When eBay sold Skype (the first time), a lot of the commentary was along the lines of 'of course they never integrated it - get two people talking and the first thing they will do is agree to sell at a reduced price to avoid the eBay commission'.
So when the OP says "It makes us wonder why the startup didn’t release the feature sooner" my immediate thought is: if I knew a friend of a friend had a spare room available, I'd be communicating through Facebook to arrange it for cheaper (or, if they're good enough friends, free) rather than through Airbnb.
Now, the connection for Airbnb isn't as direct as with eBay - I would need to go through the friend, and that adds time and drama. Maybe the Airbnb team are confident that that extra hassle will outweigh any sly users of the system; or maybe they're just super confident that adding social validation to their potentially risky business [1] will drive customers in droves, so a few sly users really don't matter [2].
[1] Potentially risky in that paying to sleep in someone's spare room (or even a private apartment) is a riskier travel proposition than paying to stay at the Hilton, or even a reputable Hostel.
[2] And, to be fair, they're probably the users you don't want anyway.
I hadn't thought of this angle. I will say that when I stay with a friend (early 20s) it's typical to bring beer/food and buy the other person dinner/a meal already. I think some people could circumvent the system- but many will be happy to avoid the etiquette questions and just pay a friend-of-friend.
It's actually quite easy set up out-of-band communication with someone on AirBnB. I did it the first time I used the service because I didn't really understand how it worked. You only have to express an email address in text which automation can't recognize.
As long as the Facebook feature nets AirBnB more than it did without the feature, I don't see how this hurts them. Lots of successful businesses "suffer" from the free rider problem. What percentage of users of Google and Craigslist bring them revenue?
For a startup at such an early stage it would be a mistake to worry about "cannibalising existing business" - if they don't do it, someone else will. Disruption is all about finding a better economic local minimum. This is what abnb does anyway - more efficient accommodations market.
I think this is the killer feature for Airbnb. I have loved the idea of the service, but haven't used it because of the slight creepiness worry (perhaps unfounded, but I think common). I know I'd feel comfortable staying with friends-of-friends though. I bet this is a huge draw for many news users for Airbnb.
Speaking from personal experience, you are exactly right.
I used the service a while back just to test it out. I ended up at at place that was technically perfectly fine, but there were a few things that made me cancel and book another place - for a pretty hefty fee.
Again - technically there wasn't anything wrong with it. I haven't submitted a review because I don't know how to do it without being indiscreet.
I'd argue the opposite; I've found it to be very positive to travel and host with AirBnB and CouchSurfing when it comes to, ahem, the opposite sex. Friend-of-a-friend might get awkward, but then again, that's never stopped us either.
I wish there was a way as a renter to specify your place as available to friends-of-friends only. My wife vetoed my putting up our house on AirBNB when we plan to be out of the country precisely because of the (lack of) trust problem.
as a side note I would feel like a jerk charging a friend of a friend to stay (like $60 a night), especially if the friend in common asked me as a favor.
That actually makes a lot of sense. It leverages your own judgement about your friend's judgement and provides potential social consequences for bad behavior.
But the nature of your friendships is poorly captured by Facebook. You can't really tell if people have been friends for 20 years or 20 minutes. Or if they've never met or made a baby together.
There ought to be a simple way to quantify both the "trustedness" of a relationship. At the very least, there should be a "Trust" button underneath every friend's profile photo.
With that info, Airbnb could tell you who your trusted friends trust, which is way more useful.
That all depends on what criteria you use for adding people on Facebook. Personally I try to keep it to people that I actually know in contrast to people whom I've met once or twice.
No matter what happens you're still trusting your friends' judgement in character.
Would the 'Trust' button really work any better than the 'Friend' concept? It would just get devalued due to 'inflation' in the same way that people has 800+ 'friends' on Facebook.
What message does not clicking the 'trust' button for friend send to them! Only purely factual information would avoid the problem, e.g. showing family relationships. Showing how long you've known the person would be a good start.
And there it is. This will infinitely increase the popularity of airbnb and solidify it as a service that has same credibility as renting from an estate agent.
I always read about the Airbnb hype on the startup blogs but I knew I would never use it. Now I actually might, if there is an offering in the place I need to be. Because I can always reach out to my friend and check up on the host. Maybe even get a deal (bypass airbnb commission)?
Such a smart idea. Anything to make the airbnb model appear more trustworthy is worth it. Airbnb's biggest hurdle is the "weirdness" factor of staying with a total stranger.
Some of us are never going to be comfortable staying with someone we don't know, who isn't in the business of putting up folks for the night. Do you pay them ahead of time? Do you owe them social reciprocation? Should you offer to go to dinner/pay? Should you spend time with them? Will they expect you to? Will I fit in the bed (I'm 6'4")? Is there a coffee shop within miles?
I'd love to have an usable file sharing application that taps into existing social structures (just like e.g. OneSwarm, but without the process of manually adding friends)
So when the OP says "It makes us wonder why the startup didn’t release the feature sooner" my immediate thought is: if I knew a friend of a friend had a spare room available, I'd be communicating through Facebook to arrange it for cheaper (or, if they're good enough friends, free) rather than through Airbnb.
Now, the connection for Airbnb isn't as direct as with eBay - I would need to go through the friend, and that adds time and drama. Maybe the Airbnb team are confident that that extra hassle will outweigh any sly users of the system; or maybe they're just super confident that adding social validation to their potentially risky business [1] will drive customers in droves, so a few sly users really don't matter [2].
[1] Potentially risky in that paying to sleep in someone's spare room (or even a private apartment) is a riskier travel proposition than paying to stay at the Hilton, or even a reputable Hostel.
[2] And, to be fair, they're probably the users you don't want anyway.