Airbnb, Inc., based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. Airbnb is a shortened version of its original name, AirBedandBreakfast.com.
The company’s milestones:
2007 – Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia created the initial concept for AirBed & Breakfast during the Industrial Design Conference held by the Industrial Designers Society of America. The original site offers short-term living quarters, breakfast and a unique business networking opportunity for attendees who were unable to book a hotel in the saturated market.
2008 – The Airbedandbreakfast.com website launches.
2009 – The website name is shortened from Airbedandbreakfast.com to Airbnb.com, and the site’s content has expanded from air beds and shared spaces to a variety of properties including entire homes and apartments, private rooms, castles, boats, manors, tree houses, tipis, igloos, private islands and other properties.
Source of photos: airbnb.com
2011 :
Airbnb acquires Accoleo, a small German clone of its service, thereby expanding to Germany.
Airbnb opens up its second international office in London in the United Kingdom.
2012 :
Airbnb opens six international offices, in the cities Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Moscow, and São Paulo.
Airbnb opens its 11th office in Sydney. The Australian consumer accounts for one-tenth of the Airbnb user base.
2014 :
Airbnb announces plans to partner with home cleaning services whereby the home cleaning service is available at a discount to those who are about to host people via Airbnb, in order to incentivize hosts to prepare homes well for guests and also give guests a more standardized experience.
Airbnb reveals design revisions to their site and mobile app, and introduced a new logo.
Airbnb announces a partnership with Concur, an expense reporting service for businesses, to make it easier for business travelers to report Airbnb stays as business expenses.
2015:
Airbnb announces a partnership with Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, to have its app pre-installed on mobile phones in 13 countries.
Airbnb launches an official iPad app.
Airbnb adds a pricing recommendation tool, called Price Tips, offering suggestions on appropriate prices for people renting our apartments.
Airbnb announces a new “Business Travel Ready” badge and host tools.
2016:
Source of photos: airbnb.com
Airbnb launches their “Friendly Buildings Program”, which lets landlords and homeowners associations collaborate with Airbnb to create hosting rules, update leases and agreements to allow home-sharing, and to share portions of their tenants’ reservation income.
Airbnb launches the “experiences” feature in the Airbnb app. This feature allows hosts to offer tours and events in addition to places to stay.
2018 – Airbnb announced Airbnb Plus, a collection of homes that have been vetted for quality of services, comfort, and design, as well as Beyond by Airbnb, which will offer luxury vacation rentals.
2019 – Airbnb announces their “Natiivo” line of condo hotels, which feature amenities such as a 24-hour concierge, valet parking, co-working spaces, and other amenities.
2020 – Airbnb announces it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering.
According to en.wikipedia.org; techboomers.com. Source of photos: internet
