Airbnb (YC W09) Grew 800% in 2010

http://ycombinator.posterous.com/airbnb-grows-800-in-2010

by jayliew • 16 years ago

55 44 16 years ago

ycombinator.posterous.com

chanri• 16 years ago

Just wondering, how many people here have used Airbnb? I would think a large number of HN people would use it.

axod5• 16 years ago

I'd think it's pretty high as well.

Personally, I can't see the appeal apart from price. I'd take a hotel every time.

Am I the only one worried about rape/murder/theft with something like this as well? Maybe I am :/

quizbiz2• 16 years ago

I agree with the above but on the other hand, if I was searching for places to stay in a city and found out that an old friend of mine was on Airbnb for that city, I would jump at the chance. I haven't used Airbnb but I would really push an initiative to feature friends on the site via FB connect.

harry2• 16 years ago

I don't mean to be snarky but how is rape/murder/theft threat different than your daily life? Someone is going to go overboard and sucker people vs randomly kidnap someone at a Wendys?

WarDekar• 16 years ago

I would much prefer to stay at an AirBnB place than a hotel even at the same price (though getting comparable accommodations for half the price is obviously a plus). I've met a lot of interesting people as hosts that I've gone out with, shared dinners with, etc. that I would've never had at a hotel. I can see how this may change as it gets more popular and mainstream, though.

I've used it quite a bit and have had nothing but good experiences, but I'm rather selective about where I want to stay. That said, I do think there is a problem with not wanting to leave negative feedback for fear of retaliation, and it certainly is going to be one of the biggest problems as they grow.

For reference I've stayed at maybe a dozen places in the last 9 months, mostly in SF, SD, and NoCal.

harry2• 16 years ago

I've tried multiple times. There's yet to be an acceptable place where/when I'm going.

simonw• 16 years ago

We found a great room in a Riad in Fes, Morocco using Airbnb. It was one of the most memorably places we stayed in that country, and the housekeeper there served incredibly good food.

rdouble• 16 years ago

Airbnb worked great for a condo in Hawaii over Christmas. It failed multiple times in NYC, though.

cool-RR• 16 years ago

AirBNB worked well for me in NYC.

physcab• 16 years ago

I tried when I went to NY a couple months ago. I contacted like 6 people and they all bailed on me ("bailed" in the sense that they had their apt listed as available on the day I wanted to go, but then couldn't offer it to me). It was a week before I wanted to go. I ended up paying for a hotel that was substantially more expensive, but it was definitely available.

I'd imagine this is part AirBnb's core problem. How do you reliably manage the flakiness of both travelers and sellers? How far in advance do you have to start scheduling your trip if you want to use AirBnb? Am I absolutely guaranteed a place to stay even if I pay?

rchi• 16 years ago

I had similar experience with AirBnb in NY too. It was a week before I wanted to go and it took me about 10 requests to get one that's available.

thesethings• 16 years ago

I've heard about this dynamic a lot.

This is why somebody I know hasn't pulled the trigger on putting his place up: People aren't flaking so much as being extremely selective about who they rent to.

Basically my friend totally wants to go on AirBnb, but knows he will only offer to people he can semi-cyberstalk to his satisfaction/hope to be 3 degrees of separation from via industry/community circles (to make him feel comfortable).

Right now you don't have to rent to anybody you don't want to, even when you put your availability up for a certain time-frame, which is great. But it does confuse potential guests who get false positives for available places.

I think AirBnb needs something beyond ebay-style reviews to resolve this. The groups thing could be a good start (there are are interest/ community groups, like HN group, on AirBnb).

ben1040• 16 years ago

A coworker and I have had this same problem while trying to book a place for a trip in May. Places show up as available, but the owners then reply with "well, that's too far to tell, I might not even have this apartment then."

It you're not sure if it's available, why are you listing it as such? I guess the disconnect is that every person who does this is acting in their own interest and doesn't care about the interests of AirBnB or their customer experience.

It's really soured me on trying to use this, because I don't need to mail 10 hotels that say they're available on my dates, and go back and forth only to be told no. I hit a button and book it.

It's also bad that people like to write in the house rules section things like "I have a $75 cleaning fee" or "I require a $400 security deposit via paypal prior to checking in." I shouldn't have to pay a surcharge for the unit to be clean and in the advertised condition. A security deposit I can understand, but AirBnB should be brokering that via credit card holds rather than allowing cash exchanges between renter and owner.

If you're trying to compete with the hotel experience, simply having a lower price isn't the only factor involved.

I'd still like to give AirBnB my money and try this service, but after a week or two of trying to book something, they're making it really hard to do.

steveplace• 16 years ago

I had the same experience when looking for a place in NYC-- I think it's due to the fact that published availability dates are not consistent with what the property manager has, as they most likely have other sources of reservations.

spxdcz2• 16 years ago

We've been traveling the world since May 1st 2010, and have used it wherever we can (Vancouver, Melbourne, Thailand, ...).

It's a great idea, love it, and don't want to say anything too negative (it has far more going for it than against it). However, the one problem is that it's quite difficult to leave negative comments about anywhere. One of the places we stayed in... well... the room was great, but the people we shared the place with were NUTS! If you've ever seen the film Away We Go, well, one of the families in that film were the spitting image.

Anyway, we couldn't leave negative feedback for them because then they could leave negative feedback about us! (Although we'd been the perfect guests...). So you just end up leaving no feedback at all, which is what I have to guess all other previous guests of these people did: they talked about many previous guests, but still had 0 reviews / feedback.

papersmith• 16 years ago

>If you've ever seen the film Away We Go, well, one of the families in that film were the spitting image.

Just curious, which family in the film are you referring to? I only have a vague recall of them.

cdr• 16 years ago

Retaliatory feedback was a huge problem eBay faced. They "fixed" it by removing the ability of sellers to leave any type of feedback besides positive. It seems like an extremely difficult problem to tackle unless you're willing to intervene and investigate every time someone reports that feedback is retaliatory.

michaelbuckbee• 16 years ago

I used Airbnb to book a room in an Austin Condo for last years SXSW. It cost around half a what a downtown hotel room cost (though was admittedly not quite as convenient).

I got in late the first night with no luggage (thanks airlines) so the guy I was staying with actually drove me to WalMart the next day to pick up some temporary clothes, insisted on buying me breakfast tacos and gave me a tour of Austin.

I used to work for a Fortune 100 company, travelled way too much and really grew to hate staying in hotels. Airbnb is a fantastic alternative.

vaksel• 16 years ago

I was going to use it, but then I found that a 4 star hotel was going to cost me a little bit less($16 less a day). And the hotel was in the center of London, while anything cheaper on airbnb was about 1-2 hours away by train.

Granted, that's London...so the rent is high, which means the people have to charge more for their apartments.

arepb• 16 years ago

I'm lying in bed at an airbnb place reading this thread. It's my first time using the service and it's been incredible. Good followup emails, owner's place was exactly as it was described and it's so much better (and cheaper) than a hotel. I will definitely use this again.

waterlesscloud• 16 years ago

I have no interest in using it, but I may be a little odd that way. I prefer the corporate impersonality of hotels. I've stayed in "bed and breakfast" spare-room places before, and I've never really been comfortable with the experience. I don't like that personal touch with people I don't already know.

jackowayed• 16 years ago

Back of the envelope calculation: 800k nights booked * $100/night * their 10% cut = $8M in revenue last year. Impressive.

tomjen3• 16 years ago

That's an extremely unlikely average price. Most likely you are looking at less than half that.

jacquesm2• 16 years ago

That doesn't change the fact that it's very impressive, even at 'less than half that'.

replicatorblog• 16 years ago

Unlikely that it is that low. I rarely see a room on AirBNB for less than $80 at least in big cities. Wouldn't be surprised to see a higher AVG.

elvirs• 16 years ago

Airbnb is a perfect example where technology created a new market, disrupts existing markets while doing really well financially and maintaining strong growth. I hope they stay independent as the founder said and not sell to a big co. which will probably kill the spirit immediately, and ground the product sometime later down the road.

patio11• 16 years ago

Airbnb is the only YC company I've ever recommended to family. My aunt and uncle own a cottage. Previously they rented it out via personal connections (when not in it themselves) and it sat unused better than 330 days a year. Airbnb pretty much instantly makes their lives better. (n.b. I'm not sure if they've started using it yet. Interest was high but, well, you know conversion funnel math as well as I do.)

I also think they've been very generous with how much they've shared on the subject of enjoying good PR. I think they're the best company I'm aware of anywhere on that -- honestly, if they didn't explain themselves so often I would have become convinced that they had a picture of a NYT editor caught in a compromising position with a Fox News anchor and were blackmailing both of them at the same time.

scrrr• 16 years ago

It's a commercial version of http://www.couchsurfing.org/ or http://www.hospitalityclub.org/

Not revolutionary, but great execution.

terryjsmith• 16 years ago

Finally, they're gonna be huge! [1]

[1] http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/272180383

richardburton• 16 years ago

They have become a tidy little bank. Holding the cash and stashing the interest.

Airbnb (YC W09) Grew 800% in 2010

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