Airbnb Dethrones Google As the Best Tech Company To Work For In the US

An anonymous reader writes: Career website Glassdoor today released its eighth annual Employees' Choice Awards, a list of the 50 best companies to work for in the coming year. Airbnb was picked as the number one tech company to work for in 2016, displacing Google. Airbnb didn't even make the list last year. Google, meanwhile, placed sixth in 2013 and 2014, and first in 2015. As with Google last year, it's worth noting that Airbnb hasn't just taken the top tech company spot: It is the top company overall.

Comments

Really???

[Anonymous Coward]

Airbnb was picked as the number one tech company to work for in 2016

It's not 2016 yet?

Hipsters are Hobos

[Anonymous Coward]

Hipsters are hobos and companies like Airbnb are the certified proof that we are living through another Great Depression. But unlike the 30s, we have all been convinced to be happy enough about this to give out prizes to industrial leaders in the race to the absolute rock bottom. Cue the upcoming Airbnb integrated Tindr service with Vine monetisation, because why stop when you're on a downhill roll?

Re:Hipsters are Hobos

[ShanghaiBill]

... give out prizes to industrial leaders in the race to the absolute rock bottom.

Airbnb allows normal people to earn money by renting out spare rooms, at the expense of big corporate hotel chains. It is silly to say they are a sign of rampant corporate domination. They are the opposite. They are an enabler for the common people.

Disclaimer: I have been both a room renter and a room rentee on Airbnb. It was a good deal in both directions.

Re:Hipsters are Hobos

[Jack Griffin]

we have all been convinced to be...

Who has been convinced? Just because some website I've never visited says so, doesn't make it true. Part of being a critical thinker is not believing something just because you read it.

Re:Hipsters are Hobos

[Anonymous Coward]

Airbnb allows normal people to earn money by renting out spare rooms,

It doesn't "allow" it. Either the law has already allowed it, or it's outlawed, and no private company changes that.

In places where it's allowed, people have been doing this since pretty much forever. In places where it's regulated, people have also been doing this since pretty much forever - sometimes staying within regulations, and sometimes not.

at the expense of big corporate hotel chains.

If you think the two alternatives are "Airbnb room" and "Big Corporate Hotel Chains", either you're incredibly lazy or you have something to gain from getting people to believe this. Since you say you've rented out on Airbnb, it sounds like the latter.

It is silly to say they are a sign of rampant corporate domination.

A dominant, leeching middleman which doesn't actually do anything but act as an agent or transaction processor is the epitome of corporate domination.

They are the opposite. They are an enabler for the common people.

Again, "Airbnb room" and "Big Corporate Hotel Chains" are no dichotomy. "Has a spare room to let out" is hardly the position of "the common people", either! although I suppose everyone likes to think that the dividing line crosses through them: they can either be common or elite, depending on which way helps their argument.

Disclaimer: I have been both a room renter and a room rentee on Airbnb. It was a good deal in both directions.

k, maybe it's your thing to stay at someone else's home, but N.B. Airbnb rooms aren't actually cheaper in the US on average than mid-range hotel accommodation. Airbnb, like e.g. Uber, is primarily a marketing company, so I understand that it's great at selling of superior quality in every case, when in fact you're buying a different product, and value for money may depend a lot on the when and the where.

Re:Hipsters are Hobos

[rudy_wayne]

... give out prizes to industrial leaders in the race to the absolute rock bottom.

Airbnb allows normal people to earn money by renting out spare rooms, at the expense of big corporate hotel chains. It is silly to say they are a sign of rampant corporate domination. They are the opposite. They are an enabler for the common people.

Bullshit.

The entire business model of companies like Airbnb and Uber are based on exploiting people who are desperate for work.

Re:Hipsters are Hobos

[KGIII]

I only know of the Air one because it has been here on this site. I have no idea what the rest are. I've never actually been to the site of the company that I do know of.

I'm not sure what to make of that. I've seen Tindr before but I've no idea what they do. Vine is something grapes grow on. It's the only real word of the three.

I'm usually pretty decent with my technical jargon. I understood the concept of what you were saying but it's like speaking Spanish and still being able to understand Italian well enough to get the gist of it. The difference is, I expect you're speaking my language.

I could Google or I could remain willfully ignorant. I'm not sure I want to waste more brain cells. Earlier I Googled a video of some Watch Me thing (it had something resembling music but I'm not sure what *kind* of music it was). I'd always hoped their wouldn't be a generation gap but I think I've figured it out. We just don't want to keep up with all these things. Most of the time, they're words describing something that's neither new nor innovative.

From what I have read about the Air company, they're neither new nor innovative but "do it on a computer?" (Or, presumably, "with an APP!"?)

So, I'm going to assume that the bed and breakfast thing means you let someone stay in your house for a fee. Tindr means use them to kindle a fire. Vine means grapes, so you must then spread the word among your your friends and score points depending on how many Tindrs you get and you probably monetize it by betting. (Unless there's someone paying for charred remains?)

If that's not the case then, well, let me think it is. I'll be down in Florida soon and will be over at the club playing Pinochle and I want to have a good story to tell them what the crazy kids are doing on the newfangled internets these days.

Re:Hipsters are Hobos

[Darinbob]

But you can get that income without Airbnb. All it's done is be one of a few companies to provide a central location to advertise the services on phones. The short term rental market has existed for ages. Yes, it may be handy for those who never look up from the phone but it's certainly not very innovative.

How is airbnb a tech company?

[headbulb]

How is airbnb or many of these other startups tech companies?

Sure they use technology, but so does the grocery store down the street. Should we start labeling grocery stores as tech companies that have websites? If your main product isn't technology and instead you use some inhouse custom built website/app to sell some other product or service then your company isn't a tech company but a company that uses tech to enable your business model.

Lyft/uber/airbnb/ aren't tech companies They are something else. I wish they would stop masquerading.

Re:How is airbnb a tech company?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are all only pimps. They manage other people's resources end get their cut. They are not just a middlemen, they decide your part of the business and filter your clients.

Re:How is airbnb a tech company?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you dear airbnb employee!

Re:How is airbnb a tech company?

[Forgefather]

I'm not so sure about this. I see your argument that technology is not the core product, but the fact is that their entire business would not be possible without their technology. It's not the same as a grocery store that can run their business just fine if their website goes down.

My test is thus: how freaked out does the management get went when the network has an outage at 3:00 in the morning. If they are full on incontinent then you have a tech company.

Perhaps this puts a lot of companies under that umbrella, but in 2015 is it even possible to treat technology of secondary importance to your business? Such companies are now few and far between.

Re:How is airbnb a tech company?

[Darinbob]

Agreed here. This is mass media, they think anything that involves a computer or an "app" is tech. It's stupid.
Is everyone who makes a pod cast a tech worker? How about the person who takes off her clothes for money on the internet, is that a tech worker?

Why isn't the company that works on drilling technology for the oil industry called a "tech company"? If I make machines to put vegetables into cans on an assembly line, am I a tech worker because I am actually creating new technologies?

Imagine if they did that for mathematics, would someone working on cryptography be called a chalkboard worker who could get a job with the chalkboard industry? Why is Hadoop called a technology? A database is possibly technology, a network protocol and media connecting to that database is possibly technology, and an algorithm is mathematics. So using a database over a network to apply an algorithm is much more about mathematics than technology.

So why is it that all these companies with nothing more than a server on the internet and a web presence or app interface are "tech" companies? Airbnb is as low tech as they come, even if they may have Jimmy in the basement who does some fancy stuff to keep the servers responsive.

What's wrong with how we used to do it in the past? We had computer companies, software companies, engineering companies, and so forth.

Re:How is airbnb a tech company?

[Darinbob]

Possibly not. But Google actually builds stuff. They have phones and tablets. They went and built up their own servers instead of renting space from a cloud company, and they were even innovative about how to build those servers.

If airbnb is a tech company then the term has been dumbed down so much that it is meaningless.

it seems unusuable.

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried to rent a place through Airbnb. The process went like so:

Me: I'm looking for a room for next tuesday.
Airbnb: What's your Facebook login?
Me: Do I look like an idiot?
Airbnb: How about your G+ account?
Me: I must look like an idiot.

So that was that. I haven't given them a second chance.

Re:it seems unusuable.

[DNS-and-BIND]

It's the new normal for Millenials. They are not open-minded people who trust by default, like the older generations. Instead, they mistrust until they get some kind of confirmation that you're like them. The old "well, I just won't be on Facebook then!" excuse carries no water with them, if your life is not public then obviously you have something to hide.

Re:it seems unusuable.

[LordKronos]

Either you are lying, incompetent, or things have changed recently (I've never used airbnb, so I've no idea what their policies used to be). Go to airbnb.com, click signup and you are presented with 4 signup options:

Facebook
Google (not Google+, just Google...lots of websites use google authentication, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one that required Google+)
American Express
Email

Re:it seems unusuable.

[stephanruby]

I tried to rent a place through Airbnb. The process went like so:

Me: I'm looking for a room for next tuesday.
Airbnb: What's your Facebook login?
Me: Do I look like an idiot?
Airbnb: How about your G+ account?
Me: I must look like an idiot.

So that was that. I haven't given them a second chance.

Not that it's necessary to "sign up" to search for a room, it's not, but you must have missed the "Sign up with Email" option.

It's not very visible, but it's below the idiot-proof Facebook button and below the idiot-proof G+ button.

re: AirBnB cutting into hotel chain profits?

[King_TJ]

I do I.T. support for a company that's heavily involved with the hotel and travel industry, and just got back from the annual company meeting. One of the discussion topics given to a panel of experts there was the impact of AirBnB. The consensus was that it ranges from "not a concern at all" to "relatively helpful to business".

While admitting that the details depend a lot on which city you're talking about, there was definitely the opinion that in many good markets for the hotel industry, they have no problems achieving maximum (or near maximum) occupancy whenever corporate events come to town, or it's "tourist season" in the area. That's really what these guys live for. (It's not such a big deal if your big corporate hotel is relatively empty sometimes, if it rakes in big bucks for 3 months each summer, plus every 3-5 days or so in a row that some big convention is in town, and a few other key times of year like New Years' Eve or the Thanksgiving holiday.)

The smaller hotels/motels that are really worried about Johnny Q. Public who wants the cheapest room deal possible, and would happily go the AirBnB route to save a few more bucks are in a completely different category. In other words, AirBnB competes with the seedy family-owned motels more than the big corporate chains like Marriott.

A refreshing change

[Hognoxious]

Nice to have a break from all the Uber pumping.