Sounding Off: Airbnb isn't a community - it's a business

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered by PhocusWire that week.

The idea that any business is what its PR-led image portrays is a bit of a fallacy.

Airbnb is a case in point in this regard - but this shouldn't be considered a criticism. The company has proven to be supremely good at brand image and should be applauded for it.

In its early days, before it had a marketing department on the scale that it has now had for many years, community was an important aspect of what Airbnb did.

Hosts were a sort of club in their own right, with forums and other types of discussion boards around the web devoted to how to be a better host and how to work the system to get more guests.

Sure, Airbnb had plenty of host-led initiatives of their own but, of course, its primary goal was to connect them with revenue-generating guests.

Nothing else.

The irritation that some seem to have with Airbnb for riding the community wave is, arguably, somewhat unfair - it's just really good at it.

Where things get interesting now is how the business and wider rental sector reacts to it being a public company.

Investors care about just a few things, whether Airbnb believes it or not: numbers and growth.

For all the PR fluff about communities and hosts, the real test of the company comes from hereon with its quarterly figures, strategic initiatives that boost them and destroying the competition.