This idea was not necessarily novel (VRBO, HomeAway, Couchsurfing, and Craigslist did it first), but the elegance of the solution was unrivaled. Carefully selected photographs and reviews from previous transactions introduce the host and the guest to each other before they meet in person. Like Uber, cash is deleted from the equation; Airbnb collects the transaction fee from the guest when the lodging is booked and remits it to the host, minus its cut, after the stay is complete.
