Airbnb

In October 2007, in San Francisco, to help fund their rent payments, roommates and former schoolmates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with an idea of putting an air mattress in their living room and turning it into a bed and breakfast during a conference held by Industrial Designers Society of America, when travelers had a hard time finding lodging in the city.^[9][10] After the idea was very successful, the pair realized that they had a possible business idea. In February 2008, Nathan Blecharczyk, Chesky's former roommate, joined as the chief technology officer and the third co-founder of the new venture, which they named "AirBed & Breakfast".^[10][11] They put together a website that offered short-term living quarters and breakfast for those who were unable to book a hotel in the saturated market.^[10] The site Airbedandbreakfast.com was launched on August 11, 2008.^[12][13]

After the founders raised $30,000 by selling cereal named after the two candidates of the 2008 United States presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain, mostly at the 2008 Democratic National Convention,^[14][15][16] computer programmer Paul Graham invited the founders to the January 2009 winter training session of his startup incubator, Y Combinator, which provided them with training and $20,000 in funding in exchange for a 6% interest in the company.^[10][17][18] With the website already built, they used the Y Combinator investment to fly to New York to meet users and promote the site.^[16] They returned to San Francisco with a profitable business model to present to West Coast investors. By March 2009, the site had 10,000 users and 2,500 listings.^[19]

In March 2009, the name of the company was shortened to Airbnb.com to eliminate confusion over air mattresses.^[10] At the March 2011 South by Southwest conference, Airbnb won the "app" award.^[20] In July 2014, Airbnb revealed design revisions to the site and mobile app and introduced a new logo.^[21][22] It also announced a partnership with Concur, an expense reporting service for businesses.^[23]

In 2014, linguist Mark Liberman criticized the extreme length of the legal agreements that Airbnb members are required to accept, with the site's terms of service, privacy policy, and other policies amounting to "55081 words, or about the size of a short novel, though much less readable".^[24]

In April 2015, following the easing of restrictions on U.S. businesses to operate in Cuba, Airbnb expanded to Cuba, making it one of the first U.S. companies to do so.^[25][26] In July 2016, former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired to help craft an anti-discrimination policy for Airbnb after reports showed that hosts were refusing to accept lodging requests from guests whose names suggested that they were black.^[27] As part of the reform, photos of prospective guests are hidden from hosts until requests for lodging are accepted.^[28]

In November 2016, Airbnb launched "experiences", whereby users can use the platform to book activities.^[29] In January 2017, along with serial entrepreneurs Gary Vaynerchuk, Ben Leventhal and Mike Montero, Airbnb led a $13 million investment in Resy, a restaurant reservation-booking app.^[30] In May 2017, the company launched Airbnbmag, a magazine co-published with Hearst Communications.^[31]

In August 2017, Airbnb cancelled numerous bookings and closed accounts belonging to attendees of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally organized by Jason Kessler in Charlottesville, Virginia, citing its terms of service in which members must "accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age."^[32][33]

In February 2018, the company announced Airbnb Plus, a collection of homes vetted for quality of services, comfort and design,^[34] as well as Beyond by Airbnb, which offers luxury vacation rentals.^[35] By October 2019, two million people were staying with Airbnb each night.^[36] In April 2019, Airbnb produced and financed Gay Chorus Deep South, a documentary launched by its Rausch Street Films division. The rights were sold to MTV, which aired the program on its network.^[37][38][39]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, bookings dropped as much as 96% in some cities.^[40] However, bookings rose in many rural areas.^[41] The company pledged $250 million in payouts to hosts to compensate them for guest cancellations due to the pandemic.^[42][43] The company also laid off approximately 1,900 employees, or about 25% of its workforce in the Americas, Europe, and Asia due to the pandemic.^[44][45] On December 10, 2020, Airbnb became a public company via an initial public offering, raising $3.5 billion on Nasdaq.^[46] Shares valued at $238 million were offered to hosts on the platform at the price of $68 per share.^[47]

Airbnb was one of the 15 leading sponsors of the 2022 Winter Olympics, held in Beijing, and was asked by human rights activists and groups to drop its sponsorship in March 2021 as part of diplomatic and activist boycotts over alleged human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party, in particular the persecution of Uyghurs in China. These requests were ignored by the company.^[48][49]

In March 2022, Airbnb suspended business in Russia and Belarus due to international sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[50][51]

In May 2022, Airbnb ceased operations in China because of complicated and expensive laws and regulations that required Airbnb to send detailed information on guests to the government of China, which can be used to track people, as well as a decline in business due to COVID-19 lockdowns; China represented less than 1% of revenue for Airbnb.^[52] Airbnb was accused of being too willing to provide information to Chinese authorities, which led to the resignation of an Airbnb executive, who was also a former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in 2019 after 6 months of working.^[53][54] Airbnb had also been accused of allowing listings on land owned by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a Chinese state-owned paramilitary entity sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for involvement in the persecution of Uyghurs in China.^[55][56] In 2019, certain hosts in China were accused of discrimination by refusing to rent to Uyghurs.^[57]

After temporarily banning parties in homes rented on the platform in August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,^[58] in June 2022, Airbnb announced that it would permanently ban parties and events in homes on its platform, a position supported by hosts and their neighbors who complained of nuisances at Airbnb properties.^[59] In August 2022, Airbnb rolled out technology to enforce this ban.^[60]

In January 2021, Airbnb allowed attendees of the January 6 United States Capitol attack to book units on the platform in the Washington metropolitan area, despite most hotels in the vicinity of Capitol Hill banning far-right extremists.^[61] After the possibility of further violence during the Inauguration of Joe Biden, Airbnb announced the day after the January 6 United States Capitol attack that it was banning all bookings in the region prior to the inauguration.^[62]

In February 2025, Airbnb cofounder and board member Joe Gebbia joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).^[63] Concern that Gebbia's work for DOGE undermines U.S. democracy resulted in calls to boycott Airbnb.^[64]

In June 2025, Airbnb became a sponsor of the FIFA Club World Cup in a 3-year partnership to offer "official fan accommodation" at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which the US is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, and the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil.^[65][66]

Regulations have been imposed on short-term rental platforms after proponents argued that short-term rental has reduced affordable housing and contributed to the increase of long-term rental prices due to changes in housing supply and demand; short-term rentals can be more lucrative than long-term rentals for landlords and also attract investors who bid up housing prices.^[109] Supporters of short-term rentals argue that the impact on housing prices has been minimal and that the way to increase affordable housing is to increase the housing supply.^[110][111] Examples include Lisbon, where a moratorium on short-term rentals did not reduce housing costs; it only increased hotel prices.^[112]

In rare cases, landlords have been accused of illegally evicting tenants to convert properties into short-term rentals to obtain higher rents.^[113]

The hotel industry has lobbied for additional regulations on short-term rentals, which compete with hotels.^[114] Short-term rental platforms also use lobbying to promote their interests.^[115]

In addition to government-imposed restrictions, many homeowner associations also limit short-term rentals.^[116] Neighborhood community groups have voiced concern that short-term residents can cause issues with congestion, noise, and safety.^[110]

Regulation of short-term rentals can include requirements for hosts to have business licenses, payment of hotel taxes, limitations on the number of days that a space is rented, requirements for hosts to occupy the space, and compliance with building, city and zoning standards.

Airbnb does not have a loyalty program, in part attributed to its lack of business customers.^[178]

Airbnb features a review system in which guests and hosts can rate and review each other after a stay; reviews are not visible until both host and guest have submitted reviews or until the time period to review has closed, a system that aims to improve accuracy and objectivity by removing fears that users will receive a negative review in retaliation if they write one. However, the truthfulness and impartiality of reviews may be adversely affected by concerns that the reviews are not anonymous and prospective hosts may refuse to host a user who generally leaves negative reviews.^{[179][180][181]}

Through Airbnb.org, the company facilitates and provides free and discounted stays to people impacted by emergencies such as natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russo-Ukrainian war in partnership with the International Organization for Migration. It was founded in 2012 with $6 million and 400,000 shares of Airbnb stock from the co-founders of Airbnb.^[202]

• Air mattress
• Bed and breakfast
• Vacation rental
• Holiday cottage