I don't think Airbnb (Netflix) marketplace necessarily covers for some of the benefits a set of clients look for in Hotels (BlockBuster). However, going along w

I don't think Airbnb (Netflix) marketplace necessarily covers for some of the benefits a set of clients look for in Hotels (BlockBuster). However, going along with your analogy, I think this move is 2 fold: data driven & marketplace synergy. I believe Airbnb is interested in the data it can get from a model business such as HotelTonight and to be able to cross-connect it to their own. I think their end-goal is to have Airbnb become a one stop shop for not only current users of AirBnB, but also hotel users. I believe a good portion of large hotels are aware that at some point they will need to tap into the Airbnb market and if that marketplace (Airbnb) manages to create an environment where both sides can live or directly compete with each other, everyone (winners mostly) will be happy with the outcome. The real tricky part is that synergy can be difficult to have and different players (hotel customers, airbnb customer, hotels, airbnb renters) may have different degrees of resistances to Airbnb plan. I think their main focus will be to create a B2B environment that will make big ticket customers (e.g. IBM) want to use their system to get either a rented place or a hotel room for their consultants and business travelers. Lots of money to be made in this area.