarity, voice, and tone, creating a comprehensive style guide as I went. Next, I grew a team, training writers to the new standards and pushing them to write in a warm and friendly tone.

Updated help articles, smarter search, clearer layout, and articles collected into helpful guides helped both hosts and guests find the information they needed, reducing the contact rate from 19% to <10%. This saved Airbnb $5.2 million a year.