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FourWeekMBA x Business Engineer | Updated 2026
Airbnb’s recent announcement of the “Icons” category, featuring unique and one-of-a-kind listings, marks a significant milestone for the platform.
Unveiling the “Up” House Listing:
Unique Offering:Airbnb’s “Icons” category debuts with the extraordinary inclusion of a real-life replica of Carl and Ellie’s house from the beloved Disney/Pixar film “Up,” located in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
Innovative Feature: The “Up” house listing boasts a special feature wherein it can be suspended up to 50 feet in the air by a crane while guests are outside, with over 8,000 balloons attached. This innovative offering promises a truly unforgettable experience for guests.
Expansion of the “Icons” Category:
Diverse Listings: The “Up” house is one of 11 initial listings in the new “Icons” category, with Airbnb planning to expand this collection on a rolling basis. Other notable listings include a stay at Prince’s house from the movie “Purple Rain” and views of the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony from a room in the Musรฉe d’Orsay.
Strategic Growth:Airbnb’s expansion of the “Icons” category reflects its commitment to offering diverse and immersive experiences to its users. By curating unique listings, the platform aims to cater to a wide range of interests and preferences among travelers.
Strategic Implications:
Next Chapter for Airbnb: CEO Brian Chesky views the “Icons” category as “the beginning of the next chapter of Airbnb,” leveraging the success of previous stunt listings like the Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse. This strategic move underscores Airbnb’s ambition to innovate and captivate users with exceptional offerings.
Brand Differentiation: The introduction of the “Icons” category enhances Airbnb’s brand differentiation and strengthens its position as a leader in the travel and hospitality industry. By offering exclusive and memorable stays, the platform sets itself apart from traditional accommodations and competitors.
Anticipated Impact:
Customer Engagement:Airbnb anticipates roughly 4,000 customers booking stays in “Icons” listings in 2024, with the majority being offered for free or less than $100 per guest. This projected customer engagement highlights the appeal and popularity of unique and immersive experiences among travelers.
Press Coverage and Social Media Buzz: Similar to previous stunt listings, such as the Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse, Airbnb expects significant press coverage and social media buzz surrounding “Icons” listings. This heightened visibility contributes to brand awareness and user engagement.
Conclusion:
Airbnb’s introduction of the “Icons” category marks a significant milestone in its journey to offer unique and unforgettable stays to travelers worldwide. The inclusion of extraordinary listings like the “Up” house showcases the platform’s commitment to innovation and creativity. As Airbnb continues to expand its offerings and captivate users with exceptional experiences, the “Icons” category paves the way for a new era of travel and hospitality.
Airbnb is a platform business model making money by charging guests a service fee between 5% and 15% of the reservation, while the commission from hosts is generally 3%. For instance, on a $100 booking per night set by a host, Airbnb might make as much as $15, split between host and guest fees.
Airbnb was initially called Airbedandbreakfast, as the main idea behind the starting of the company was to rent air mattresses in their apartment, as San Francisco filled up due to various conferences, to make some money to pay back the rent.
The Aibnb’s founders noticed this as they were designers. And a design conference (IDSA / ICSID) was about to happen in 2007; they launched Airbedandbreakfast as a service offering “Air Bed and Breakfast” to other designers coming to town who could not find available rooms in a hotel.
Thus from there, the initial name.
Yet, as Airbnb joined the Winter 2009 batch of the popular accelerator, YC, Paul Graham, founder of YC, suggested the founders change the name from Airbedandbreakfast to Airbnb – before demo day – as the name sounded better.
Airbnb is a two-sided marketplace where hosts and guests transact via its booking platform. Thus, Airbnb makes money by charging a fee on top of hosts and guests when a transaction goes through. For instance, in 2022, Airbnb generated $8.4 billion in transaction rate, with an average take rate of 13.3%.
The Airbnb story began in 2008 when two friends shared their accommodation with three travelers looking for a place to stay. Just over a decade later, it is estimated that the company now accounts for over 20% of the vacation rental industry. As a travel platform, Airbnb competes with other brands like Booking.com, VRBO, FlipKey, and given its massive amount of traffic from Google. Also, platforms like Google Travel can be considered potential competitors able to cannibalize part of Airbnb’s market.
As a peer-to-peer platform, once the transaction between host and guest goes through, Airbnb will collect a fee from both key players. For example, from a $100 booking per night set by the host, Airbnb might collect $3 as a hosting fee. While it might increase the price for the guest at $116 ($16 above the price set by the host) to collect its guest fees of $12 and taxes for the remaining amount.
In 2022, Airbnb generated $63.2 billion in gross booking value on over 393.7 Million Nights and Experiences Booked, an average revenue per booking of $161, $8.4 in revenue, and an average service fee of 13.3%.
Airbnb take rate is the percentage fee that the company gathers from hosts and guests on each booking that happens through the platform. The take rate for Airbnb fluctuated over the years, with a peak in 2020, at a 14.1% take rate and a 13.3% take rate in 2022.
Airbnb makes money by collecting a take rate on each transaction on the platform. In 2022, Airbnb processed over $63 billion in gross booking value, which translated into $8.4 billion in revenue. Airbnb also generated $1.9 billion in profits, and $3.4 billion in free cash flow in 2022.
Airbnb is primarily owned by its co-founders: Brian Chesky, with 76,407,686 Class B shares, which gives him 29.1% of ownership; Nathan Blecharczyk, with 232,306 Class A and 64,646,713 Class B, which give him 25.3%, and Joe Gebbia, which has 5,113,865 Class A and 58,023,452 Class B, which give him 22.9% ownership.
A storyboard is a linear sequence of illustrations used in animation to develop a broader story. A storyboard process is now used also in business to understand and map customers’ experience and enable the growth of the company using that process.
Airbnb arbitrage is a business model where the renter of a house or apartment sub-lets the property to Airbnb users. This is a model where the Airbnb arbitrageur can transform a long-term rental, with the main property owner, into a short-term rental, with higher rates and margins.
An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a term used to describe a secondary house or apartment located on the same plot of land as a larger, primary place of residence. This has become an industry for its own sake, with the potential to become the next trillion-dollar industry.
Samara is a manufacturer of prefab accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that can be installed and operational in a matter of hours. It started as an R&D unit of Airbnb in 2016. And it eventually was spun off and run by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who now runs it full-time.
Booking Holdings is the company the controls six main brands that comprise Booking.com, priceline.com, KAYAK, agoda.com, Rentalcars.com, and OpenTable. Over 76% of the company revenues in 2017 came primarily via travel reservations commissions and travel insurance fees. Almost 17% came from merchant fees, and the remaining revenues came from advertising earned via KAYAK. As a distributionstrategy, the company spent over $4.5 billion in performance-based and brand advertising.
Trivago is a search and discovery travel platform part of Expedia Group. Trivago is widely known as a trusted hotel comparison service. Trivago doesnโt charge based on bookings but rather through a cost-per-click (CPC) model, monetized when a hotel searcher clicks one of its advertiser listings. This referral revenue comprises most of Trivagoโs income. Trivago also has another minor revenue stream via subscriptions to its Business Studio, a tool that helps hoteliers track impression and click data associated with their properties.
Born in 1996 as a travel platform of Microsoft, it would be spun off later on. Expedia became among the largest online travel agencies (OTAs) which comprise a set of brands that go from Hotels.com, Vrbo, Orbits, CheapTickets, ebookers, Travelocity, Trivago, and others. The company follows a multi-brandstrategy.
Kayak is an online travel agency and search engine founded in 2004 by Steve Hafner and Paul M. English as a Travel Search Company and acquired by Booking Holdings in 2013 for $2.1 billion. The company makes money via an advertising model based on cost per click, cost per acquisition, and advertising placements.
OpenTable is an American online restaurant reservation system founded by Chuck Templeton. During the late 90s, it provided one of the first automated, real-time reservation systems. The company was acquired by Booking Holding back in 2014, for $2.6 billion. Today OpenTable makes money via subscription plans, referral fees, and in-dining with its first restaurant, as an experiment in Miami, Florida.
OYOโs business model is a mixture of platform and brand, where the company started primarily as an aggregator of homes across India, and it quickly moved to other verticals, from leisure to co-working and corporate travel. In a sort of octopus business strategy of expansion to cover the whole spectrum of short-term real estate.
TripAdvisorโs business model matches the demand for people looking for a travel experience with supply from travel partners around the world providing travel accommodations and experiences. When this match is created TripAdvisor collects commission from partners on a CPC and CPM basis. The non-hotel revenue comprises experiences, restaurants, and rentals.
Trivago is a search and discovery travel platform part of Expedia Group. Trivago is widely known as a trusted hotel comparison service. Trivago doesnโt charge based on bookings but rather through a cost-per-click (CPC) model, monetized when a hotel searcher clicks one of its advertiser listings. This referral revenue comprises most of Trivagoโs income. Trivago also has another minor revenue stream via subscriptions to its Business Studio, a tool that helps hoteliers track impression and click data associated with their properties.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Airbnb Announces Its "Icons" category?
Airbnb's recent announcement of the "Icons" category, featuring unique and one-of-a-kind listings, marks a significant milestone for the platform.
Gennaro Cuofano is a business analyst with an International MBA in corporate finance and business strategy (2012). He leads research at FourWeekMBA, which he created, and at The Business Engineer (businessengineer.ai), his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 90,000 subscribers and more than 660 published analyses. His work breaks down how companies make money, read from their own filings: revenue and profit structure, capital allocation and ownership. FourWeekMBA reached about four million business people, including C-level executives, investors, analysts and product managers, in 2022 alone. See how we source.
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