Airbnb, which founded in 2008, now has more than million rooms available in homes, apartments and even castles — more lodgings than hotel giants like Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, or any other hotel chain in the world. To achieve such huge success, first thanks to the growth of sharing economy. The company also launches a unique value “belonging” to users, which means whenever you are using Airbnb, you are not renting a room but renting a home. Although most of the large chain hotels try to express this kind of home-feeling concept to customers, Airbnb is the first one expressing this value in the so-called sharing economy through the internet. Due to the distinctive characters of Airbnb – sharing economic and internet. Airbnb expands to 34,000 cities in nearly 200 countries and personalizes every user’s travel experience.

When Airbnb wins its first position in home-rental field, it now begins to expand into business travel. The company adds a new section “Business Travel on Airbnb” to the website and partnerships with other technology companies and business travel companies. From my point of view, this is part of the multibrand strategy of the company. In the past, Airbnb only focused on the vacation and short time renting, but its customers are asking for new type of offerings. It is cheaper and easier to introduce “Business Travel on Airbnb” rather than create a brand-new brand. Because “Business Travel on Aidbnb” enjoys the reputation and shares the resources of original Airbnb. I guess in the future, Airbnb will continue introducing new kinds of offers such like Airbnb-Villa, or Airbnb-exploring to expand its business.

Main article:

http://blog.airbnb.com/belong-anywhere/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/airbnb-expands-into-business-travel/