Ride-hailing giant Uber sent a message to its riders and drivers expressing outrage over the deadly white nationalist demonstration in Charlottesville, Va., and support for a driver who kicked Nazis… Read More
Boatbound has found a new captain. The Seattle startup that operates an Airbnb-like marketplace for boat owners has been acquired by Boatsetter, a bigger boat-sharing marketplace. Boatbound launched in San Francisco… Read More
Airbnb is putting down permanent roots in Seattle with a major new office that makes the vacation rentals company the latest well-known tech brand to grow rapidly in the region… Read More
The Seattle City Council is taking a new approach to regulating short-term rentals, hoping to crack down on businesses that operate Airbnbs like hotels while still allowing residents to rent… Read More
Travelers visiting Seattle can now book a catered breakfast beneath the Seattle Aquarium’s underwater dome through Airbnb. The “Seas the Day!” event is part of Airbnb Trips, a feature that… Read More
When it comes to disruption, Brad Stone wrote the book. Twice. The best-selling author of The Everything Store, a detailed account of Amazon’s history, is out with another book, this time… Read More
Stay Alfred, a Spokane, Wash. lodging startup that operates short-term rentals out of the downtown neighborhoods of major U.S. cities, just closed a $15 million Series A investment round. CEO… Read More
Airbnb is planning to launch its flight reservation tool sometime in the next 18 months, according to a report from Bloomberg. The service, called “Flights,” would put Airbnb in more… Read More
Delivery startup Postmates has been ordered to retroactively pay more than two years of workers’ compensation premiums for more than 3,000 of its couriers in Washington state, but the company is fighting the decision,… Read More
Airbnb and the Seattle chapter of The Urban League, a non-profit that helps African-American communities access opportunity, are announcing a new partnership today. The two organizations will work together to… Read More
Airbnb and affordable housing advocates are fighting a battle in cities around the world. Today, Airbnb made a big concession that could herald a truce between the two sides. The company announced… Read More
Airbnb is undergoing a remodel. At the Airbnb Open in Los Angeles, CEO Brian Chesky announced Trips, which allows travelers to book activities, take guided audio tours, and get recommendations… Read More
Last year, when The New Yorker exposed the havoc an overdue Cascadia earthquake could wreak on the Northwest, I was immediately reminded of Hurricane Sandy. I was in New York when… Read More
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, lawmakers and community groups are asking the U.S. government to investigate how many Airbnb and HomeAway rentals are operating like hotels. They… Read More
Andreessen Horowitz partner Jeff Jordan loves him some online marketplaces. Jordan, the OfferUp and Airbnb investor and former eBay executive who spoke at the GeekWire 2016 Summit, is a big… Read More
How people get to a travel destination hasn’t changed much in recent decades, but where they stay once they arrive is transforming rapidly. Technology has given many people the ability… Read More
Jeff Jordan has worked with pretty much every type of technology company in his career. He is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He was previously CEO and then executive… Read More
By September of an election year, anyone who still has cable is used to an onslaught of political ads sponsored by oil companies, environmental groups, activists, and, of course, candidates.… Read More
Gary Johnson has a vision for the future: Apply Uber’s on-demand, sharing economy model to just about everything. The libertarian candidate for president shared his utopian (or dystopian) dream at… Read More
Yvette Hobzek, a Seattle-area real estate broker, filed suit against vacation rental company HomeAway on Monday, alleging racial discrimination. Hobzek, a 49-year-old African-American woman, claims she was barred from booking accommodations… Read More
Airbnb is finally responding to months of discrimination complaints from people of color. Over the past year, users have been sharing their experiences of racism on the platform, using the hashtag… Read More
Councilmember Tim Burgess told an impassioned audience that short-term rentals account for 12 percent of available housing inventory in Seattle last week at a meeting of the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods, and Finance… Read More
A crowd of homeowners, rental site representatives, and residents gathered today at City Hall as Seattle councilmembers proposed a simplified set of regulations designed to prevent property owners from operating Airbnb… Read More
A new report commissioned by HomeAway says that fewer than 500 properties in Seattle were listed on the short-term rental site between April 2015 and 2016, adding weight to the argument… Read More
Concur has released a comprehensive new report on the state of business travel that reveals, among other things, that home-sharing services such as Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway have seen a… Read More
Over the past decade, the lodging industry has split into two rival camps — hotels and short-term rentals — thanks to the rise of disruptive tech companies like Airbnb and… Read More
Airbnb is establishing a downtown Seattle engineering operation, GeekWire has learned, making the alternative accommodations giant the latest Bay Area company to set up shop in Seattle in a quest for software development talent. Leading… Read More
Seattle residents lined up Wednesday morning to speak out about housing affordability and short-term rental regulations at the Seattle City Council chambers, a window-lined section of City Hall overlooking a small… Read More
New York-based venture capitalist Fred Wilson this week ranked Seattle a “third-tier” startup city, then backed down from his statement after Tren Griffin, our guest on this week’s GeekWire radio show… Read More
When Jordan Schwartz converted his basement mother-in-law apartment in Seattle from a long-term rental to an Airbnb listing, he more than doubled his annual earnings. The huge gains motivated him… Read More