Airbnb News

Biggest lesson to be learned: Give travelers the experience they are looking for: value, service, a great user interface, personal global connections, and social sharing. Mix these together, and you have a success story called Airbnb.

Jeffery Boyd doesn't want to meddle in Priceline's business on a day to day basis, which may provide angst to some investors. Still, incoming CEO Darren Huston has capably led Priceline's prized asset, Booking.com, over the last two years, so he's got the pedigree in what promises to be a fascinating new era in online travel.

With this settlement, the city has clearly said it will enforce the existing laws about short-term rentals. What this will mean for Airbnb and its peers remains to be seen, as does its effect on hosts and users .

Airbnb seems to almost encourage hosts, now budding entrepreneurs, to manage more than one Airbnb property by teaching hospitality skills and making it easier for them to accept bookings. Sharing is certainly big business.

The Internet Association's argument highlights the need for New York state and city officials to either enforce the laws on the books or so those users that do use the service legally can do so within set guidelines.

Ex-hotelier Chip Conley is attempting to bring uniform standards of hospitality to the Wild West of online property sharing and half a million micro-entrepreneurs worldwide.

The taxi industry is going to have to get used to it. There is more competition now in the form of Lyft, Uber, and services such as Zipcar. Although individual startups may come and go, the ride-sharing concept is here to stay.

Expedia partnered with HomeAway on vacation rentals last week. One day it is going to partner with or acquire a sharing economy company built in the Airbnb mold, depending how the market shakes out. When you are as big as Expedia, you can afford to sit back and see how things shape up.