5 ms·
Travel like a human (Airbnb, YC W09)
- browser411 17y agonice article on a yc company. the part i like best: airbnb is a startup that helps other entrepreneurs starting up by letting them monetize their space, albeit indirectly. nice!
- frossie 17y agoYes, great Washington Post coverage. Every time I hear about airbnb though, I wonder - don't you need a permit to offer paid accommodation? For example in my part of the U.S. you need a "special use" permit to run a B&B. How is advertising your spare room on airbnb different? I looked in their FAQ but couldn't find an answer.
- philwelch 17y agoI think this falls within the wide category of unenforced laws.
- noodle 17y agoand very difficult to enforce.
- okeumeni 17y agoUntil trouble occurs
- frossie 17y agoIs it? Around here (Hawaii) there are ordinances in many areas restricting the number of B&Bs that operate, and neighbours have been known to complain to the authorities when they see excess traffic to/from a property.
- philwelch 17y agoSounds like the timeless combination of businesses colluding with government to keep competition out, enforced by tourist-hating among the locals.
- pyre 17y agoIt isn't necessarily business-government collusion. Those tourist-hating locals could just as easily have been the ones to 'lobby' local government to limit these things (probably more like 'abolish,' but 'limit' was the compromise). There are lots of localities where people try to get 'community standards' enacted like keeping your lawn trimmed to a standard height or other such nonsense.
- philwelch 17y agoYes, but restricting the number of foo businesses in town is a boon to the existing local foo industry, since it protects all current foo businesses from competition. It's easy for established players to say, "oh yes, regulate us, make us get scarce operating permits to which we are already grandfathered into!" to eliminate future competition. I don't think the collusion is necessarily overt, but most businesses welcome this kind of barrier to entry.
- frossie 17y agoWell, I don't necessarily want to defend it, but I think there is a rationale to do with infrastructure. In the extreme case where everyone in a Hawaiian town offered a room to airbnb, the infrastructure would buckle under the increased population - not enough parking, some places are on cesspools that have limited capacity, water usage is a problem in some areas etc etc. Granted there are also financial interests at stake, for example the state collecting a hefty room tax when people end up in hotels. But then that money goes to infrastructure among other things, so there is some method in the madness.
- philwelch 17y ago
- noblethrasher 17y agoI dunno. Reading an article like this certainly gives me pause: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/949jc/youre_probably_a_federal_criminal/ http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/949jc/youre_probably_a_...
- jrockway 17y agoI have a feeling this will end up going the way of the prostitution section on Craigslist, or that site where you could offer to carpool with someone to work. The entrenched businesses don't want any competition from this here new-fangled internets.
- KClough 17y agoI would consider being a host, but I'm always concerned possessions may get stolen having stranger in my apt. I'm surprised this doesn't turn away a lot of potential hosts. Still a fantastic idea, and would definitely look to be a guest when traveling on a budget.
- vaksel 17y agoI bet a lot more people are scared of being killed, than they are of having a few trinkets stolen.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- pg 17y agoAirbnb is a good example of how the best startup ideas tend to seem crazy at first. When we first met the Airbnbs, we loved the founders, but we had a hard time believing this would be popular. In fact it is massively popular. Few startups we've funded have grown so fast.
- fraXis 17y agoPaul, Were they accepted the first time they applied?
- pg 17y agoYes. IIRC they got a really good recommendation from the Justin.TV founders. Then once we met them we were sold too.
- replicatorblog 17y agoPaul, have any other teams been accepted to YC with the AirBNB team composition of 2 non-tech/1 tech founders? It makes sense in their case in that it is more of a social engineering than tech challenge, but it is an interesting case.
- pg 17y agoYes. As long as there are people who can do each thing that needs to be done, we don't care what the ratio is.
- djb_hackernews 17y agoWhats really missing from this article, and is alluded to quite frequently, is couchsurfing.com I skimmed the article, seems like a great pitch, but I didn't get why I would want to use airbnb.com over couchsurfing. couchsurfing.com is pretty mature though not w2.0. It's got the verification system so you can have some peace of mind, and its free.
- jdbeast00 17y agocouchsurfing = free; airbnb = some money. some people wont want to host someone in their house without compensation.
- djb_hackernews 17y agoI get that. But from the perspective of a traveler, for any given well traveled city you are going to find an equivalent host with equivalent accommodations at both sites. I wonder if it would have been wiser to start Airbnb.com as the web 2.0 version of couchsurfing, and then go freemium. Something couchsurfing wouldn't do.
- shiny 17y agoI agree. As a budget traveler, I'd love a service like AirBnB, but all of the listings are too pricey. If they targeted the frugal adventurers, I could see a community of such people developing around the site, and all travelers would use AirBnB, not just the richer ones. While this could be painful in the short-term, it would help them achieve the ubiquity that they seem to want.
- mseebach 17y agoIt's a different target demographic. In a trip to DC recently, we got a private room on AirBnB and saved roughly $25 pr. night ($75 vs. $100) over the hotel we'd otherwise have used, and we got a better experience for it. We didn't feel any obligation to hang out with the host, bring gifts or stay in touch, or to accommodate our host or anyone else at our home -- which made things a lot easier. I think it's more correct to think of AirBnB as cheap hotel, not premium couchsurfing.
- jlees 17y agoI saw or hallucinated an "Airbnb for office space" recently, but can't find it for love nor money (which is what makes me think it's a hallucination). I recently spent a bit of time looking for a desk sublet and it took way longer than it should have. Though I guess there's something of a thorny area with commercial lettings and the like, it'd still be nice to book a place at some startup in London/Paris/SF to rest my laptop when I'm next down there for a few days.
- rokhayakebe 17y agoDesk-PC-Coffee-n-Conferenceroom.com
- jrockway 17y agoAddress not found! ;)
- quickpost 17y agoGreat idea! I would totally use a service like this too. You should write an email to the founders.
- fraXis 17y agoI was so skeptical when I first say them launch. I was like, "who is going to use this?". But after reading the article and viewing the site again, I think my wife and I are going to give it a try. There are so many places listed in our area with reviews. And it is a lot cheaper then going to a hotel for a night or weekend.
- 10ren 17y agoSounds like backpacking. Great fun, if you're in that frame of mind or want to be.
- nopassrecover 17y agoWow awesome idea - I think I'll probably be using this soon! The question of security etc. could be an issue but I imagine reviews (which I can't see yet) would help that.