If you’ve always kind of hated the cold, impersonal, chain hotels that you’re forced to stay in when you travel, then Airbnb, a website that allows people to rent out their homes to tourists, has the potential to completely change your travel experiences. Founded in 2008 in San Francisco, Airbnb has grown to include over one million listings, in 34,000 cities, and 190 different countries.
The idea for the site started when roommates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, realizing they couldn’t afford the rent for their loft in San Francisco, put a couple air mattresses in their living room to accommodate three guests, and offered a free breakfast. They brought on Harvard graduate and technical architect, Nathan Blecharczyk, and launched the site as Airbedandbreakfast.com in August 2008.
To help raise money to fund the site, they created special edition breakfast cereals using presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as inspiration. In two months they’d sold 800 boxes of “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCains” at $40 each. The money and the exposure from the cereal got them out of debt, and the fact that they were able to convince so many people to pay that much money for cereal got them accepted to Y-Combinator, an organization that invests money in early stage startups and helps develop them.
They’ve since secured funding from various other high profile sources, including Ashton Kutcher’s company, A Grade Investments, and the company is currently sitting at around a value of $20 billion.
Airbnb itself is a cross between Couchsurfing, and a regular hotel chain. You can book your stay online, read a description and see photos of amenities included, meet your hosts, and maybe most importantly, read reviews posted by previous boarders. What makes Airbnb different than staying in a hotel is you’re actually living in someone’s home complete with everything that makes it feel lived in. Instead of an empty, devoid of personality, stock hotel room, you get to experience how someone who actually lives in the city you’re visiting, lives. It doesn’t hurt that a lot of hosts are also more than willing to give you tips on cool restaurants, shops, and attractions around the city.
If you’ve traveled a lot, you know it can get old to constantly be directed to tourist traps attractions. You don’t want to go to the most popular steak house among tourists, you want to try a more out of the way, local favourite so you can experience what the city really has to offer, rather than just its best tourist spots. Also, with a host who’s eager to play tour guide, you’ll have the chance to meet new people, and have a truly unique experience.
Of course, kind of like with the power struggle between Uber and traditional taxi services, share-based services like Airbnb have a way of taking business away from the established hospitality industry in large tourist cities. Also, some people use Airbnb as a way to sublet their place, which has some unclear legal implications that have to be take into consideration.
In response to some of those legal ramifications, in order to make potential hosts feels more protected, Airbnb launched their Host Guarantee property protection program. Basically acting as insurance against terrible houseguests, the program will cover property loss or damage due to vandalism and theft for up to $50,000. But Airbnb still strongly recommends that hosts have their own insurance that covers damages caused by guests because despite their best efforts, sometimes unexpected things happen.
There have been various cases of homes being vandalized, guests refusing to leave, and property being stolen, but it seems like things like that are bound to happen when you’re renting your house out to strangers, no matter how diligent you may try to be. People are unpredictable, and often not as considerate as they should be.
Generally, hosts and guests want to maintain a positive reputation in order to grow their presence on the site, but the system is very “use at your own risk” at this point because there isn’t a lot of precedent for legal action when it comes to renting out your home for cash. Airbnb doesn’t want to be held responsible for every less than ideal houseguest someone might end up playing host to. But as a growing business, they have to acknowledge some of the reservations people might have about using their service, and offer a little peace of mind.
In addition to the Host Guarantee program, they’ve set up 24-hour customer service hotline, established a task force to review suspicious activity, and implemented a suite of security features. Short of doing an extensive background check on every single guest that uses the site, there isn’t a lot more they can do, and their service will always have its risks. But hopefully the benefits of saving money, and experiencing a unique way to travel will continue to outweigh them.
If you haven’t tried Airbnb, check it out for your next trip. It’s the new, trendy way to travel, and despite pushback from the hospitality industry, it probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It just offers something hotels can’t, and that’s a guaranteed authentic experience that is unlike anyone else’s every time.
