How was it possible that the founding duo have, as the press reported "disrupted an industry" with not a shred of educational experience nor work experience in that industry? Should it be any surprise that AirBnb has drifted very far from the shores of it's own Origin Story? Let use revisit the tale of where it all began.
As described in the hardbound book they sent to me -- The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Architectural Convention was sold out and hundreds of attendees had no place to stay because every single room in the city was booked.
These convention attendees were working professionals who where there of necessity and needed a place to Live while they Worked. The conventional lodging providers could not meet the need--which spawned the idea of offering a "lodging alternative"--i.e. air mattress on floor, coffee and pop-tart to go.
The press reported that " an industry (short term rental) STR had been disrupted" overnight by young entrepreneurs searching for their Big Idea and they found it. That big idea has since died on the vine of ignorance and greed as AirBnb founders still dwell in denial of it's origins and the foundation upon which the now stock holding empire was built.
I remember that Christmas drawing a sudden connection with the tale of the Holy Family traveling to Jerusalem to "pay their taxes", with infant child on donkey. All the Inns were full but they were offered floor space in parking garage--the underground cave where the all terrain vehicle - said donkey - was housed, straw bed included in rent, the manger re-purposed as crib for the Kid.
My own "two guesthouse start-up" was busy providing an alternative lodging service to the single working professionals who travel to my town to work on projects at the data storage center and construction workers building solar power plants in the high lonesome desert plateau.
The start of 2022 AirBnb inexplicably and without warning removed the Monthly Stays Platform. This product was created to serve the needs of the traveling worker community always desperately seeking a place to live in places where there are n hotels, no resorts, no furnished rentals for a few months contract time. It represented the second disruption of an industry ( Long Term Rental) LTR - Monthly Stays was just getting discovered and producing high occupancy rates between 80% to 95% depending on how the Host managed their calendar. Then COVID hit and it went viral. STR listings were closing down--LTR listings were booming.
....see part 2 of 2 next.
Susan
