Pitched Unfairly

airbnb

Book rooms with locals, not hotels.

Seed round · 2009

The problem

Hotels cost a fortune and show you nothing.

And there's no easy way to book a room with someone who lives there.

GRAND CORPORATE HOTEL

  • Room, 1 night$219.00
  • Resort fee$35.00
  • Breakfast (beige)$28.00
  • Locals met0
  • Real city seen0

Total$282.00

Booked. Bored.

The solution

Locals host. Travelers save. Everyone wins.

  • Guests Save money

    A real room for less than a hotel.

  • Hosts Make money

    Turn a spare room into rent money.

  • Everyone Share culture

    Stay with a local, see the real city.

It's already happening

People already sleep on strangers' couches.

630,000

people on Couchsurfing

17,000

Craigslist temp-housing listings in SF and NYC, in one week

Market and model

84M trips. A 10% fee. $2.1B a year.

Trips with us
84M
× average fee
$25
= revenue a year
$2.1B

The product

Search, pick, book. Three taps.

  1. 1Search your city
  2. 2Pick a place
  3. 3Book it

How we grow

We show up where hotels sell out.

  1. 01Sold-out events

    Conventions and festivals where every hotel is full.

  2. 02Partners

    Budget travel sites that send us their travelers.

  3. 03Craigslist

    Every host can cross-post to where renters already look.

Competition

Cheap and bookable online? Only us.

AffordableExpensive Offline bookingBook online CouchsurfingCraigslistHostelsVRBOB&B sitesHotels.comOrbitz airbnb

Team

Two designers, an engineer, and three air mattresses.

  • BCBrian CheskyBusiness and brand
  • JGJoe GebbiaProduct and design
  • NBNathan BlecharczykEngineering

The ask

$600K. 80,000 trips in 12 months.