A little over ten years ago now, the Airbnb story began In San Francisco, 2008. Three college students, down on their luck and in rent arrears, plotted, schemed, and grafted away night-after-night in an effort to avoid having their rental lease terminated and keep themselves off the streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result of all of this hard work was Airbnb, a revolutionary online marketplace for renting rooms and apartments. This breakthrough in online lodging has become a massive success, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars annually and operating in a staggering 192 countries worldwide. In celebration of this momentous achievement and their more than ten years in business<\/a>, here are 20 Fun Facts about Airbnb, that you probably didn’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the debt piling up and the landlord on their tail, for rent arrears, Brian Chesky<\/a>, Joe Gebbia, and Nate Blecharczyk, found themselves between a rock and a hard place. With no immediate options available to them to cover their costs, the three of them got creative and decided to rent out an airbed in their apartment to budget-conscious tourists or those simply in need of a safe place to lay their heads. This enterprise soon took off, and over time it evolved into the Airbnb we have today, with a little cheeky nod to its birth all those years ago, still in its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb was formed in San Francisco in 2008,\nand it’s in that very city where Airbnb plays host to it’s most loyal customers\nand fans, with the Sanfranciscan’s on average spending five and half days in\neach property and splashing out a whopping $1,045 for their stay. Now that’s\nbrand loyalty!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breakfast was undoubtedly crucial in getting Airbnb off the ground; there are no two ways about it. Before they became a massive global success and a license to print money<\/a>, the company required some start-up cash. Brian, Joe, and Nate solved this problem ingeniously by repackaging and rebranding breakfast cereals to coincide with the 2008 presidential elections<\/a>. They were a roaring success, shifting thousands of units, and securing that much-needed start-up capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To say Airbnb’s growth has been impressive\nwould be an understatement. In only eleven years, they have conquered the four\ncorners of the globe, reaching a staggering 192 countries worldwide. The only\ncountries they are not available in are either war-torn or living under a\nmilitary dictatorship, which is totally understandable. Not bad for three down\non their luck guys struggling to pay rent, a little over a decade ago, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Airbnb is very popular with young\nprofessionals, the fastest-growing client base for the company comes not from\nhip and trendy, twenty-somethings, but from senior citizens. Older folk are\nflocking to the online marketplace, in record numbers, opting for a\nhome-away-from-home experience, instead of the one size fits all, assembly line\nhotels, which often feel impersonal and lacking in charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb’s first year was very successful for\nthe three founders, it changed their lives that year and kept a roof over their\nheads, and they only had four hundred guests<\/a>! Jump forward eleven years later,\nand an eye-watering four hundred guests now make a booking every two minutes.\nNow that’s progress!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A staggering seventy-five Airbnb hosts make\nat least a million dollars a year by renting out their properties. And if that\nsounds impressive, one of them managed to make fifteen and a half million in\njust twelve months. Making Airbnb one of the best businesses for homeowners to\nget into to not only make some extra cash but possibly change their lives\nforever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only are senior citizens the\nfastest-growing client base for Airbnb, but they’re also the most well behaved,\nwith older women consistently showing as the highest-rated hosts on the\nplatform. Awesome! How many of these are millionaires, we just don’t know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the eleven years that Airbnb has been\ntrading, they have accepted more than five hundred million guests! Two million\nguests stay with Airbnb each night alone, making Airbnb, by far the biggest and\nmost lucrative online rental marketplace in the world today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some fantastic unique places\navailable to rent on Airbnb if you’re in an adventurous kind of mood. They have\ncastles, beach huts, mobile homes, and more than two thousand tree houses\ncurrently listed on the site!<\/p>\n\n\n\n While logic may dictate that the majority\nof people are looking for big, spacious rentals, that isn’t always the case.\nAirbnb currently lists more than fourteen thousand tiny homes, ranging from\ngarden studio apartments to lakeside cabins, igloos, caves, and small boats.\nThere really is something for everyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting up in their apartment in San\nFrancisco in 2008, Airbnb had little use for an office, but as the company\ngrew, this quickly became a necessity. Now, in 2019, Airbnb has offices in\nthirty-four cities worldwide, giving them a global reach and customer service\nthat spans every continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a tiny garden studio or an igloo isn’t\nfor you, you’ll be pleased to hear that Airbnb also has some enormous\nproperties for rent on its site. From stonewalled Scottish castles to\nmulti-million dollar mansions right the way through to, if you can believe it,\nyour very own private island. These properties don’t come cheap and are often\nsold out year-round, so move fast if you have the option to land yourself one\nof these dream-come-true properties, even if it’s just for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up until 2015, company founder Brian Chesky\nhad the original Airbnb apartment up for rent on the site. Giving fans the\nchance to experience a piece of history for themselves; unfortunately, the\noriginal air bed had long since burst, being replaced by a sofa, which guests\ndescribed as surprisingly comfortable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb has one of the strongest customer ratings in the industry, with more than 96% of guests being happy with the site, service, and their stay. These are the kind of numbers hotels, and B&Bs can only dream of achieving and is a testament to their hard work, attention to detail, and most importantly, their customer service skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb has a massive positive economic\nimpact, estimated to be somewhere around one hundred billion dollars a year\nannually, injecting much-needed money and support to communities worldwide\nthrough their everyone’s welcome marketplace platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb has listings in an impressive eight\nthousand cities worldwide, but there can only be one winner, with London, UK, coming\nin as the top dog, with the city with the most listings globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Letting your property out can be nerve-racking; after all, accidents can happen, and vandalism has also been known to occur to some of the less fortunate hosts. A little-known fun fact is that every host who lists on Airbnb is insured for up to one million dollars in damages, ensuring that whatever happens, there’s a safety net waiting to catch them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might be hard to believe, but on\naverage, Airbnb is way<\/a> cheaper than renting a hotel room. We’re not talking\nabout comparing room-to-room, but room-to-home. That’s right; an Airbnb home\nrental is, on average cheaper than a hotel room. No wonder hotels are seeing\nsuch an economic downturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb hosts don’t have to go through the stress<\/a> and strains of the founders to cover their rent. It’s estimated that an Airbnb host could pay eighty to one hundred percent of their rent or mortgage on a two-bedroom apartment, depending on the city and occupation rate, just by renting it out through Airbnb! <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n1. Who Put the “Air” in “Airbnb”?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. It’s Incredibly Popular with the Locals.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day, isn’t it?!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. The World is their Oyster.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Golden Years.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. Sales, Sales, Sales!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. The Millionaire Mindset.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Gold Stars.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
9. The Numbers Don’t Lie.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
10. It’s Not Just Rooms and Apartments.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
11. Size Doesn’t Always Matter.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
12. Office Space<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
13. Size Sometimes Matters.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
14. Old School, B&B.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
15. You’re Important to Them.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
16. A Massive Global Economic Impact.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
17. <\/strong>Long live the Queen!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
18. Hosts are Well Protected<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
19. Airbnb can be a lot Cheaper Than a Hotel.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
20. No More Rent Arrears.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n