I wish they would offer hosts more flexible controls for showing availability (and make sure hosts use them) so that people don't try to book places only to get negative responses from hosts who don't know if it'll be available at the time and to check back later. I was trying to book a place in SF for Google I/O and got a lot of responses saying that May is too far out for them to say for sure. It got pretty frustrating.
I don't have a place to host so I can't see what the controls exactly look like right now, but from browsing available properties it looks like the default case is that the place shows up as "available" unless there's an Airbnb booking in effect for a given date or the owner explicitly has blocked it out.
Given my experience searching for places, it'd be nicer if hosts had the option to say things like "don't show as available further out than X time into the future" or "default as unavailable except on specific days."
(I'm a backend engineer at Airbnb - feel free to write me at raph@airbnb.com if you have any other feedback to pass along.)
In fact, I'll be looking for an apartment with with an extra room, specifically to rent on Airbnb. Not just for the monetary aspect, but I've met some incredible folks over the past few weeks. The model just works.
I'm MUCH more likely to book a place that is reviewed well, and I am sure that my reviews play a role in the renters decisions to accept me, as well.
He could rent a room for $700 a month or $90/night. The latter works out better assuming he can rent it for 8 nights per month AND allows him to keep in available for friends/family who are coming into town, etc. I think the "fun" aspect of it is definitely part of it for some folks, but I'd wager it's less than you think.
Good luck for 2011.
I really like when Brian's grandfather (Brian is CEO and founder) found idea just fine, as that's the way people were "travelling" 60+ years ago - they just stayed at someone's house. Like history reinvented.
I'd love to hear from people who've rented out rooms/apartments through Airbnb in a popular area. How was the demand?
An example, New York City has banned rentals for less than 30 days. Enforcement is another issue though, so I guess we'll have to wait until May when the law goes into effect to see what happens.
http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2010...
However, there was something in this process which might have alienated the spouse from airbnb forever (much, much more than the convenience/ time lag factor): We exchanged emails with the airbnb people, who were quite helpful, and in one of them said something like "the owner pulled back from the agreement at the last minute because he lost power from a snowstorm, which is quite reasonable." Or something to that effect. A couple of weeks later, the owner emailed us, basically screaming "why did you post such nasty things about me?" Turns out someone from airbnb had put "the owner pulled back from the agreement at the last minute" onto the owners feedback page, with neither our permission nor any context (like, the power went out because of the snowstorm). My wife emailed airbnb and the comment got pulled, but it didn't leave a great taste in our mouth.
I may not be remembering exactly the exchange, but it was pretty close to that. If you ever want my wife to consider airbnb again, it will probably take some cold hard cash.
Otherwise, I love the idea!
Hmm looks like Airbnb handles the credit card transaction for the lister. If 2 out of that 3% goes to the credit card companies and banks, the adjusted revenue is $500k.
E.g. http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/73581 . Click the 'more info' link that's just below the 'Book it' button. It says in tiny print "Excludes Airbnb service fee ($9)".
Odd how they're hiding that fee; much worse than the typical hotel website that tries to hide taxes. Airbnb folks, I know you're reading: that instantly changed my impression of you guys from awesome to sleazy. Please make it more visible.
You've convinced me to at least give it a serious consideration. Unfortunately i've never seriously used AirBNB before.
Any advice?
There are so many YC companies that if every YC company was upvoted similarly, there wouldn't be anything but YC coverage on the homepage.
So often we can get frustrated by the time our ideas take to reach their goal, but its easy to forget success is hard work and rarely comes overnight.
Congrats to the Airbnb.
Did you guys happen to have the girl who used a website design as a resume create this for you? :)
