Airbnb’s Promise
Airbnb started out as a relatively simple premise: make some extra money by offering travelers a bed, a place to work, and breakfast. Instead of going through the complicated process of opening and running an actual bed and breakfast, a homeowner could “share” their space with others. Jump ahead 15 years and Airbnb is a platform with more than $60 billion of booking volume per year.
The idea behind Airbnb isn’t revolutionary or even new for that matter. Instead, the timing has worked to the company’s advantage. Similar “sharing” concepts like Uber have helped to lower the mental and comfort barriers found with leveraging an asset (car / home) to generate additional revenue.
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