Airbnb Creates Opportunities for Startups That Fill the Gaps in Homesharing
Airbnb is trying to be more things to more people as it positions itself for an IPO. Along the way, it has spawned all kinds of new businesses. Is symbiosis with the homesharing giant healthy?
David Krauss had parlayed his Dallas condo into a successful Airbnb listing until one fateful weekend in 2014. Then, a couple of guests threw a party so loud it elicited more than a dozen noise complaints from neighbors, a police report and an angry letter from an attorney. His reputation in the building was so sullied he decided it was best to sell the unit - at a $30,000 loss.
David Krauss had parlayed his Dallas condo into a successful Airbnb listing until one fateful weekend in 2014. Then, a couple of guests threw a party so loud it elicited more than a dozen noise complaints from neighbors, a police report and an angry letter from an attorney. His reputation in the building was so sullied he decided it was best to sell the unit - at a $30,000 loss.
But Krauss, a former independent real estate developer, wasn't finished with Airbnb. His misfortune gave way to an idea for a device — "a smoke detector for noise" — that sends alerts directly to hosts' phones when guests get too loud for too long. That way owners can intervene well before neighbors are disrupted or worse, the police are called. His company, NoiseAware, is just one of hundreds of startups that are riding the coattails of the home-share titan and its rivals, which include Booking Holdings Inc. and Expedia Group Inc.'s HomeAway, as demand for such rentals skyrockets. Over the past decade, Airbnb Inc. has transformed the travel sector by persuading millions of people to open up their homes to complete strangers.
As the company grew, amassing more than 6 million listings in about 191 countries, it has spawned a whole ecosystem of startups that seek a piece of the booming market for private accommodations by helping to fill in the gaps that Airbnb and the others can't or don't address, like automating the check-in process and providing keyless entry around the clock. Some sell software that promises to calculate the perfect listing price or updates a property's availability instantly. One company helps owners decorate - from furniture to bedding - to create that unique vacation-rental-unit vibe.