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The company’s origin story is the stuff of entrepreneurial legend. Sixteen years ago, during the Great Recession, Brian Chesky and his roommate Joe Gebbia couldn’t pay the rent for their San Francisco apartment, so they started renting out an air mattress on the floor. The next year, together with their friend Nathan Blecharczyk, they founded Airbnb, a modest peer-to-peer room rental platform.“Staying with a host was the original idea behind Airbnb,” says Chesky, the company’s CEO.
For a variety of reasons, a renewed push for room rentals feels right for these uncertain economic times. W In 2022, hosts renting out private rooms on Airbnb earned $2.9 billion. “So just under $3 billion,” says Powell. “That is really meaningful when you’re looking at the rising cost of living and the cost of energy bills.”
Chesky calls the renewed emphasis on private rooms an “all-new take on the original Airbnb.” Many of the new tweaks aim to remove the creep factor of staying in a stranger’s home — an especially important concern for solo female travelers.Airbnb Far more compelling is the new set of practical privacy features that travelers of every age and gender will appreciate, including whether the bedroom door has a lock, whether the bathroom is shared or private, and whether anyone other than the host will be in the home during a stay.