Released: November 12, 2011

Airbnb’s lodging gets tested, yielding a mixed bag

Source: Ron Lieber, The New York Times

For any fan of disruptive consumer technologies, watching Airbnb’s rise has been all sorts of fun. Since its debut in 2008, the company, based in San Francisco, has booked more than two million nights of lodging all over the world. But it’s not a hotel. Instead, it allows people to rent out their entire home or apartment — or just a room or a bed — to others who find Marriott boring or want to see life in a new area as a local would. Today, Airbnb has about 100,000 listings in 19,000 cities and towns in 192 countries. The company takes a small cut from both host and guest and has a friendly-looking Web site connecting both parties.

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