NEW YORK, NY — A smile can really make all the difference—even if you're selling something online. Recent research by Columbia Business School Professor Elizabeth Friedman, reveals that hosts who include a photo of them smiling in their profile are more likely to catch the eye of potential travelers. Professor Friedman’s research showed that a smile in the host’s photo significantly boosts consumer demand — by about 3.5% on average. While it has long been understood that a smile can positively impact business outcomes in physical stores or face-to-face interactions, Friedman's research shows that the same principle applies in online settings where face-to-face contact isn't possible.
In this study, Serving with a Smile on Airbnb: Analyzing the Economic Returns and Behavioral Underpinnings of the Host's Smile, Professor Friedman, Assistant Professor of Business in the Marketing Division, and co-authors Shunyuan Zhang, Harvard Business School, Kannan Srinivasan, Carnegie Mellon University, Ravi Dhar, Yale University, and Xupin Zhang, University of Rochester, delve into how facial expressions can heavily, and often subconsciously, influence the decision-making of travel consumers. Professor Friedman and team sifted through AirBnB profiles using a facial attribute classifier powered by machine learning that allowed the team to observe over 3 million images of more than 9,000 subjects. The team then compared this smile data with over eight months of AirBnB browsing data as well as neighborhood information from sites like Zillow to determine how a smiling photo interacted with other elements of a property profile’s presentation — property photos, location, and host interaction — to determine how much a smile affected decision-making.
Friedman and her team found that a smile was particularly effective in increasing demand when there was uncertainty about another aspect of the offering, such as the quality or location of the accommodation. They also found that smiling was significantly more likely to benefit male hosts than female hosts. The results of this research, in comparison with other studies, suggest that smiling isn’t only important for hosts looking to increase Airbnb bookings, but would likely be effective in other online contexts. A smile, even in an online photo, can help to establish a sense of trust and a positive assessment of the individual in the photo and the product they may be selling. Future research may build on the conclusions of this study to determine whether, in any online interaction, from AirBnB to Facebook Marketplace to dating profiles, a smile really does go a long way.
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