Readers, have you heard about the home sharing service called Airbnb? Headquartered in San Francisco, friends first and co-founders second Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk created the company back in 2008. I first learned about Airbnb through other bloggers on the web who when visiting other cities through events, for work, or for pleasure were opting for the home sharing service over actual hotels. Growing up, I used to love staying in hotels because it is all I’ve ever known, but I like to think that Seattle University taught me a whole lot about community and that is exactly what this service is molded off of. Give your traveling experience a unique twist by staying in someone’s home. You can choose to rent out a private room or the entire home in cities ALL over the world. Airbnb has been on my radar for the last year and now that sharing services are becoming a billion-dollar industry, it is definitely something to pay attention to. Airbnb focuses on home sharing, but I’m sure you’ve heard of Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar too – all ride-sharing service start-ups located in San Francisco and expanding to other cities.
The look of Airbnb’s website is quite impressive and that might be accredited to the co-founders who were all designers previously. The website allows you to view rooms and homes in cities that you are visiting with prices per night/per week/per month along with reviews from other visitors who have stayed with that host. Cruising their website is an experience in itself. It’s a clean concept that has a great deal of depth and I am very excited to someday try it out myself.
Check out this video of co-founder Brian Chesky explaining more of Airbnb on The Today Show here.
Readers have you used it? If so, please share!
