Is Airbnb a  start-up? (YES)

Airbnb is a popular online marketplace where you can offer or arrange accommodation. Since its inception, the company has also started to offer tourism experiences. But is Airbnb a start-up.

Basically yes, this company is a start-up.

Airbnb was founded all the way back in 2007. The founders got the idea when they put an air mattress in their living and decided to rent it out as a bed and breakfast. Since then the company has grown by leaps and bounds and is now listed on the stock exchange and worth billions of dollars.

The reason why this company is considered a start-up is simple.

 Airbnb went through all the usual steps which a start-up goes through. After officially launching the site (Which back then was known as airbedandbreakfast.com) in August 2008 they soon found their first customers.

Due to this early success they were able to attract the attention of various people in the start-up community. This also meant they were able to begin working with local start-up incubators. They were invited to a training session with Y Combinator, which is one of the world’s biggest and most famous start-up incubators. During this training session, they were almost provided with a small amount of seed capital in exchange for shares in the company.

This money was used to successfully grow the business and by March 2009 they had 10,000 users and 2,500 listings. This success also meant that they now had a profitable business model and would be able to qualify for the next round of funding.

This happened when they received additional seed capital from Sequoia capital. They then came to the attention of another venture capital firm, Greylock Partners and received their first round of series A funding. They were able to secure this funding because at this stage the start-up had dealt with almost a million customers, proving that this was definitely going to be a successful business.

Since then it has progressed through all rounds of funding and managed to raise billions from venture capital firms all around the world. These include over five hundred million dollars from Google Capital. Today Airbnb is a highly successful privately held company which makes billions every year.

So the answer to is Airbnb a start-up is YES. In fact, it’s one of the most successful internet start-ups that was launched in the last decade. That being said, is Airbnb still a start-up? Probably not, this company has gone through all rounds of funding and is now a self-sufficient and profitable business, something which very few start-ups ever achieve.

This business now faces all of the usual challenges which beset multinational companies. These include growing their profits and remaining relevant, plus a host of issues and controversies. Just some of these include criticism of their business model and customer service, and also regulatory problems with various governments.

Who knows what the future holds for this company. There are many challenges which it faces, but also enormous potential for growth.

How can I be sure that Airbnb is offering the best rates?

There are several accommodation booking sites. So, one might ask how to make sure that Airbnb offers better prices than its competitors? Recently, the website cozycozy.com has appeared, and it is a great help for people who are looking for the best platform to book accommodation for a stay in any country.

It is a search engine that lists the different proposals of booking sites, in terms of accommodation. It takes into account famous organizations like Airbnb, but also platforms that are not well known by the public, to allow its users to find the best possible offer.

The use of this platform is very simple. All you have to do is go to its homepage and fill in the information requested there. These are the dates of travel, the city of stay and the number of people per room. Then, click on the “compare” button. After a short while, several offers corresponding to the information provided are displayed, with the names of the establishments that offer them. For a more accurate result, you need to give some information such as the desired price, the expected services, the type of accommodation …

Once you have chosen the ideal accommodation, all you have to do is select the offer and you will be immediately redirected to the site where the advertisement originated.