Airbnb is a web company that provides rents and accomodations from strangers all over the world. It is very similar to Couchsurfing.
Major investors in Airbnb include Andreessen Horowitz and Digital Sky Technologies . Airbnb has grown by 800% in 2010 alone and has already booked 1.6 million night stays. Airbnb's valuation has been estimated at 1 billion dollars.[1][2][3]
Ashton Kutcher has also invested in Airbnb as reported by Washington Post.[4]
Airbnb's success has spawned many lookalike and copycat websites such as Getaround, Vayable and Taskrabbit.[5]
Airbnb has been praised by Paul Graham[6] and by Wall Street Journal.[7]
Airbnb has been praised by UK's Daily Telegraph..[8]
Airbnb has been favorably compared with Craigslist and Groupon. It has been said that
- "On any given night in New York there are more people staying in homes via AirBnB than there are rooms in the biggest hotel in Manhattan.."[9]
Airbnb has already begun internationalizing and has opened several new offices in Europe.[10]
Airbnb has been touted as a disruptive innovation for the Hotel Industry.[11]