59 Fun Facts About Airbnb

Airbnb is short for which original company name?

Airbed and Breakfast: once hosts began listing whole apartments and houses, not just airbeds, the founders shortened the name to Airbnb in 2009.

In which city did Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia first rent out air mattresses in October 2007?

San Francisco: Chesky had just moved in with Gebbia and the pair couldn't afford the rent, so they turned strangers into paying guests.

Which online marketplace did TechCrunch and Airbnb's 2011 lead investor both liken Airbnb to?

eBay: the investor who made the comparison, former eBay executive Jeff Jordan, went on to join Airbnb's board.

Who joined Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia as Airbnb's third co-founder and first chief technology officer?

Nathan Blecharczyk: in 2019 he gave $1 million to his old high school, Boston Latin Academy.

What did Airbnb's founders serve their first guests for breakfast?

Pop-Tarts: soon after, the pair brought in a third co-founder to build the idea into a business.

In August 2008, Airbnb's site pitched rooms to visitors of which city's political convention?

Denver: its hotels had sold out for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, so delegates made a ready market for anyone with a couch to spare.

Airbnb's founders kept their startup afloat by selling cereal named after which two people?

Barack Obama and John McCain: 'Obama O's' and 'Cap'n McCain's' sold for $40 a box, helping the founders pay off most of their debts.

Which startup incubator took Airbnb into its winter 2009 session?

Y Combinator: its $20,000 paid for weeks of meeting hosts in person, and by March 2009 the startup was turning a profit.

Brian Chesky's 2024 talk inspired which viral business phrase?

Founder mode: the essay it inspired urged CEOs to dig into details, yet Chesky later insisted he never called it founder mode himself.

Early Airbnb built a tool letting hosts repost their listings to which classifieds website?

Craigslist: engineers built 'Post to Craigslist' with no official Craigslist API, a trick later held up as a classic growth hack.

Which venture firm backed Airbnb with seed money in April 2009?

Sequoia Capital: it stepped in after a year in which investors had turned down or simply ignored the founders' pitch.

Which actor became an early Airbnb investor through his venture firm, A-Grade Investments?

Ashton Kutcher: in 2022 he and Mila Kunis raised over $30 million for Ukrainian refugees, donated to the charitable arms of Airbnb and Flexport.

Which hotel-booking app did Airbnb buy in March 2019?

HotelTonight: the deal pushed Airbnb further into booking boutique and independent hotels, not only homes.

Airbnb went public in December 2020, a day after which delivery app made its own stock market debut?

DoorDash: both debuts soared, and Airbnb's shares more than doubled from their $68 offering price on the first day.

In April 2015, after US restrictions eased, Airbnb began offering stays in which country?

Cuba: at first only US travellers could book those stays, until US authorities let Airbnb open them to guests worldwide in 2016.

Which former US Attorney General was hired in 2016 to help craft Airbnb's anti-discrimination policy?

Eric Holder: Airbnb brought him in after complaints from Black guests showed hosts turning people away over race.

What did Airbnb call the product it launched in November 2016 for booking activities?

Experiences: locals could sell tours and classes through the app, earning money even if they had no home to rent out.

Airbnb's 2014 logo, a rounded shape resembling a capital A, was billed as a universal symbol of what?

Belonging: Airbnb named the symbol the Bélo and invited hosts to design their own versions of it.

In August 2017 Airbnb closed the accounts of people attending which event?

The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville: Airbnb cited its rule that members accept people regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.

Airbnb's collection of quality-vetted homes, announced in 2018, was branded Airbnb ___?

Plus: Airbnb's design consultants even told some hosts how to redecorate so their homes could qualify.

Airbnb's 2019 documentary followed a gay men's chorus touring which region?

The Deep South: the chorus made its 2017 tour in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ measures in Southern states.

Which designer's firm, LoveFrom, began a multi-year collaboration with Airbnb in 2020?

Jony Ive: his firm signed on to reshape Airbnb's app and website in October 2020, two months before the company went public.

At the start of the pandemic, what did Airbnb give guests whose stays were cancelled?

A full refund: Airbnb later set aside $250 million to pay hosts part of what their own cancellation policies would have paid.

Airbnb was a leading sponsor of which Olympic Games, ignoring calls from human rights groups to withdraw?

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: Airbnb stayed on as a sponsor even as the United States staged a diplomatic boycott of those Games.

In March 2022, Airbnb suspended all its operations in Russia and which other country?

Belarus: Airbnb also barred users from both countries from making new bookings anywhere as guests.

In June 2022 Airbnb made permanent a ban on what in its rentals?

Parties and events: the pandemic-era ban had proved popular with hosts and their neighbours, so Airbnb kept it for good.

At the start of 2012, Airbnb's European offices were in Hamburg, Berlin and which other city?

London: Airbnb wanted a strong base there for that summer's Olympics, and soon bought Crashpadder, its biggest UK rival.

In which city did Airbnb establish its European headquarters in 2013?

Dublin: Chesky said Airbnb chose the city because it 'has hospitality in its DNA' and is known for its warm welcome.

What working policy did Airbnb adopt for almost all employees in April 2022?

The company had cut a quarter of its staff two years earlier.

When do Airbnb reviews become visible?

Once both sides have submitted, or the window closes: neither side sees the other's review first, so a bad review can't simply be answered in kind.

In 2017 Airbnb bought Accomable, a startup listing holiday homes suited to which travellers?

Disabled travellers: its founders, childhood friends who both have spinal muscular atrophy, listed details such as step-free access and roll-in showers.

In 2024 Airbnb's Icons let guests stay in a real-life version of the house from which Pixar film?

Up: Airbnb built its Icons category of pop-culture stays after its Barbie DreamHouse listing went viral the year before.

Joe Gebbia's 2016 TED talk explained how Airbnb designs for what?

Trust: people once told the founders that strangers would never stay with strangers, and some early investors doubted such trust could work.

Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia both graduated from which college?

Rhode Island School of Design: after graduation Gebbia told Chesky they would start a company one day, and 'they're going to write a book about it'.

As he rebuilt Airbnb after the pandemic, Brian Chesky modelled his leadership on which tech pioneer?

Steve Jobs: Chesky said Jobs had also brought a company back from near-collapse, by being in all the details of people's work.

Which sports franchise did Joe Gebbia buy a minority stake in during 2022?

San Antonio Spurs: in 2019 he had also helped Kevin Durant's charity pay to renovate a playground's basketball courts.

Which Trump-administration body did Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia join in February 2025?

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): news of his role there set off calls to boycott Airbnb.

Where did Airbnb's third co-founder and original CTO study computer science?

Harvard: while there he sold email-marketing software to spammers, which landed him on a well-known spam blacklist.

Besides chief strategy officer, which chairmanship did Airbnb's third co-founder take in 2017?

Chairman of Airbnb China: despite that push, stays in China made up only about 1% of revenue, and Airbnb shut its domestic business there in 2022.

In 2016, which TV series' mansion could fans book on Airbnb?

American Horror Story: the 'Murder House' later drew so many fans that its owners sued the sellers for not disclosing its TV fame.

Which city's mayor announced in 2024 that it would end tourist-flat rentals by 2028?

Barcelona: Mayor Jaume Collboni plans to scrap the licences of its roughly 10,000 tourist flats, putting locals' right to housing first.

Where did a 2010 law ban apartment rentals under 30 days unless the resident was present?

New York City: when New York later banned even advertising such rentals, Airbnb sued to block the law.

Which country's 2018 home-sharing law capped rentals at 180 days a year?

Japan: ahead of the law, Airbnb stopped showing listings from hosts who could not prove they were officially registered.

In 2018 Airbnb said it would delist homes in Israeli settlements in which territory, before reversing course?

West Bank: after lawsuits in Israel and the US, Airbnb dropped the plan in 2019 and said any profits there would go to humanitarian groups.

Which country's court ruled in 2020 that Airbnb's fees on both host and guest were illegal?

Netherlands: after one renter won back his fees in court, claims firms began collecting tens of thousands of similar claims.

In June 2025 Airbnb signed a three-year deal to be official fan accommodation for which body's tournaments?

FIFA: 'The World Cup brings the world together – and so do we,' Chesky said in explaining the deal.

At which 2008 event did Airbnb's site land just two bookings, one of them Chesky's own?

South by Southwest: there Chesky met a tech chief executive who went on to mentor the founders.

What did Airbnb's founders personally do for early hosts?

Photographed homes: Airbnb later turned good photos into a service, offering hosts free professional photography.

Airbnb's original website was coded by its first CTO using which web framework?

Ruby on Rails: the first CTO also built the global payment system that helped Airbnb spread around the world.

In August 2021, Airbnb promised free temporary housing for 20,000 refugees from which country?

Afghanistan: Airbnb and its CEO, Brian Chesky, paid for the stays, alongside donors to the company's nonprofit arm.

Which tech giant's investment arm co-led Airbnb's 2016 funding round, which valued it at about $30 billion?

Google: the round also relieved pressure from staff who had no easy way to cash in their shares while Airbnb stayed private.

Which capital allows short-term rentals for no more than 30 nights a year to groups of at most four?

Amsterdam: in 2021 a court threw out the city's outright ban on such rentals in parts of its historic centre.

In 2025, which Canadian city limited most short-term home rentals to a June 10 to September 10 window?

Montreal: a 2023 fire in an Old Montreal building, where six of the seven people killed were staying in illegal Airbnb units, pushed Quebec to crack down.

Airbnb opened an office in which city in November 2012 as it officially launched in Australia?

Sydney: that launch opened a wider Asia-Pacific push, with Thailand and Indonesia lined up next.

As of 2025, which former Apple retail chief sat on Airbnb's board of directors?

Angela Ahrendts: at Apple she set out to turn its stores into 'town squares' where people gather.

Which billionaires' philanthropic initiative did Brian Chesky join in June 2016?

The Giving Pledge: Chesky wrote that he never met a CEO growing up, so he wants to show young people what is possible.

Which sport did Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky captain in college?

Ice hockey: as a boy he also redesigned Nike sneakers, a hobby that grew into his passion for art.

Which accessory dwelling unit startup, spun out of Airbnb in 2022, did Joe Gebbia co-found?

Samara: that same year Gebbia stepped back from his leadership role at Airbnb, though he stayed on its board.

In which US state was Joe Gebbia born and raised?

Georgia: speaking at his old high school's 2022 graduation, he gave every graduating student Airbnb shares.