Airbnb is a good example of how the best startup ideas tend to seem crazy at first. When we first met the Airbnbs, we loved the founders, but we had a hard time believing this would be popular. In fact it is massively popular. Few startups we've funded have grown so fast.

Paul,

Were they accepted the first time they applied?

Yes. IIRC they got a really good recommendation from the Justin.TV founders. Then once we met them we were sold too.

Paul, have any other teams been accepted to YC with the AirBNB team composition of 2 non-tech/1 tech founders? It makes sense in their case in that it is more of a social engineering than tech challenge, but it is an interesting case.

Yes. As long as there are people who can do each thing that needs to be done, we don't care what the ratio is.

I would consider being a host, but I'm always concerned possessions may get stolen having stranger in my apt. I'm surprised this doesn't turn away a lot of potential hosts.

Still a fantastic idea, and would definitely look to be a guest when traveling on a budget.

I bet a lot more people are scared of being killed, than they are of having a few trinkets stolen.

I saw or hallucinated an "Airbnb for office space" recently, but can't find it for love nor money (which is what makes me think it's a hallucination). I recently spent a bit of time looking for a desk sublet and it took way longer than it should have. Though I guess there's something of a thorny area with commercial lettings and the like, it'd still be nice to book a place at some startup in London/Paris/SF to rest my laptop when I'm next down there for a few days.

Great idea! I would totally use a service like this too. You should write an email to the founders.

Desk-PC-Coffee-n-Conferenceroom.com

Address not found! ;)

Whats really missing from this article, and is alluded to quite frequently, is couchsurfing.com I skimmed the article, seems like a great pitch, but I didn't get why I would want to use airbnb.com over couchsurfing. couchsurfing.com is pretty mature though not w2.0. It's got the verification system so you can have some peace of mind, and its free.

I love couchsurfing, and I've used it a lot as a traveler and a host. The biggest advantage I see for AirBNB is that it makes people's expectations more clear by making it a business transaction. With couchsurfing there's always awkwardness to negotiate about sharing the space, how much does each party expect the other one to hang out with them, and stuff like that. Generosity (CS) can come with all these implicit side-effects that paying for the service (ABNB) eliminates.

The UI is also nicer.

Couchsurfing has a convention that if you're going to surf you should really host as well, unless there's a good reason why not. It's not enforced in any way, but there's definitely an expectation from many hosts that you will at least fill out a half-decent profile and try to build up some decent recommendations from people in your home town by attending a few social events or whatever. In other words, if you haven't hosted a few people, or otherwise gotten at least a couple of recommendation (and taken some time to flesh out your profile to make yourself seem at least a little interesting), a lot of hosts won't take you.

CS is fantastic, but it's not simply about free accommodation: to get the most out of it you need to put in quite a bit of effort too (which is as it should be).

Airbnb seems to be for people who don't really want to go that route.

couchsurfing = free; airbnb = some money. some people wont want to host someone in their house without compensation.

I get that. But from the perspective of a traveler, for any given well traveled city you are going to find an equivalent host with equivalent accommodations at both sites. I wonder if it would have been wiser to start Airbnb.com as the web 2.0 version of couchsurfing, and then go freemium. Something couchsurfing wouldn't do.

It's a different target demographic. In a trip to DC recently, we got a private room on AirBnB and saved roughly $25 pr. night ($75 vs. $100) over the hotel we'd otherwise have used, and we got a better experience for it.

We didn't feel any obligation to hang out with the host, bring gifts or stay in touch, or to accommodate our host or anyone else at our home -- which made things a lot easier.

I think it's more correct to think of AirBnB as cheap hotel, not premium couchsurfing.

I agree. As a budget traveler, I'd love a service like AirBnB, but all of the listings are too pricey. If they targeted the frugal adventurers, I could see a community of such people developing around the site, and all travelers would use AirBnB, not just the richer ones.

While this could be painful in the short-term, it would help them achieve the ubiquity that they seem to want.

Yes, great Washington Post coverage.

Every time I hear about airbnb though, I wonder - don't you need a permit to offer paid accommodation? For example in my part of the U.S. you need a "special use" permit to run a B&B. How is advertising your spare room on airbnb different?

I looked in their FAQ but couldn't find an answer.

I think this falls within the wide category of unenforced laws.

I have a feeling this will end up going the way of the prostitution section on Craigslist, or that site where you could offer to carpool with someone to work.

The entrenched businesses don't want any competition from this here new-fangled internets.

and very difficult to enforce.

I dunno. Reading an article like this certainly gives me pause: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/949jc/youre_probably_a_...

Is it? Around here (Hawaii) there are ordinances in many areas restricting the number of B&Bs that operate, and neighbours have been known to complain to the authorities when they see excess traffic to/from a property.

Sounds like the timeless combination of businesses colluding with government to keep competition out, enforced by tourist-hating among the locals.

It isn't necessarily business-government collusion. Those tourist-hating locals could just as easily have been the ones to 'lobby' local government to limit these things (probably more like 'abolish,' but 'limit' was the compromise). There are lots of localities where people try to get 'community standards' enacted like keeping your lawn trimmed to a standard height or other such nonsense.

Yes, but restricting the number of foo businesses in town is a boon to the existing local foo industry, since it protects all current foo businesses from competition. It's easy for established players to say, "oh yes, regulate us, make us get scarce operating permits to which we are already grandfathered into!" to eliminate future competition.

I don't think the collusion is necessarily overt, but most businesses welcome this kind of barrier to entry.

Well, I don't necessarily want to defend it, but I think there is a rationale to do with infrastructure. In the extreme case where everyone in a Hawaiian town offered a room to airbnb, the infrastructure would buckle under the increased population - not enough parking, some places are on cesspools that have limited capacity, water usage is a problem in some areas etc etc.

Granted there are also financial interests at stake, for example the state collecting a hefty room tax when people end up in hotels. But then that money goes to infrastructure among other things, so there is some method in the madness.

Scaling issues, in other words. All good reasons, but perhaps my cynical reasons are just as true :)

This may amaze you, but Hawaii is only a small part of the world.

Until trouble occurs

I was so skeptical when I first say them launch. I was like, "who is going to use this?". But after reading the article and viewing the site again, I think my wife and I are going to give it a try. There are so many places listed in our area with reviews. And it is a lot cheaper then going to a hotel for a night or weekend.

nice article on a yc company. the part i like best: airbnb is a startup that helps other entrepreneurs starting up by letting them monetize their space, albeit indirectly. nice!

Wow awesome idea - I think I'll probably be using this soon! The question of security etc. could be an issue but I imagine reviews (which I can't see yet) would help that.

Sounds like backpacking. Great fun, if you're in that frame of mind or want to be.