Airbnb is an American company that operates online markets and hospitality services for people to rent or rent short-term lodging including holiday cottages, apartments, homestays, dorm beds, or hotel rooms to participate in or facilitate tourism-related experiences such as walking tours, and making reservations at restaurants. The company has no real estate or tour; it is the broker who receives a percentage of the service fee in relation to each order. The company has more than 5 million listing lodging in 81,000 cities and 191 countries and has facilitated over 300 million check-ins.
Video Airbnb
Product overview
Airbnb is accessible through its website or mobile app for iOS, Apple Watch and Android. Free registration and account creation. However, before placing an order, the user must provide a valid name, email address, phone number, photo, and payment information. Some hosts also require a scanned official ID before accepting reservations.
Users can search for lodging using various filters including lodging type, date, location, and price.
Users can create lists by selecting the "Host" menu after login. A list will not go live until the host is ready to be published. The price is determined by the host, with a recommendation from Airbnb. Hosts may charge different rates for overnight, weekly and monthly stays and can make adjustments for seasonal rates. The host adds a description of the residence, amenities, available dates, cancellation policies, any rules that guests must approve and are advised to upload photos of the lodging offered. Potential guests are asked to send a message to the host directly via Airbnb to ask questions about the property. Unless the host has enabled "instant book", in which case the request to stay is automatically accepted, the host has 24 hours to accept or reject the reservation. After reservation, the host coordinates the meeting time and contact information with the guest.
Cost
With each booking, the company will charge a guest service fee of 0-20% and the fee will incur a 3% host service fee. For "experience", like a walking tour, the company takes a 20% commission from the host.
Financial benefits
Many people are on the verge of losing their homes through foreclosures because financial difficulties have depended on Airbnb for additional income. In the US, homeowners who refinance their mortgages with Fannie Mae loans through Quicken Loans, Citizens Financial Group and Better Mortgage can calculate the revenue they earn from their Airbnb lease on their refinance loan application.
Legality offers lodging
Some cities have limits to rent for a short time. In some cities, temporary shelter collection by Airbnb is required. In many cities, the host must register with the government and obtain a license or license. Airbnb has published a list of rules and requirements by city; however, only cities in the United States are included. In addition, many landlords or community associations also have restrictions on short-term subfields. The host may be required to pay income tax on income received through Airbnb and, in the United States, Airbnb sends tax forms to the host who has received more than $ 20,000 in rental amount and receives over 200 bookings via Airbnb within a calendar year.
Safety mechanisms
Airbnb must overcome barriers of "foreigner danger" to build a level of trust between the host and the guests and instill confidence in its platform. Founder Joe Gebbia said that Airbnb is specifically "designed for trust" through the following security mechanisms:
- Airbnb requires each member to complete the profile and upload photos so that members can learn about their previous hosts and guests.
- Once guests have finished their stay, the host and guest have the option to leave each other's references and reviews about their stay, publicly posted, giving a reputation.
- Airbnb recommends that residents get insurance covering damages caused by guests. Airbnb offers US $ 1,000,000 secondary insurance , called "host guarantees", which includes property damage due to vandalism and theft. When first launched in August 2011, the program reached up to $ 50,000 but the maximum then increased to US $ 1,000,000.
- This site provides a private messaging system listed as a channel for users to personally send messages individually before ordering and accepting reservations. Without an assurance of identity, any reviews may not be attached to members or members for any review.
- Each Airbnb host can ask their prospective guest to get a "Verified ID" before ordering, which means that they are required to scan their government-issued ID to verify their identity.
- The Airbnb account can be linked to accounts in social networking services like Facebook, thus providing hosts with data on friends and interests alike.
Travel guides around
The "environment" is a travel guide that provides in-depth information for selected environments in 23 major cities through photographs, essays, maps, tags from locals, and assessment of the criteria that will attract guests such as public transport, dining, peace & quiet, nightlife, tourist attractions, and shopping, thus helping travelers choose the ideal environment to live in through collaborative filtering. The Airbnb product team maps hundreds of neighborhoods within these 23 cities and has a local editor collecting content for each environment. Airbnb also added 70 street photographers who produced 40,000 photos for the project.
Digital content marketing products
Airbnb uses a content marketing approach to drive stock and engagement. "Airbnb Neighborhood" is one of its digital content marketing products. This content provides travelers with information about where local people go in the city.
Airbnb launched "Airbnb Concerts", a project based on music experience. Music fans can find local music performances they are interested in on their websites. The project began in 2017 covering 25 cities including New York, London, Barcelona, ​​Tokyo and Tokyo.
"Airbnb Story" is another digital content marketing product, which links the host with guests by video. Airbnb uses stories to provide an in-depth experience of places around the world by various story films created by local photographers and directors.
Airbnb is active on various social media platforms. Airbnb uses visual content in social media like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. In 2016, Airbnb launched a social media campaign "Live There", which aims to encourage people to live like local people. This is based on Airbnb's consumer research which shows that 86% of people want to travel like locals. It suits the corporate philosophy of making guests feel at home and connected with the locals.
Airbnb for Work
Business travelers who wish to book a business trip in Airbnb may choose to join their company's Airbnb for Work account. They must first register their email address to their Airbnb user account if their company is already registered with Airbnb. Once a company is registered, travelers can search for "Business Travel Ready" properties to book a property that will provide the necessary facilities and work privacy without sacrificing Airbnb's experience.
Maps Airbnb
History
Shortly after moving to San Francisco in October 2007, he overstayed with a friend for months before he found an apartment. His roommates and former schoolmates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia can not afford to pay for their rent. Chesky and Gebbia came up with the idea of ​​placing air mattresses in their living room and turning them into bed and breakfast. The original goal was just "to make a few dollars". In February 2008, Nathan Blecharczyk, a former Chesky roommate, joined as Chief Technology Officer and third co-founder of the new venture, which they named AirBed & amp; Breakfast. They collect websites that offer short-term residence, breakfast, and unique business networking opportunities for those who can not book hotels in saturated markets. The Airbedandbreakfast.com website was officially launched on August 11, 2008. The founders had their first customers in the city in the summer of 2008, during the Industrial Design Conference organized by the Industrial Designer Society of America, where travelers had trouble finding lodging in the city.
To help fund the site, the founders created a special edition breakfast cereal, with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as inspiration for "Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCains". Within two months, 800 boxes of cereal sold for $ 40 each, which earned over $ 30,000 for corporate incubation. It also received corporate attention by computer programmer Paul Graham, who invited his founders to a winter training session in January 2009 from his startup incubator, Y Combinator, who provided them with training and $ 20,000 in funding in exchange for small interest in the company. With an already built website, they are using a $ 20,000 Y-Combinator investment to fly to New York City to meet users and promote the site. They returned to San Francisco with a profitable business model to be presented to West Coast investors. As of March 2009, the site has 10,000 users and 2,500 lists.
In March 2009, the company name was shortened to Airbnb.com, and the site content has evolved from air beds and shared spaces to various properties including entire homes and apartments, private rooms, palaces, ships, manor, tree houses, igloos, islands personal and other properties.
A year later, there were 15 people working from Chesky and Gebbia apartment apartments on Rausch Street in San Francisco. To make room for employees, Brian Chesky gave up his bedroom and stayed at the inn booked through Airbnb service until the company moved into his first office, and in April 2009, the company received $ 600,000 in seed money from Sequoia Capital. In November 2010, the company raised $ 7.2 million in financing from Greylock Partners and once again from Sequoia Capital in the A-Series round and announced that of the 700,000 nights booked, 80% had occurred in the last six months.
In February 2011, Airbnb announced a booking of 1 million a night. In January 2012, the company announced a 5 millionth night reservation. In June 2012, Airbnb announced 10 million nights booked, doubling its business in the previous 5 months. Of these reservations, 75% of businesses come from markets outside the continent of the United States.
In mid-2011, Airbnb began offering US $ 50,000 of secondary insurance, called "host guarantees," which included property damage due to vandalism and theft. In May 2012, the company increased its amount to US $ 1,000,000.
On May 9, 2011, Airbnb added a feature called "Social Connection" that allows users to see if they have the same friends as hosts or guests through Facebook.
On May 25, 2011, Ashton Kutcher, an actor and partner at A-Grade Investments, announced significant investment in the company and its role as a strategic brand advisor to the company.
On May 31, 2011, Airbnb acquired a German competitor, Accoleo. This takeover, as well as other similar acquisitions, launched its first international Airbnb office, in Hamburg.
At the South by Southwest 2011 conference, Airbnb won the "app" award.
In October 2011, Airbnb set up an office in London, its second international office.
Due to the growth of international end users, in early 2012, Airbnb opened offices in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, ​​Copenhagen, Moscow and Sao Paulo. This opening is in addition to the offices in San Francisco, London, Hamburg and Berlin. In September 2013, the company announced it would set up its headquarters in Dublin. Prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, Airbnb acquired London-based CrashPadder, then added 6,000 international lists to its existing inventory. This acquisition made Airbnb the UK's largest holiday website.
As of June 2012, Airbnb launches a wish list feature, offering users the ability to catalog curated inns they want to visit and share this list with other users.
In November 2012, after Hurricane Sandy, Airbnb partnered with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to offer free housing to people displaced by the storm. Airbnb builds microsite for this effort alone where the victims register for housing and meet the property owner with free housing. Additionally, Airbnb exempts all service charges associated with this list while maintaining the Host Guarantee for all registered properties.
In November 2012, Airbnb opened offices in Sydney, Australia, the location of its 11th office, and announced plans to launch services in Thailand and Indonesia. At that time, Australian consumers accounted for 10% of Airbnb's user base, and in December of the same year, Airbnb announced its strategy to move more aggressively into the Asian market with the launch of its Singapore office.
In November 2012, Airbnb acquired NabeWise, a city guide that collects curated information for a particular location. The acquisition shifts the focus of the company to offer hyperlocal recommendations to travelers. In the same month, Airbnb launched the "Environment", a travel guide from 23 cities that provides in-depth information through collaborative filtering to help travelers choose neighborhood neighborhoods based on criteria such as public transport, eating places, peace & amp; quiet, nightlife, tourist attractions, and shopping.
In December 2012, Airbnb announced the acquisition of Localmind. Localmind is a location-based query and answer platform that allows users to post questions about a particular location online. These questions are then answered in real-time by experts in the designated area.
In October 2013, Airbnb has served 9 million guests since its establishment in August 2008, and in December 2013, the company reported having more than 6 million new guests by 2013, and nearly 250,000 properties added in 2013.
In July 2014, Airbnb revealed design revisions to mobile sites and apps and introduced a new logo. Some people think the new logo is visually similar to the genitalia, but Survata's consumer survey only shows a small percentage of respondents think this is the case.
In July 2014, Airbnb became the official sponsor of the jersey for the Australian men's national basketball team at the 2014 Basketball World Cup.
In April 2015, after easing the Obama administration's restrictions on US business to operate in Cuba, Airbnb expanded into Cuba, making it one of the first US companies to do so.
In June 2015, Airbnb sponsored the F1 Manor team and the Airbnb logo appeared in front of the nose of the car and on team wear including the driver's overalls.
In August 2015, Airbnb partnered with Tesla Motors to provide chargers at certain host homes.
In the summer of 2016, at the request of three members of the United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating how Airbnb affected the cost of housing. In October of the same year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a fine imposed by Airbnb for violations of local housing law. The New York Times reported that the incident was linked and part of a "plan that the hotel's association began in early 2016 to thwart Airbnb".
In January 2017, Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, posted on Twitter that the company will provide free housing to refugees and others not allowed into the United States as a result of Donald Trump's 13769 Executive Order, which temporarily bans refugees from the United States.. Airbnb also led a $ 13 million investment in restaurant reservations, Resy, along with entrepreneurs Gary Vaynerchuk, Ben Leventhal and Mike Montero.
Airbnb first became profitable during the second half of 2016. Airbnb's revenue grew by more than 80% from 2015 to 2016.
In February 2017, Airbnb acquired Luxury Retreats International, a Canadian-based rental company, for approximately $ 300 million in cash and stock, the largest acquisition to date.
In February 2017, Airbnb acquired Tilt, a social payment startup. On November 28, 2017, Airbnb began allowing users to share payments with up to 16 other travelers.
On November 16, 2017, Airbnb acquired Accomable, a startup that focused on accessibility of travel.
In February 2018, Brian Chesky revealed that the company is considering launching an airline.
In February 2018, Airbnb announced Airbnb Plus, a collection of homes that have been screened for quality service, comfort and design, as well as Beyond by Airbnb, which will offer luxury holiday rentals.
On May 30, 2018, CEO Brian Chesky said Airbnb "will be ready for next year's IPO, but I do not know if we will do it."
Company information
Office location
Airbnb has offices in the following 20 cities:
Funding
The company's first business funding was a $ 20,000 investment by Y Combinator in 2009.
In April 2009, the company raised $ 600,000 from Sequoia Capital, with partners Youniversity Ventures, Jawed Karim, Keith Rabois, and Kevin Hartz participating.
In November 2010, collecting $ 7.2 million in a financing round led by Greylock Partners. In July 2011, he collected $ 112 million in financing led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other early investors include Digital Sky Technologies, General Catalyst Partners, and A Grade Investments partners Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary.
In April 2014, the company closed its investment of US $ 450 million by TPG Capital on a valuation of approximately US $ 10 billion. Additional funds are provided by Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, T. Rowe Price and Sherpa Capital.
In June 2015, Airbnb raised $ 1.5 billion in Funding Series E led by General Atlantic, and joined Hillhouse Capital Group, Tiger Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GGV Capital, China Broadband Capital, and Horizons Ventures.
In September 2016, Airbnb raised $ 555.5 million from Google Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures, valuing the company with $ 30 billion.
In March 2017, Airbnb raised US $ 1 billion in funding, bringing the total funding to more than US $ 3 billion and valuing the company to US $ 31 billion.
Controversy
Implications and fair housing discrimination
In July 2016, former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired to help draft an anti-discrimination policy for Airbnb after the company faced many complaints related to racism, including a study by Harvard Business School that showed widespread discrimination by the host against guests whose names suggested that they black.
Privacy and terms of use
Airbnb's identity verification system "Verified ID" has been considered by many customers as too intrusive. Three customer identification layers required: phone, photo ID (such as passport or driver's license), and verification of Facebook, LinkedIn or Google account.
Linguist Mark Liberman has criticized the extreme length of the legal agreement requested by Airbnb members, with terms of site services, privacy policies and other policies of "55081 words, or about the size of a short novel, though much less readable".
Despite not having an explicit ban on the host that filmed guests, Airbnb updated its terms of use in November 2014 to require that the host fully disclose the use of surveillance equipment and security cameras to guests. Previously, no such disclosure was necessary.
Price transparency
When a customer searches for lodging, Airbnb displays a price per night that excludes its own service charge per night as well as possible additional charges such as cleaning fees. The total price is not disclosed until the customer selects an individual property and is ready to order.
At the end of 2015, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission take action against Airbnb for this drip price form. As a result, Airbnb website users in Australia now see the total price of live including all unavoidable charges at each stage of the booking process.
Guest review system
The Airbnb review system prevents guests from leaving negative comments, mainly because comments are personalized, and the negative comments left on the property may have a negative effect on the guest itself. The likely hosts may refuse to give their property to someone who left a bad comment. Therefore, it is not possible to get an objective picture of the property from the reviews on Airbnb.
Boycott of Israeli settlements
Airbnb is on the list of Boycott, Divestment and Corporate Sanctions. The company was added following media reports that inn lists include settlements in occupied Palestinian territories advertised as being in Israel or in Israeli neighborhoods.
Housing affordability
Airbnb has faced criticism about its impact on housing affordability. Since the beginning of 2018, several studies have found that Airbnb rents rental rates in many areas of the city due to commercial advertising, as landlords keep the property from long-term lease markets and instead get higher rental rates for short-term housing through Airbnb. Landlords have been accused of illegally evicting tenants to convert properties into Airbnb listings. In San Francisco, this problem led to protests.
Landlords for their part argue that hosting long-term tenants has been difficult for those who include property damage by tenants, late rental payments, over the use of water resources, which are usually not compensated by their average rental rates. Disturbances and other similar problems make long-term leases unattractive to them. In contrast, not only short-term rentals in Airbnb are avoiding it for them, but also offering higher amounts obtained from short-term rentals compared to leasing contracts with long-term tenants. Dealing with difficult long-term tenants also includes many legal obstacles such as lease arrangements that require all legal procedures to be followed that do not allow immediate eviction from troubled tenants in most circumstances.
A study published in 2017 found that raising Airbnb listings in certain neighborhoods by 10% led to a 0.42% increase in rental rates and a 0.76% rise in house prices. According to the FiveThirtyEight analysis website conducted in 2016, while commercial listings comprise only 10% of Airbnb's total listing in 25 of the largest US markets (for the period between June 2015 and May 2016), they constitute about a third of the host's revenue. In markets such as Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, part of revenue from commercial listings reaches almost 50%.
Similar concerns also arise in other parts of the world such as Scotland, where an increase in the Airbnb list has alarmed local communities.
Taxation
The company has been criticized for minimizing its tax obligations by preparing Ireland's dual arrangement through its subsidiaries in Ireland and Jersey.
In 2016, the Spanish treasury department sent a letter to property owners who have not announced revenue related to Airbnb. In Australia, insiders say in 2016 that the host of 75,000 listed properties in Airbnb will likely face an increased possibility of being audited.
Dituduh gagal menutup "celah berbahaya"
In 2017, Airbnb was accused by a tourist blogger for failing to close down some "dangerous spaces" that kept holiday makers vulnerable to fraud and putting them in potentially dangerous situations. Among the reasons for the claim is that in many countries including the United States, France, Canada and the UK, Airbnb does not require a host to provide any form of ID. This means that hosts that have been "permanently blocked" can re-use this platform instantly with different names and email addresses. This happens to travel bloggers while in Paris and he provides video evidence. Additionally, the address list is not verified so the "bad" host can list any addresses whether they have properties or not.
Abuse by long-term tenants
Many landlords have complained and denied long-term tenants who rented out their rented space at Airbnb and got a profit from it without the owner's consent. In many cases, landlords can not immediately expel their tenants to rent out due to lease laws such as the Tenancy Protection Act in Ontario. A similar law in Quebec that protects the tenants also does not make them legally eligible when leasing their rented space as landlords will in terms of long-term leases. By 2016, Airbnb offers to work with landlords who lease their property list and launch a program that consists of a collective agreement to lease if the landlords agree to it and it's legal in their local municipality.
In 2018, a federal court ruled in favor of Airbnb in a lawsuit filed by Apartment Investment & amp; Company management involving their tenants illegally leased their rental space at Airbnb. The Court defended Airbnb under the Communications Adjustment Act that did not regulate Internet-based services responsible for the actions of their users. Instead the tenants are believed to be responsible for illegally leasing their space without getting prior approval from their landlords.
Concerns of competition and rejection from the hotel industry
The Hotel industry has faced great competition from Airbnb. Short-term and low-cost rentals to stay in private residences have sparked considerable opposition from hotels; who accused them of losing tourists and other guests to Airbnb. It is also suspected that hotels have been forced to lower their prices to compete with the company. The hotel association in response, has lobbied the company, accusing unfair treatment of having to go through several safety and certification standards that conflict with Airbnb and its lodgings. This is followed by a large lobby of associations and unions to implement laws that impose restrictions on Airbnb and the host.
Government actions involving Airbnb and short term lease
Legislatures around the world have passed laws that seek to reduce the impact of Airbnb on voters. In 2017, San Francisco passed a law requiring Airbnb's host to register into the city before they could rent the unit. Units can not be rented for more than 90 days a year. Similarly, Portland created a new zoning code in 2016 to arrange short-term rentals and that includes some limitations, such as limiting the number of bedrooms in a single unit that can be listed. In addition, Portland promised in 2015 to dedicate a portion of the Airbnb shelter tax to affordable housing. Santa Monica released a draft city regulation in 2016 - which has not yet been approved - that would ban rented units from being listed as short-term rentals.
In 2017, Indiana state lawmakers are considering following a similar model to Arizona, preventing municipalities from interfering in private property ownership and protecting host Airbnb. The proposed new law would prohibit municipalities to introduce zoning laws that limit restrictions on private property owners and what they can do on their land. A 2016 article on Techdirt reported that the municipal government that aims to limit Airbnb and its host would violate Internet laws, which they argued, made it impossible to punish the Internet platform by law because the host or user failed to comply with local law.
Other cities in the US that have passed strict rules on Airbnb include San Francisco and Santa Monica, while New York City specifically has banned short-term rentals for 30 days or less. In January 2017 West New York, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City, passed the same ban.
In November of the same year, the Vancouver Government adopted regulations and restrictions on Airbnb's hosting, claiming to protect long-term rental markets that are stated above zero availability. The new rules include allowing only hosts to rent their primary residence. The host also requires a paid license with acquisition and maintenance fees, with the number shown when listing space for rent. A voluntary transaction fee of three percent will also be applied per reservation, but Airbnb claims that they can not collect such fees, instead requesting an amendment for hotel taxes.
The move was criticized by some rental hosts, saying it would deter them from much-needed revenue. This implementation was also criticized by the opposing Non-Partisan Association. Councilor George Affleck argues that it creates more bureaucracy, taxation and sticks, which does not solve the problem. He argues it makes Vancouver a more difficult and costly place to live, and also argues that long-term leasehold housing needs to be built. Airbnb's public policy manager for Canada welcomed the short-term lease-making law, but criticized the ban on wearing secondary clothing. The company also considers challenging the move, arguing that many family home spaces are kept for friends and relatives and will not be available for long-term rental markets.
The following month, the Toronto Government under John Tory, adopted similar restrictions, prohibited homeowners from renting their basements with separate entries and other non-housing units for short-term rentals, also arguing to protect long-term lease markets. The government issues licenses and fees will also be required for the host to continue short term lease. The move was also criticized by some hosts who rely on Airbnb as a source of income; with one of them saying that government control over their property is like living in the Stalin era in the Soviet Union. Airbnb responded in an open letter to the mayor and members of the City Council, welcomed fair competition but also made several arguments, including that the Toronto economy as a growing global center also benefited from the list. Many locals depend on Airbnb for additional income and living expenses. The new economy evolved business and challenged older business models and methods. Toronto, they say, will benefit its reputation by adopting these new business styles and ideas. It encourages the city to continue allowing the host to rent out the space they have, either the rooms in their homes or in the external space. All of this, according to Airbnb, carries about two hundred and ninety-two million dollars into the city's economy.
The Europeans imposed strict rules on Airbnb, and who have imposed heavy fines for violations of this law, including Paris, Barcelona, ​​Berlin and. In contrast, Amsterdam and London are more open with this service. In February 2015, Amsterdam implemented a cooperative effort with Airbnb that included tourist taxes for rentals, and Airbnb's agreement to ensure potential hosts were made aware of the necessary rules and regulations. London endorsed amendments to its housing law in March 2015 allowing short-term rentals of up to three months of the year. In May 2018, Madrid announced plans to announce a proposal to reduce the number of Airbnb and homeshare lists available to help address over-tourism in the city. The plan aims to preserve residential homes in downtown areas, preventing them into special accommodations for tourists.
The European Union (EU) warned member states against banning sharing businesses such as Airbnb and Uber, stating that direct bans should be used only as a last resort to achieve the common good and that governments should implement more moderate rules that companies should share navigate. The European Commission advocated the EU guidelines for organizing business-sharing firms and warned that they attract the generated revenue generated by an estimated twenty-eight billion Euros across Europe.
In 2018, to combat the local housing crisis, the Tasmanian government arranged deals between 10,000 and 13,000 Australian dollars to landlords to lease their space for longer periods at a lower cost than registering at Airbnb.
References
External links
- Official website
- Airbnb companies are grouped in OpenCorporates
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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