Airbnb was basically a monetized form of Couchsurfing, not a hotel alternative. It only later turned into a direct hotel competitor. To my knowledge there was no similar service at the time.

Folks had been using alternatives to rent space like HomeAway.com, VRBO.com, BedandBreakfast.com and Craigslist for years.

Airbnb won because:

- Better design, easy to use, nice pictures they took themselves at first (per PG's advice)

- Integrated payments and reviews in a seamless experience

- Popularized the idea of sharing a space when the host is there

- Offered unique accommodations in urban places

- Lots of buzz about treehouses, castles, teepees, shipping containers, etc.

- Their timing benefited from the Great Recession

- Very good at promoting their rag to riches story with YC's help

- Also you didn't need to constantly repost like Craigslist, just post once

>> - Popularized the idea of sharing a space when the host is there

this was not a popular option, and I don't believe was ever intended to be. It also opened the door for VRBO to gain traction explicitly marketing NOT sharing accommodation. The "rent out your spare bedroom" has never been a major component; it was a fake-out to counter the regulatory & licensing complaints they were facing.

It was a huge focus of their early marketing, to the point where I was surprised to find out later that people were just renting out the properties vrbo style.

It's also quite literally in the name - 'bnb' - which necessarily implies the hosts are there with you.

In addition to the sibling comment saying that it was a major marketing focus, it was also an internal culture focus for some time - the archetypal host as discussed internally was something like a 50+ couple that just sent their kid off to college and had a spare bedroom and some free time. I didn't work there, but based on what I saw there was a genuine focus on "non-professional" hosts. If this was an intentional ploy to fool the world, they were also doing a very good job of fooling themselves too.

I'm not debating that professional, non-resident hosts were and are the majority of the platform, just that it wasn't the original intent.

I agree with the reasons for their success, but I don't believe that any of those alternatives allowed you to book a room/couch in someone's apartment. They were merely ways to either use properties for vacations (VRBO), semi-hotels like beds and breakfasts, or just regular renting space (Craigslist) for short/long term. Not the same thing as AirBnb at all.

The first resonating problem you solve is rarely the bigger problem you end up completely solving.

But AirBnb didn't "completely solve" the hotel industry, and hotels still exist. If anything, they seem to still basically be operating in the same space as they started: owner-based rentals, for both individual rooms and entire properties.

It disrupted it in the way of bringing new inventory online, and owning demand search for lodging while travelling, without owning any assets like hotels.

This pattern, of owning demand for food (instacart), transport (uber, etc), delivery (uber eats, etc) is a different model that doesn't own the assets outright and facilitates it instead.

Ignoring local regulations, like Uber also was an "innovation".

Uber is a net good since it reduces drunk driving. Not sure about Airbnb destroying the rental market...

Well, one data point: Airbnb cheap rooms allowed me to travel widely while in my twenties. I definitely couldn’t have done so if I needed to pay for hotels. This very much changed the trajectory of my life.

That said, I was an active member of couchsurfing.org prior to Airbnb eating its lunch, so maybe you could make the argument that we’d be off better as a whole with a free community-oriented platform.

Yeah, back then Booking was hotels only, not people's apartments or couches.

What do you mean no similar service? You put it in your own sentence. couchsurfing.com was founded in 1999, launched the website in 2004, and still exists. It was, of course, a nonprofit founded on a principle of reciprocal generosity, not a way to make money, so it might be fair to say no similar service existed for homeowners looking to rent out spare rooms without a formal lease agreement or people looking to turn property into a hotel without it being zoned or licensed for that.

I literally mentioned couchsurfing in the previous sentence, so yes, that is obviously what I meant: no similar business services existed.