Airbnb doubles listings in 2012, quadruples guest base

The company reveals its blow-out 2012

I like to pretend like I can still travel with a one-year-old, a full-time job, and a husband who hates flying. So I obsessively file through listings on Airbnb and HomeAway to find the perfect get-away. A tree house in Vermont! It’s perfect! You know…after a four-day drive…and after lugging the pack-n-play up the ladder…I can make this work, damn it!

Vacation home listing site Airbnb had a big year in 2012. The company released some stats Thursday morning in which it reveals it more than doubled its listings in 2012. And three-quarters of its guests started using the service in 2012.

Breaking the numbers down, Airbnb had 120,000 listings at the beginning of 2012. By the end of the year, it had over 300,000. Four million guests have now stayed in homes they found on Airbnb—three million of which did so in 2012 alone. Guests come from over 150 different countries, representing 32 different languages in 2012.

Mobile was also a big boon for Airbnb in 2012. There were more than 1.2 million downloads of the Airbnb app in 2012. And back in September, the company revealed that a quarter of all traffic comes from mobile devices, and more than half of all mobile users are accessing the site via an iOS device.

The company also opened 11 new offices in Denmark, Australia, India, Brazil, Italy, Singapore, Russia, Germany, and more. In July 2012, international travel on Airbnb exceeded domestic travel for the first time. 

Airbnb also revealed some interesting stats around its hosts. For example, 54% of all hosts are female, compared to 46% who are male, and the majority are in their 30s. And in San Francisco, 60% of hosts earn less than the local median income, “indicating that Airbnb provides valuable support to the city’s middle class,” the company said in a report. (Airbnb obviously knows the quickest way to my heart.)

Among Airbnb’s listings are 11,000 villas, 4,000 cabins, 500 castles, 1,000 boats, and 200 tree houses. And then there’s this barn...It looks adorable, but no bathroom?... : /

The team wasn’t immediately available to comment, so no word on revenue.

Airbnb also launched two new features in 2012: Neighborhoods and Local Lounges. The Neighborhoods feature allows users to search for a city and identify what type of neighborhood they want to stay in (i.e. Great Transit, Dining, Touristy, Shopping, Nightlife, Peace & Quiet, etc.). From there, they can check out places to stay within those neighborhoods, complete with pics, reviews, and descriptions. The Local Lounges feature allows users to shop for a place to stay within a directory of hosts that offer free Wi-Fi and travel guides.