I love the term "cereal entrepreneurs" from one of the commenters on Fred Wilson's post:
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/03/airbnb.html#comment-16689887...
(The Disqus link doesn't quite work all the time tho...)
Subject: Airbnb
121–130 of 146 posts
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#122Fascinating conversation. Thanks for giving insight into how these deals work... >ABNB reminds me of Etsy in that it facilitates real commerce in a marketplace model directly between two people. Interestingly enough, I still tend to side with Fred's assessment of AirBnB's future. All my experiences with it as a user have been too unreliable to expect that it can scale to truly massive usability. Selling your old guit…
"I just don't see it swallowing up the whole Hotel industry." I've been out of the travel/hotel game for about 4 years now, but I worked in it on and off from ~'97 through to '07. It's an industry ripe for a new player to do a Paypal style end run around the traditional banking/creditcard industry. I don't know whether Airbnb are that player (I'm 100% sure pg and Fred are _much_ better judges of that then I am), but…
I definitely agree! the industry is stagnant and ready to be disrupted.
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#123Re: Subject: Airbnb
#124interesting stuff I was under the impression that YC introductions were pretty much the equivalent of "hey, here are some guys...invest in them"...but here you can see that there is a lot more pressure....bordering on begging
We earned PG's recommendation by working really, really hard.
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#125I've told this story before on HN, but it's worth telling again. I rented a room in L.A. using Airbnb. The owner of the room said he made $4000 in 3 months on two rooms that would have otherwise been vacant. If you're making this much money for people you've tapped into one helluva market.
I can cover the rent of a 2-bedroom apartment in Manhattan by renting out one of the bedrooms on Airbnb. I don't expect the situation to last forever, but for now it's great.
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#126Fred: "I'm just not sure how big it's going to be"
- had he seen couchsurfing at the time?
http://www.couchsurfing.org (launched as beta in 2003)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchSurfing
Are Airbnb copycats?
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just did my first AirBNB experience (actually am still in the middle of it) and I can say that it's actually been surprisingly smooth. It's almost like a paid way to make friends. The hosts who I'm staying with are so cool, and since I'm pretty public online, it was easy for them to feel comfortable with me staying at their pad. They've set it up as much like a hotel as I could ask for. It's really great, and it's…
I like Airbnb. I've hosted 8ish times and stayed with people once. Why I think the people on Airbnb are 'cool' is that its a small population that has a lot in common (young or young-at-heart, singles and couples without kids, internet natives, own a macbook, would love to hitchhike Europe while submitting correspond reports for the NYTimes). As it grows, I'm worried that everyone's not going to find everyone else 'c…
I would be afraid of being the uncool person in this equation :-)
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#128Nice, pg. Have you ever given a similar vote of confidence to founders who didn't live up to your expectations?
The idea with this kind of thing, as far as I can tell, is to be as nuts (i.e. risk-friendly) as you can possibly get away with. If you're never wrong, that's probably an indicator that you could get away with being a lot more nuts.
Moreover, if you do pump a startup and you are wrong, then to explain the situation is often to piss all over the work of said startup.
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just did my first AirBNB experience (actually am still in the middle of it) and I can say that it's actually been surprisingly smooth. It's almost like a paid way to make friends. The hosts who I'm staying with are so cool, and since I'm pretty public online, it was easy for them to feel comfortable with me staying at their pad. They've set it up as much like a hotel as I could ask for. It's really great, and it's…
'It's almost like a paid way to make friends.' - love this :)) I stayed in like 4 airbn places in SV and learned: 1) That it certainly not for everyone, some ppl just dont need all this fun and pretty happy with avg hotel room. 2) If you think that its not for you, still please give it a try, there is a very serious chance that you will absolutely love it. (I was super skeptical too) 3) I dont pay Airbnb fee on secon…
3) I dont pay Airbnb fee on second stay and just contact my 'paid friends' directly. They need to consider this and if its a problem in scale.
That's a really good point. A common theme in Paul's argument is that "AirBnB could be the next eBay." But eBay's worst nightmare is buyers and sellers communicating directly, saving each other money while cutting the company out of the revenue loop.
AirBnB is almost more like a dating service than a marketplace... a 'buyer' and 'seller' who prove compatible with each other will never need to use the service again, at least not in the same city.
Re: Subject: Airbnb
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aww shucks, Thanks, Randall. We really enjoy hosting, and it seems like an even better deal for us (we get paid to make friends). About the only downside Iv'e experienced so far is that I have to wash sheets all the time (most people stay with us for 2-3 days and since we now have between 70%-100% occupancy thats a lot of sheet washing. I'm also about to go to Paris and the value proposition of airbnb there is even b…
If you're renting out your spare room 70-100% of the time, why don't you just get a roommate? Seems like it would be safer, less work, and you'd ideally have a better long term relationship.
I've got friends who do it 'cause you can't boot your new roommate out when your parents want to come visit for a week...