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> New ideas often seem crazy at first (e.g. renting out an airbed in your apartment to a stranger) N.B. I'm currently travelling and using Airbnb almost exclus
by davnicwil 11y ago
> New ideas often seem crazy at first (e.g. renting out an airbed in your apartment to a stranger)
N.B. I'm currently travelling and using Airbnb almost exclusively for accommodation, if that's somehow relevant.
Airbnb seems to have become the cliche example of a 'crazy idea' that turns into a unicorn and, honestly, I struggle to see why people think the idea, per se, was crazy or groundbreaking.
It's not a crazy idea. In fact it's a very natural, obvious idea, that has existed forever. People have rented, and sub-let, rooms for decades. The problem has always been high barrier to entry (on both sides) and therefore low liquidity in the market, such that short term 'holiday' type lets are too much of a hassle to be tenable, and only longer term lets have been feasible.
The idea has always been there, what's not really been there until Airbnb, and what is their remarkable achievement, is the building of a singular, reputable, trustworthy, easily accessible marketplace for this, to get the liquidity to where it needs to be to be workable.
It's the execution on this, not the idea itself, that's the remarkable thing. If it was such a crazy idea, it would have taken much, much longer (+10 years perhaps) to have truly caught on. The fact that they've had such rapid growth points to the fact that a lot of hosts and travellers were ready for it and just waiting for the opportunity to take part in the short term lets marketplace.
- zdean 11y agoAgreed...I remember using VRBO before Airbnb was a thing. For historical reference, VRBO was purchased as an 11 year old company by Homeaway in 2006, 2 years before Airbnb was started.
- jedrek 11y agoAirBNB-like services are older than the internet, AirBNB just made them sexy and much easier to use as a landlord.
- pouzy 11y agoTake Cuba as an example and their casas particulares: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_particular https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_particular They have their own Airbnb there, without internet.
- rhc2104 11y agoThe "crazy" thing was being a marketplace for sleeping on literal airbeds. I think VCs would have understood the potential better if they were sparebedroom.com instead of airbnb.com.
- davnicwil 11y agoWasn't the airbed thing always just a cute, neat metaphor for the wider concept of renting out spare space in your home? The founders literally rented an airbed in their apartment, which spawned their idea to create the service and inspired the name, but I don't know that they ever set out to create a marketplace for specifically this. I could be wrong but nothing I've ever heard them say has suggested this was the idea, even in the company's very early days. Indeed I believe their early niche was renting out space for conference goers, in the homes of like-minded individuals, not renting specifically airbeds for conference goers - that'd be a bit absurdly niche, no?
- rhc2104 11y agoWell then they were poor at marketing that. I remember seeing the site and thinking it was so stupid, until my friend pointed out that it could be used to rent out bedrooms, and then it made complete sense for me.
- boomzilla 11y agoThat'd always been possible on Cragslists, and in fact, AirBNB used Craigslists to bootstrap originally (and against the TOS if I may add). What AirBNB has executed brilliantly are: 1. They offer the complete booking workflow: from initial contact to payment. They also offer feedbacks, reviews, rating, etc. to make the whole marketplace more credible. 2. They bootstrapped the market really well. Some of the early tactics were shady, but well, that's what you can do when you are a small start up. Offering free professional photographer service to the owner was a very good move: much better than spending that money on SEM or other marketing ploys. 3. A lot of luck.
- pbreit 11y agoYeah, I don't get how it could possibly have seemed crazy. Sharing homes has existed as long as, well, homes. Vacation rentals have been around forever. You could find tons of share offers on Craigslist in any major city. Etc, etc. I guess they did step it up a notch on the couch-surfing and community front...the idea that a primary reason for engaging in it is to meet each other.