Do you know what Airbnb stands for?

Do you know what Airbnb stands for???




Someone asked this question on another host group, and I thought it was a good topic for contemplation.

HEre is my response:


I don't have a clear idea of what AIrbnb stands for. They seem to be a moving target in that respect.

AIrbnb began standing for home sharing -- but apparently, as someone recently shared in another group, 70% of Airbnb listings are now entire apartment/home listings, which means that the large majority of their hosts are NOT home sharers.

Also, Airbnb began by offering and emphasizing unique places to stay, and the creativity of hosts and their homes. But more recently this uniqueness and creativity have been de-emphasized as Airbnb has removed both host photos and listing titles from search results, so that their offerings look more like those of a giant hotel chain, or booking.com

Airbnb began as a site that people could use to be micro-entrepreneurs, listing their own business. But over time, Airbnb has removed host's controls over their listings --eg some have been forced to use IB against their will, and is now going to impose a nondiscrimination policy (as well as tools of monitoring hosts and overseeing our personal choices in whom we rent to ) on all users, which hosts have to either accept or get booted off the platform.

Airbnb began as a place to find accomodations, but now is offering "experiences" and looking to expand into travel, and is considering buying up other platforms, such as a competitor in China.

Airbnb began by offering a place on its site for hosts to have their own community (the old Airbnb host community groups) but then ended that, something that had actually built strong community, and in its place, set up a "host community" run not by hosts but by the corporation and non-host moderators, and most find that this "community" is not a real community, but rather a place where hosts continually come asking how to contact Airbnb customer service dept.

Airbnb began by holding fast to certain boundaries between business and government, and refusing to help cities enforce their laws, or capitulate to government requests for host data, which would violate host's privacy as well as Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable government search and seizure, and against fishing expeditions. Now Airbnb appears to be caving in to government demands to share data in Chicago, New Orleans and elsewhere, and has showed a willingness to blur the line between business and government and will help enforce government laws in London, Amsterdam and SF.

So -- the answer is no, I don't have a good idea what Airbnb stands for.