The Airbnb Story

Gallagher, a Fortune editor, covers Airbnb from the 2007 air mattresses through roughly 2016, with access to the founders and to the company.

The founding material covers the design conference weekend that produced the first booking, the years of failing to grow, the cereal box financing during the 2008 election, the Y Combinator period and Paul Graham's instruction to visit users in New York personally, and the specific interventions that produced growth, most notably professional photography of listings which the founders initially did themselves.

The trust problem is the book's most useful analytical thread. Gallagher documents how the company built the systems that made strangers willing to sleep in each other's homes, including two-sided reviews, verified identity, secure payment held until after check-in, and the host guarantee introduced after a widely reported incident in which a host's home was ransacked. She treats trust infrastructure as the actual product.

The regulatory material covers New York, San Francisco, Barcelona and other cities, the hotel industry's response, and the housing supply argument that became the substantive objection. Gallagher had cooperation from the company and the tone is favourable. The book was published in 2017 and predates the regulatory settlements, the pandemic collapse and recovery, the public offering and the current position on housing. The founding narrative is the standard account and the trust infrastructure analysis is the part that transfers to other marketplaces.