Airbnb, the hot online room (and sublet) reservation startup, this morning announced that it has teamed up with business incubator Springstar to define a strategy for international expansion, confirming rumors that kept the German tech blogosphere busy the past weekend.
Springstar was founded in 2007 by German entrepreneurs and angel investors Klaus Hommels and Oliver Jung, and Harish Bahl, who leads the incubator’s operations in India and Asia Pacific.
Springstar in a press statement said it will be providing strategic guidance in the expansion of Airbnb’s international operations in select markets around the world, but did not specify which markets.
It already provides such guidance to a number of companies scattered all over the world, including Russia’s KupiVIP, Turkey’s Markafoni and Brazil’s Brandsclub.
Airbnb competes internationally with the likes of Wimdu, 9flats.com, Crashpadder, iStopOver and CouchSurfing, with new competitors springing up almost daily.
The company recently established its first European office in Hamburg after acquiring a German clone called Accoleo. Expect to see a couple more deals like that in the coming months.
Founded in August 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique spaces around the world – online or from a mobile phone. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more that 26,000 cities and 192 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
