Airbnb

Overview

Airbnb is an American online marketplace for short- and long-term homestays, experiences, and services, headquartered in San Francisco. Founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk, it connects hosts who list accommodation (from a spare room to an entire home) with travelers who book it, handling discovery, payments, messaging, and trust/safety in one platform. It is the defining company of the “sharing economy” and, as a services/lodging marketplace, is a non-physical-goods example: the inventory is nights of stay and, increasingly, on-demand experiences and services rather than shippable products. Airbnb went public on Nasdaq (ticker ABNB) in December 2020 and reported US$11.1 billion of revenue in 2024.

What they’re known for

Peer-to-peer short-term home rentals. Airbnb is synonymous with booking someone else’s home instead of a hotel — the verb “to Airbnb” entered everyday travel language. Its signature is unlocking latent supply (ordinary people’s homes) at global scale, backed by a trust layer of verified profiles, two-sided reviews, secure payments held until check-in, and Host guarantees/insurance. In May 2025 the company extended the brand beyond lodging with a relaunched Experiences product and a new Services offering (chefs, massage, training, hair/makeup, catering), pitching “Now you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb.”

History

• 2007 — Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia rent out three air mattresses in their San Francisco apartment during a design conference to help pay rent.
• 2008 — Nathan Blecharczyk joins as third co-founder; the site launches as AirBedandBreakfast.com.
• 2009 — Backed by Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital (roughly a US$20M seed valuation); rebrands to “Airbnb.”
• 2011–2015 — Rapid global expansion to millions of listings across 190+ countries; passes 1 million nights booked and scales mobile.
• 2016 — Launches Experiences alongside home listings.
• 2020 — Pandemic guts travel; Airbnb restructures and pivots toward longer stays, then IPOs on Nasdaq on December 10 at US$68/share, opening near US$146 and reaching a ~US$100.7B fully diluted valuation.
• 2023 — Surpasses 1 billion cumulative guest arrivals; revenue around US$10B.
• 2024 — Record revenue of US$11.1B on 491 million bookings; ~44% of the global short-term rental market.
• 2025 — Summer Release relaunches Experiences and debuts Airbnb Services in 260 cities; revenue rises to ~US$12.2B.

Business model

Airbnb is a pure third-party (3P) marketplace — it owns no property and instead monetizes transactions between independent hosts and guests. It earns a commission on each booking. Historically it used a split-fee model (hosts pay ~3% of the booking subtotal, guests pay ~14–16.5%). On 27 October 2025 it began moving hosts — starting with those on property-management software — to a single host-only fee of ~15.5% of the subtotal (16% in Brazil and Mexico), with guests paying no separate service fee. Experiences carry roughly a 20% commission and the new Services roughly 15% (with a minimum). Revenue therefore scales with gross booking value (US$20.1B GBV in Q3 2024). Fees fund payment processing, customer support, marketing, and Host protections.

Why it succeeded

Airbnb solved a two-sided cold-start problem by unlocking supply nobody else could: existing homes, activated with near-zero marginal cost, which let it undercut and out-scale hotels without building any (see the Al Jazeera IPO coverage noting it eclipsed Booking Holdings and Marriott at listing). Trust engineering — verified identities, two-way reviews, escrowed payments, and insurance — made strangers comfortable transacting, the core barrier for any C2C marketplace. Powerful network effects (more hosts attract more guests and vice versa) plus a capital-light 3P model produced high margins and a defensible ~44% share of short-term rentals. That scale and its cultural footprint are inseparable from its externalities: research compiled by World Habitat and academic studies links dense short-term-rental activity to higher long-term rents and tighter housing supply, which is why cities from London to others impose day-caps and licensing — a regulatory headwind that is now a structural part of the business. The 2025 pivot into Experiences and Services (analyzed by AltexSoft) is an attempt to grow beyond a maturing, increasingly regulated lodging core.

Notable facts

• US$11.1 billion revenue in 2024 from 491 million bookings; ~US$2.65B net income.
• ~44% of the global short-term rental market as of 2024 — the largest player of its kind.
• IPO priced at US$68/share on 10 Dec 2020, opened at ~US$146, valuing the company at ~US$100.7B fully diluted and raising ~US$3.5B.
• Early seed investors reportedly saw a ~499,900% return from the ~US$20M seed valuation to the ~US$100B IPO valuation.
• Passed 1 billion cumulative guest arrivals by 2023; 2 billion+ guests cited by the CEO in 2025.
• Single host-only fee of ~15.5% (16% in Brazil/Mexico) rolling out from 27 Oct 2025; Experiences ~20% commission.
• 2025 Summer Release launched Services in 260 cities and refreshed Experiences in 650 cities.

Links

Title	URL	Type	Note
Airbnb (Wikipedia)	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb	article	Authoritative reference; founding, HQ, revenue and IPO figures (airbnb.com bot-blocks automated fetch)
Travelling far and wide: Airbnb’s IPO smashes 2020 records	https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/10/travelling-far-and-wide-airbnbs-ipo-smashes-records	news	IPO valuation, share price, market-cap context
How Early Airbnb Investors Raked In A 499,900% Return On IPO Day	https://finance.yahoo.com/news/early-airbnb-investors-raked-499-193618823.html	news	Founding story and IPO-day investor returns
What is Brief History of AirBnB Company?	https://portersfiveforce.com/blogs/brief-history/airbnb	article	Timeline of milestones 2008–2025
Airbnb relaunches experiences and adds services	https://www.altexsoft.com/travel-industry-news/airbnb-relaunches-experiences-and-adds-services-will-travelers-care-this-time/	article	2025 relaunch of Experiences and new Services
The Airbnb Effect: short-term rentals with long-term consequences	https://world-habitat.org/blog/airbnb-and-the-housing-crisis/	article	Impact on housing supply and rents; regulation
Airbnb Host-Only Fee Explained (15.5% fee)	https://www.hostaway.com/blog/airbnb-host-only-fee-what-to-know-about-the-15-percent-host-fee/	article	Host-only fee model detail
Airbnb Hosting Fees: What Percentage Does Airbnb Take in 2026?	https://www.lodgify.com/blog/airbnb-host-fees/	article	Split-fee vs single-fee breakdown
Airbnb Host Fee Calculator 2026: The True Cost & Fee Breakdown	https://www.futurestay.com/read/airbnb-host-fee-calculator-2026-breakdown	article	Fee models and effective take rate
How Much Does Airbnb Charge Hosts? Fee Breakdown (2026)	https://strnumbers.com/blog/airbnb-host-fees	article	Host fee percentages and subtotal basis