Portal A - Is Man...Kind? - (2015) 1:03 (USA)

By now you will have probably seen Airbnb's latest ad which many people are calling 'creepy'. That seems to be a fairly strong consensus - three separate creatives, all at CD level or higher - have told me it reminds them of "Being John Malkovich". I tend to agree. You're subletting rooms, AirBnb, not selling the solution to human empathy. As much as you might want it, you're not Atticus Finch, reminding us:"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." But I understand the sentiment and the desire to do so.
Here's the impression of one successful American Creative Director, talking anonymously to Adland:

It's very pretentious and for me it doesn't capture the real benefit of AirBnB - seeing a city like a local. It's skirting around it a bit, but doesn't hit the mark. It's trying to say that AirBnB will let you experience what it's like to live someone else's life. It doesn't, and I don't want that anyway. I just want to immerse myself in local culture by living like a local. This seems to be less about getting inside someone else's apartment, and more about getting inside their head. Which is creepy - a bit like that movie "Being John Malkovich".

And how far removed has this become from the reality of why people use AirBnb: Because they want a cheap and convenient room without staying in a hotel (too expensive) or a backpacker (too slummy). I admire the sheer bravery of producing work like this, but it is homeopathy. It's abstraction at the highest level.
Such work is always going to be ripe for parody and digital studio Portal A, have created a brilliant film mocking what your AirBnb guest is more likely to get up to while you're away. As they say "It's His House Now." It goes without saying, top marks for finding and getting Sally from Oblivion (spoilers) to narrate. My only complaint is a pedantic one - don't have your main character take a drag on an unlit cigarette. That's just silly. I guess it was was a strict No Smoking house. Portal A - http://portal-a.com/
This is a parody of Airbnb's "Is Mankind" commercial and not in any way associated with the original.