[rorykoehler]

I love Airbnb. I use it almost exclusively (maybe 95% of the time) when I travel and I travel often. I even met my ex-co-founder through staying at his Airbnb. Bearing this in mind I think Airbnb is barking up the wrong tree here. A classic case of a solution looking for a problem. Airbnb are trying to solve a problem with this new move but not one based on a market need like their initial idea. The problem they are trying to solve is they've run out of growth in one market and are obsessed with trying to continue their hockey stick growth so they look to new markets. Lots of companies do this and they all inevitably fail. Doing this rips the soul out of companies and dilutes their value proposition. Growth is great until the delusional need to continue it at all costs becomes a curse. It looks like this is where Airbnb have arrived.

Edit: I just played around with it a bit more and maybe I was a bit harsh. I'm definitely not the target market for this and will never use though I can imagine there is a sizeable number of people who would enjoy this. That said it should definitely be a new app. It doesn't make sense to put it in the main app.