Airbnb Struggles to Balance Its Past and Future
Skift Take
In which we try to make some sense out of what we know Airbnb is doing now — and what it hopes to be doing over the next 10 years.
Homesharing is how Airbnb got its start, with a couple of air mattresses on the floor of the San Francisco apartment CEO Brian Chesky and co-founder Joe Gebbia shared back in 2008.
Ten years later, however, it's fair to say that the majority of Airbnb's 4.5 million listings are not for air mattresses anymore. And as executives spelled out Thursday, Airbnb is planning for major long-term growth, with greater integration of hotels, the addition of professional standards, a new loyalty program, and other tweaks that signal the company is growing up.
But even as homesharing moves to its own neighborhood on the Airbnb platform — now categorized as a "social stay" — one co-founder insists the company is not abandoning that original concept or losing its identity.
"A consistent theme throughout everything we do is that we've been creating experiences that are unique, local, and authentic. Most often that is delivered by individuals who, before Airbnb, had no background in hospita
