Congrats to Joe and AirBed & Breakfast!

My pal Joe Gebbia’s got a really cool site called AirBed & Breakfast… it’s sort of like an up-market version of Couchsurfing. It lets users rent their apartment to people traveling to their city, and travelers get a cheaper stay than a hotel, and some local flavor.

I wrote about them back in March and am thrilled to see ‘em getting more and more attention. Just in the past few days, they got a plug in the Wall Street Journal and a post in TechCrunch!

Their marketing strategy for the site, by the way, is spot-on. Instead of trying to attack the entire world at once (and spreading themselves too thin, with cities upon cities with no listings) or concentrating on one city at a time (slow), they’re latching onto popular events and conferences.

By creating campaigns around design and political conferences and major events, they make it temporal, and relevant. In one stroke, the site is worth talking about and blogging about for anyone who’s talking or blogging about that event. Smart.

Posted on 11 August '08 by Amit Gupta, under Business, Friends, Marketing, Travel.

4 Comments to “Congrats to Joe and AirBed & Breakfast!”

#1 Posted by jamiew (11.08.08 at 15:44 )

Love the “ride the wave” strategy. Reminds me of the “jump into photos with famous people” technique Julia Allison talked about in her Wired article.

Go where the hype is and let some rub off!

#2 Posted by jgebs (22.08.08 at 20:57 )

Thanks for the shout out, Amit. Look forward to seeing your listing in SF ;)

#3 Posted by Steve Hopkins (07.12.08 at 20:02 )

What a great idea! I love the strategy behind targeting events because it’s so true. I went to a small town music festival just the other week and found that the traditional B&Bs we’re extortinate…but if someone had simply approached people in the neighbourhood…amazing!!!

#4 Posted by Carter Murray (08.12.08 at 03:48 )

hmm..interesting idea. hope it catches on.








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