GraphicsSpring 2012
Julie Burke
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Airbnbin the news
Go to Airbnb.com to find
out more today.
TOURISTbe more than a
“I love being able to feel like you’re living in
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Are you ready to change vacationing as you know it and still keep to your budget? Airbnb.com offers a unique way for travelers to stay in the homes of locals, so that they can experience the city in a way that staying in a hotel can’t. Airbnb is all over the world so it makes traveling a breeze and affordable. Check out airbnb.com today so that you too can become more than a tourist.
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About Airbnb.comFounded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 19,732 cities and 192 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions.
“Rent from real people in
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Do you have extra space that you want to share with others to make some extra cash? Airbnb.com offers people the opportunity to list their space for others to rent. We are constantly adding new places and airbnb.com is growing fast. It’s so easy to use, siging up is free, there is a protection plan of $50,000, and we will be with you every step of the way! Visit airbnb.com to sign up today.
“People who come in contact with us become forever
friends that will return again. They will feel 'at home' more
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“I love being able to feel like you’re living in a
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Magazine CoverBusiness Week
“There’s someone in my apartment . . . right now.” Joe
October, and Gebbia is in New York to speak at a design conference. Back home, in San Francisco, a complete stranger is roaming around his living room. But Gebbia isn’t phoning the police--he’s grinning. This stranger is paying him $80 per night for the pleasure.
Airbnb, the digital accommodations marketplace that people use to rent out their homes or spare rooms (or igloos, castles, or private islands) like a hotel. Horror is one word that captures the initial reactions of the 15 A-list investors who passed on the pitch a few years
cofounder Paul Graham. “Are people really going to do this?
of having missed the next big thing: Airbnb has enabled more than 4.5 million bookings on
-facilitating a reported $500 million in
up to a 15% fee. Along the way, Airbnb has become a disruptive force in the stagnant hotel industry, a major driver behind what’s now called the sharing economy, and,
value of design in the engineering-centric tech world.
The roots of Airbnb’s success lie in its cofounders’
though the two had teamed up with a third cofounder, Nate
told repeatedly, “ ‘Really great teams have engineers and
But design has proved crucial in helping Airbnb prevail. Walk into Airbnb’s Potrero Hill headquarters and you’ll see an enlarged, waist-high cereal box adorned with a cartoonish picture of President Obama. This is the cereal box that saved
in credit-card debt and no angels (as in angel investors) in
to put the “breakfast” in what they were then calling AirBed and Breakfast. They created two Airbnb-branded cereals,
height of election fever. Airbnb found a small manufacturer in Berkeley who agreed to fabricate 1,000 cartons in exchange
hot-glued the tops.
FOR TURNING SPARE ROOMS INTO THE WORLD’S HOTTEST HOTEL CHAIN BY AUSTIN CARR
Somehow the plan worked. The boxes, which cost $40 a pop, received national coverage from CNN and Good Morning America. The promotion netted Airbnb $30,000,
and Y Combinator decided to invest. “Those guys were
time [we] funded a startup that had two designers and one hacker.” Last year, Silicon Valley heavy hitters Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and General Catalyst plowed $112 million into Airbnb, giving it a $1.3 billion valuation. VC Fred Wilson, who passed on Airbnb, keeps a box of Obama O’s in his Union Square Ventures conference room--a reminder never to make the same billion-dollar mistake again. Gebbia’s and Chesky’s training pushes them to seek right-brained solutions to every problem. Early on, Airbnb was not getting much traction in New York. So the team
why. Users, they found, had no idea how to present their listings. “The photos were really bad,” says Gebbia, who typically sports Twizzler-red sneakers and thick-framed glasses that resemble lab goggles.
camera phones and taking Craigslist-quality pictures. Surprise! No one was booking because you couldn’t see what you were paying for.” They crafted a very untechy solution. “A web startup would say, ‘Let’s send emails, teach [users] professional photography, and test them,’ “ explains the jockish Chesky. “We said, ‘Screw that.’ “ The pair rented a $5,000 camera and snapped high-resolution photos of as many New York host apartments as they could. Bookings soared. By month’s end, revenue had doubled in the city. “Rinse and
and Miami.” Airbnb now offers its hosts free professional photography services from more than 2,000 freelancers who have visited 13,000 listings across six continents.
outweighed the costs. Travelers are two and a half times more likely to book these enhanced listings, which earn their hosts an average of $1,025 per month. “Do things that don’t scale,” Chesky says, a sentiment that would be considered blasphemy at Google or Facebook. “We start with the perfect experience and then work backward. That’s how we’re going to continue to be successful.” The company immerses itself in that experience. Its
a particularly high-end Ikea, feature conference rooms that double as precisely reconstructed replicas of four of its most popular accommodations. They’re prototypes to be studied. These showcase listings sell out weeks in advance and have earned their owners in total more than $170,000. Gebbia has gone one step further: He’s converted his original apartment,
“We rent it to test things,” he says. “If we have an idea, we walk over to the apartment and install whatever it is we’re doing.” He hints that he’s currently using it to push more engagement with the surrounding neighborhood, an opportunity to sell additional products to the renter. “How can we get you to interact with the local businesses?” The company recently partnered with Vayable, a startup that offers travelers guided experiences such as food or history
tours.This commitment to personally testing ideas served Airbnb well this past July, when a host’s home was ransacked by a visitor,
for the company and highlighting serious security
weeks, the team overhauled its safety features, introducing a $50,000 liability guarantee,
systems, and a 24-hour customer-support hotline. The majority of company revenue now comes from hosts renting out spaces while they’re away. Airbnb has become one of Silicon Valley’s most imitated successes. There are Airbnb-inspired companies for sharing cars, parking
spaces, laboratories, and grown-up toys like boats and motorcycles. And there are also dozens of direct rip-offs popping up all over the globe. “How many knockoff Airbnb sites does the world need?” complained tech-startup doyenne Chris Shipley in a blog. Airbnb, of course, believes the answer is zero and is working to eliminate confusion between itself and its rivals.
in changing the way techies think about design. “Design used to be an afterthought,” Gebbia says. “Startups wouldn’t hire designers for months or a year after funding.” Now, startups as varied as Square (No. 5 on this list), Flipboard, and Instagram count design as crucial to their success. “You no longer have to be a hacker to start a company,” Graham says. “You can win through design rather than technology.” You might even say that design has become Silicon Valley’s breakfast of champions.
“DO THINGS THAT DON’T SCALE, SAYS AIRBNB’S CEO. WE START
WITH THE PERFECT EXPERIENCE AND THEN WORK BACKWARD.”
Double Page Story Spread in Business Week Magazine