Airbnb, Inc. (/ˌɛərˌbiːɛnˈbiː/ AIR-BEE-en-BEE, an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast"[5]) is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays and experiences in various countries and regions.

[6][7] After moving to San Francisco in October 2007, roommates and former schoolmates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with an idea of putting an air mattress in their living room and turning it into a bed and breakfast.

[8] In February 2008, Nathan Blecharczyk, Chesky's former roommate, joined as the chief technology officer and the third co-founder of the new venture, which they named "AirBed & Breakfast".

[12] After the founders raised $30,000 by selling cereal named after the two candidates of the 2008 United States presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain, mostly at the 2008 Democratic National Convention,[13][14][15] computer programmer Paul Graham invited the founders to the January 2009 winter training session of his startup incubator, Y Combinator, which provided them with training and $20,000 in funding in exchange for a 6% interest in the company.

[18] In March 2009, the name of the company was shortened to Airbnb.com to eliminate confusion over air mattresses; by then listings included entire rooms and properties.

[27][28] In July 2016, former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired to help craft an anti-discrimination policy for Airbnb after reports showed that hosts were refusing to accept lodging requests from guests whose names suggested that they were black.

[31] In January 2017, along with serial entrepreneurs Gary Vaynerchuk, Ben Leventhal and Mike Montero, Airbnb led a $13 million investment in Resy, a restaurant reservation-booking app.

[36] In April 2019, Airbnb produced and financed Gay Chorus Deep South, a documentary launched by its Rausch Street Films division.

[57][58] Airbnb had also been accused of allowing listings on land owned by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a Chinese state-owned paramilitary entity sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for involvement in the persecution of Uyghurs in China.

[96] In April 2009, the company received $600,000 in seed money from Sequoia Capital, with Youniversity Ventures partners Jawed Karim, Keith Rabois, and Kevin Hartz participating.

[106] The key trends for Airbnb are (as at the financial year ending December 31):[107] Regulation of short-term rentals can include requirements for hosts to have business licenses, payment of hotel taxes and compliance with building, city and zoning standards.

[119] The company has been criticized for possibly enabling increases in home rents,[168] refusing to provide sensitive customer data to governments, and allowing listings in West Bank settlements.

[169] Critics have also noted how Airbnb resists sharing its listing data with regulators, often citing privacy protections as its reason for not cooperating.

However, after affected property owners filed lawsuits against Airbnb in both Israel and the United States alleging discrimination based on place of residence, in April 2019, the company reversed its plans to remove listings in the West Bank and instead promised to donate any profits from these listings to non-profit organizations dedicated to humanitarian aid.

[182][183][184] According to 2020 and 2023 reports by the United Nations, the company continues to violate International Human Rights, profiting from illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories.

[193][194][195] In August 2017, Airbnb cancelled numerous bookings and closed accounts belonging to attendees of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, citing its terms of service in which members must "accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age.

[200] In May 2024, a former Airbnb contractor alleged in a whistleblower complaint that the company had weakened its policies against extremists and dissolved its team for removing them.

[201][200] Airbnb was one of the 15 leading sponsors of the 2022 Winter Olympics, held in Beijing, and was asked by human rights activists and groups to drop its sponsorship in March 2021 as part of diplomatic and activist boycotts over alleged human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party, in particular the persecution of Uyghurs in China.

[214] In July 2024, CNN noted that Airbnb includes significant disclaimers on some of its policies, such as notifying users that its background checks should not be relied on to identify "all past criminal convictions or sex offender registrations … or other red flags" and that convictions for "murder, terrorism, rape or child molestation" are not automatic disqualifiers for a host.

[216][217][218] Publications such as The Washington Post[219] and Fast Company[220] have published guides on how to find hidden cameras in an Airbnb rental.

Law enforcement experts said the company's practice could hinder criminal investigations due to suspects having time to destroy evidence.

[221][217] A CNN investigation published in July 2024 found that Airbnb "consistently fails to protect its guests despite knowing hidden cameras are a persistent concern within its industry" and that the strategies it relies on "have been aimed at preventing regulation of the short-term rental market to allow the company to distance itself from responsibility for guest safety and privacy.

"[215] Many governments have passed laws requiring that Airbnb provide guest information so that local regulations can be enforced and hotel taxes are collected.