Airbnb News

The story of travel in 2014 is one of evolutionary leaps and breaks from the past. Understand the year in 25 travel moments.

It is interesting to see that the Travel Technology Association, which takes the online travel agency side on the hotel tax issue, is siding with members HomeAway and Airbnb on short-term rental legislation.

Always read the fine print.

After WestJet's Christmas ad success last year, airlines worldwide are stepping their game with mini films that align the airlines with holiday emotions of joy, comfort and surprise.

There are holes in the arguments of both the City of San Francisco and HomeAway. The new short-term rental law would indeed put HomeAway in the new position of collecting taxes from renters, and HomeAway could find a way in its business model to make that happen. Still, the new law does appear to favor Airbnb, which already collects fees from guests.

Airbnb's business model (3% commissions) is more host-friendly than HomeAway's (10% commissions). It's good news, except that it runs contrary to all the company's marketing messaging.

The sharing economy may breed a few small entrepreneurs, but it doesn't have much use for professionals. In this world, everyone is an independent contractor.

Airbnb is far past the early adopter phase, but it is just now entering the phase where its hosts and guests may not be there just for the sharing and belonging.

This Skift Trends Report traces some of the seminal shifts of 2014, from the dramatic rise in mobile bookings to same-day hotel- booking trends and marketing trends that impact mobile development.

Airbnb is either quietly building out host services for launch or keeping tabs of the growing crop of startups, which are ripe for acquisition once their product is stabilized and customer base large.