

"Pizza profitable" Airbnb now in 1,000 cities worldwide - brianchesky
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/06/10/from-crash-pad-to-pizza-profitable-entrepreneurs-target-budget-travel-market/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

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tptacek
I endorse our new food-based system of rating companies, and expect it will
eventually displace Moody's and S&P.

We're not Alinea-profitable yet, but we're definitely comfortably in Chili's
territory. =)

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mpc
Does this new rating system imply that you can sell the company once you hit
Ruth's Chris profitable? :-)

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tptacek
Or you can eat at Ruth's Chris every night. Either way!

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yhnbgty
Classic internet enabled 'butterfly' market. You have a lot of people who want
to crash in a city, a lot of people with spaces and you just need someone to
bring them together.

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thesethings
Ooh. I've never heard this term "butterfly market" before, and I might like to
know more about it :D Any good links? I'd always called these kinds of
business "marketplaces," sites like etsy, elance, etc.

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yhnbgty
A butterfly market just means a large fuzzy cloud of potential consumers and a
large fuzzy crowd of potential suppliers that come together in a little body
in the middle = so the shape looks like a butterfly.

Take used books, there are 1000s of used bookstores and a million readers. the
stores can't all separately advertise to all the readers, so you need a common
central marketplace, like amazon, to make it possible.

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thesethings
Ah, cool. Thanks so much for the "picture," I get it now.

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tdavis
There's this place near us that sells $6 large pizzas. So by that metric, we
are also pizza profitable. Can't afford the supreme, though! ;)

Congrats, gents!

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ia
totally off-topic, but i just noticed this copy on ticketstumbler--"We
couldn't get your location, but you can set your own location by logging in or
creating any account!" should that be "...creating an account!"? or am i more
tired than i thought...

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tdavis
You're right. Though we're getting rid of that registration requirement
anyway.

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mildweed
I'd rather use couchsurfing.org. Not only is it free, but the host
verification seems better.

That being said, Airbnb.com is a MUCH slicker website, and most consumers are
more comfortable with a professional-looking site and with services they've
paid for.

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arram
I tried using couchsurfing on a recent trip to Japan - the interface was
horrible and I got no responses. I ended up using AirBnB and found a super
cheap place in the nicest neighborhood of Tokyo with an awesome host who took
the time to show me around (and visit a semi-legit hostess bar.)

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hpvic03
Congrats! How did you manage to get the WSJ to write you guys up?

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truebosko
This site is great. Perfect in todays economy as people look for some extra
bucks (by renting out their room) and others look for cheaper places to sleep
while travelling. I will probably use this site when I finally decide to go to
Europe

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jfno67
Nice idea, since they help the renter to bill the room.

I'm always a bit surprised that new segment between B&B, Vacation Rentals and
hotels are invented. Is it that people think those existing segments are well
served?

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frossie
It's the geographical diversity that gives this kind of thing an advantage.
Hotels, B&B's and vacation rentals are highly clustered in either heavily
commercial or tourist areas. If you want to just get the feel of how "regular"
people live in "regular" parts of town, this kind of segment has a real
advantage, especially if you are a social person who likes talking to people
first thing in the morning....

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dc2k08
I'm not seeing dramatically different prices to a hotel or hostel, but it is a
good idea. Take Paris for example:
[http://airbnb.com/travel/paris/fr?y=0&min_price=&lng...](http://airbnb.com/travel/paris/fr?y=0&min_price=&lng=2.3509871&max_price=&guests=0&precision=city&x=0&sort_by=0&state=Ile-
de-
France&location=paris&checkin=06/18/2009&country=FR&city=Paris&checkout=06/20/2009&lat=48.8566667)

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forsaken
A lot of the value I see in this is visiting places that don't have hostels.
Like basically anywhere in the US for example :)

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dc2k08
really, you don't think there are lots of hostels in the US? I've stayed in
quite a few, both in big and small cities.

