The following excerpt is from Richard Koch and Greg Lockwood’s book Simplify. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes
Just like the taxi industry, in the 2000s, the hotel sector was ripe for disruption. In many cities, hotels in central locations were (and still are) overpriced and lacked the “atmospheric” character of the place itself. Airbnb enables homeowners to offer their couches, spare rooms or entire homes for rent for short stays, and the company has become a network of over 25,000 active hosts in 190 countries. More than twenty million guests have booked thirty million nights on the platform since it was founded in 2008.
The beauty of the proposition lies in the experience. For the host, it’s now easy to operate a “hotel,” however modest, with global reach of potential guests. Meanwhile, the guests can request anything from a room in a shared apartment with a local host to a country estate or a villa by the sea. This is obviously a more local experience than staying in a characterless hotel, advertised with the slogan “belong anywhere.” The experience is also easy. You search for a city, list the number of guests and number of nights and ask for a room in a shared home (with the host) or an entire home (without the host). Then you’re able to specify a particular neighborhood, host language or amenities. Finally, you scroll through the matched listings and reviews.
Many guests make their bookings…