Seriously, they don't deserve all this hype and buzz.
1. They haven't build a billion dollar business, they are only valued at that. There's a bid difference.
2. Ordinary homeowners have and had many other options to rent their properties - Short term rental brokers and VRBO are just two of them. Craigslist in another one. Airbnb alone cannot take that as their success.
3. Perhaps they have provided better accommodations than their competitors. Do you have anything to support that?
4. The internet itself is destabilizing the entrenched markets.
5. And here's the reason I responded, because I am most interested in the work that they are doing to address the social and local government issues. Please provide something to support that. Google doesn't have anything..
http://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+address+local+issues&#...
Nor does Airbnb themselves
This one is a bit unfair, though I don't know about the rest. "The Internet (TM)" doesn't just destabilize industries in an abstract sense, it destabilizes them by a set of real companies that take market share from entrenched competition, and by allowing that entrenched competition to sometimes improve themselves in the new market (which doesn't happen as often as you'd think). It's not "The Internet (TM)" that gets credit, it's those companies.