Airbnb News

The 10 most popular cities for Airbnb rentals on New Year's Eve account for about 27% of total guests.

25 Moments that Mattered in 2015: To make our selection of 25 moments, we thought back to the stories that drove reader engagement and sparked discussion among both travel experts and the general public. Some stories were quick blips that represented bigger things while others were narratives that built slowly through out the year. Each one, though, spoke to where we are right now when it comes to the big business of global travel.

While we can see where the hoteliers are coming from, this appears petty and vindictive on their part.

TripAdvisor's decision to expand travelers' fees for vacation rentals will please Wall Street and could put pressure on Booking.com, which adamantly eschews such fees, to do likewise.

Airbnb has an ample amount of privately raised cash to burn. That whole IPO thing is still on the agenda but off in the future.

The websites that have the most comprehensive set of lodging choices, whether they are hotels, vacation rentals, apartments or igloos, will dominate. Expedia, through its HomeAway acquisition and intent to develop apartment rentals in cities, knows this and is getting ready for the future of travel in lodging.

The latest revenue numbers from Airbnb explain why Expedia is acquiring HomeAway, the Priceline Group is touting its 21 million bookable rooms, and Wall Street analysts are questioning hotel-chain CEOs on the prospect of selling hotel rooms through Airbnb.

HomeAway, as it becomes part of Expedia Inc., will become more urban-oriented, and Airbnb is determined to onboard vacation rentals in resort locations. All of which means that Expedia, Airbnb, and Booking.com will increasingly butt heads over the next few years.

The biggest challenge for Airbnb is the idea that staying with a stranger is strange. So Airbnb is shining a brighter spotlight on its community of hosts worldwide to inject the brand perception with a more familial enthusiasm.

Airbnb is evolving into a global movement that transcends travel because it's crafting a universal ideology that promotes positive human values wherever it does business.