Airbnb celebrates 10 years with touching community stories

Airbnb celebrates 10 years with touching community stories
By laurencroft


On August 10, 2008, Airbnb launched for the first time ever. And boy, have they grown since then.

Originally named Airbedandbreakfast.com, the company now has over five million homes all around the world. To date, Airbnb has had over 300 million guest arrivals, spanning over 81,000 cities and 191 countries.

And on the weekend, they saw more than 3.5 million guests checking into homes around the world – the biggest night in Airbnb history.

It’s a far cry from when founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk welcomed their first ever guests into their home in San Francisco – and decided to show them the local highlights.

Then in 2016, Airbnb formally introduced bookable experiences – and now have over 15,000 people sharing their experiences with Airbnb guests in more than 800 cities; from surfing in Hawaii to cooking classes in Tuscany.

Airbnb has also revolutionised the type of accommodation people can stay in – from houses shaped like giant dogs to a garden dome, and much, much more now listed on the website:

  • 10,449 RVs
  • 2,194 yurts
  • 1,403 islands
  • 8,951 tiny houses
  • 9,000 boats
  • 2,194 treehouses
  • 183 igloos
  • 918 tipis
  • 155 windmills
  • 758 caves

And with some two million people staying in Airbnbs every night, for their 10th birthday the company designed to showcase some of their best moments – when a community “brought the world closer together”.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, one host, Shell, emailed Airbnb and said she wanted to open up her home for free. And since 2012, over 11,000 people from 52 countries have stepped up and helped those in need via Airbnb’s Open Homes initiative.

Since it’s launch, some Airbnb homes have become known as havens for acceptance – like hosts In Ja and James, from LA:

Airbnb has also partnered with organisations like The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India, to generate more income for women and empower them through home-sharing.

One woman earned more than she could in an entire year harvesting crops in one month from hosting on Airbnb.

Check out the rest of Airbnb’s favourite moments here!

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