Airbnb was basically a monetized form of Couchsurfing, not a hotel alternative. It only later turned into a direct hotel competitor. To my knowledge there was no similar service at the time.
Airbnb won because:
- Better design, easy to use, nice pictures they took themselves at first (per PG's advice)
- Integrated payments and reviews in a seamless experience
- Popularized the idea of sharing a space when the host is there
- Offered unique accommodations in urban places
- Lots of buzz about treehouses, castles, teepees, shipping containers, etc.
- Their timing benefited from the Great Recession
- Very good at promoting their rag to riches story with YC's help
- Also you didn't need to constantly repost like Craigslist, just post once
this was not a popular option, and I don't believe was ever intended to be. It also opened the door for VRBO to gain traction explicitly marketing NOT sharing accommodation. The "rent out your spare bedroom" has never been a major component; it was a fake-out to counter the regulatory & licensing complaints they were facing.
I'm not debating that professional, non-resident hosts were and are the majority of the platform, just that it wasn't the original intent.
It's also quite literally in the name - 'bnb' - which necessarily implies the hosts are there with you.
Uber is a net good since it reduces drunk driving. Not sure about Airbnb destroying the rental market...
That said, I was an active member of couchsurfing.org prior to Airbnb eating its lunch, so maybe you could make the argument that we’d be off better as a whole with a free community-oriented platform.
This pattern, of owning demand for food (instacart), transport (uber, etc), delivery (uber eats, etc) is a different model that doesn't own the assets outright and facilitates it instead.