Nathan Blecharczyk, Joe Gebbia, and Brian Chesky
Piggy-backing off of last month’s post, we continue with a business disruption highlight that is modelled around the culture of cooperation that the internet has facilitated. Airbnb was ranked among the top 10 disruptors in CNBC’s top 50 for 2015. This company has taken the idea of staying in a hotel and offered a much more intimate experience within communities around the world.
Founded in 2008 by Nathan Blecharczyk, Joe Gebbia, and Brian Chesky, Airbnb has caused an uproar in apartment buildings all over due to its interesting value proposition. Airbnb offers homeowners or leaseholders to rent out rooms for any amount of time they choose for extra cash. Essentially serving as a very small Bed and Breakfast. For travellers or roomrenters, it offers them a day in the life of a local resident in a foreign city, along with saving them a few dollars they would have spent at a big name hotel. So far, the 7 year old company has raised $682.8 million in funding.
To date they are operating in 34,000 cities across 190 countries and host 1 million listings on their website. 30 million bookings have been scheduled in the 7 years it has been around which translates to about 4.3 million per year.
Buzz around this company comes from regulators and hotel lobbyists who say taxes are not being collected properly from the rental units. This has not deterred the excitement and venture capital investment into Airbnb lately though. Company officials are eyeballing an IPO in the future (1-2 years). Rental agreements have also been altered across the world to reflect Airbnb’s impact as many landlords are aiming to rid their buildings of the micro-subleases. This is having little effect on growth and Airbnb seems to be the future of travel.
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