4 ms·

The "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

by rhc2104 11y ago

The "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 ago
Wasn'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 ago
  Well 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 ago
    That'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.

4 ms·

The "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

by rhc2104 11y ago

The "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 ago
Wasn'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 ago
  Well 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 ago
    That'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.