Airbnb
A website and app where people rent out their homes, or a room, to travelers.
Airbnb started in San Francisco in 2008, when Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, who could not afford their rent, put air mattresses on their living room floor and rented them to visitors in town for a conference. With Nathan Blecharczyk they turned the idea into a company. The name comes from that first offer: air bed and breakfast.
Like Uber, it owns almost nothing it rents out. It is a marketplace: hosts list a home, an apartment or a room, set a price and rules, and travelers search, book and pay through the platform. Airbnb holds the money until the guest checks in and charges service fees on the booking. Its real product is trust between strangers: identity checks, secure payments, and reviews that both guests and hosts write about each other after every stay.
It changed how many people travel, and also many cities. In popular neighborhoods, apartments that used to be rented to residents became short-term rentals for tourists, and critics link this to rising rents. Cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam and New York have responded with registration rules, caps on the number of nights or outright limits. The company went public in 2020.
Keep in mind
- Founded in San Francisco in 2008; started with air mattresses on a living room floor.
- A marketplace: hosts own the places, Airbnb runs the search, payments and reviews.
- Makes money from service fees on each booking.
- Many cities now regulate short-term rentals because of their effect on housing.
