I was commuting to work on a startup in SF in 2010 and staying in random places on Craigslist. I remember clearly when Airbnb started to take off. They cross-po

I was commuting to work on a startup in SF in 2010 and staying in random places on Craigslist. I remember clearly when Airbnb started to take off. They cross-posted their listings all over craigslist under the Rooms for Rent sections and it was impossible to miss. The format of the listings though was really nice compared to the random listings people posted, and when you clicked through to their site and saw things like reputation, location (old craigslist did not have a map), a bit about the host, etc, it was very clear their product had legs. I think this same experience of searching craigslist and ending up on Airbnb had to be a good source of growth at that time. I would also say that Airbnb had (and still has) that "willing to crawl over broken glass" feeling for users. People that want to stay with larger groups of friends or family are willing to deal with older homes, higher prices, worse locations, house rules, etc, because the #1 priority is that they want is to just be in the same rental as their group. They will put up with almost anything because they need the product so badly. A hotel won't even guarantee you adjoining rooms, or rooms all on one floor, there's limited common space, you have to be quieter, etc.