Airbnb’s IPO marks a milestone in the travel industry and consumer internet as a whole. By redefining traveler expectations and establishing a new type of lodging, Airbnb built the second-most valuable travel company in the world in just a decade. Its example as a “sharing economy” company catalyzed a generation of venture-backed companies.
For us at Transparent, Airbnb serve as a lodestar. Our mission is to establish the data source of record for short-term rentals, so making sense of its business has been a motivation over the past five years.