Lifestyle Travelling

Airbnb is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco founded in August 2008, operated and privately owned by Airbnb, Inc. The company is an online service that provides a platform for individuals referred to as “hosts”, generally private parties, to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests. As of November 2012, the company had over 250,000 listings in 30,000 cities and 192 countries. Listings include private rooms, entire apartments, castles, boats, manors, tree houses, tipis, igloos, private islands and other properties.

Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site. All properties are associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users, reviews by previous guests, as well as a response rating and private messaging system.

Couchsurfing International Inc. is a Delaware C corporation based in San Francisco that offers its users hospitality exchange and social networking services. Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 and sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel in 2011. The website provides a platform for members to “surf” on couches by staying as a guest at a host’s home, host travelers, or join an event.

Couchsurfing is a neologism referring to the practice of moving from one friend’s house to another, sleeping in whatever spare space is available, floor or couch, generally staying a few days before moving on to the next house. The term pre-existed the organization, “Couch Surfer” was the title of a Bran Van 3000 song written in the 90s.

The company, its website, and the culture of hospitality exchange it is meant to support are all commonly referred to as “Couchsurfing” by the website’s userbase, though sometimes the “s” is capitalized.

Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book publisher in the world. Originally called Lonely Planet Publications, the company changed its name to Lonely Planet in July 2009 to reflect its broad travel industry offering and the emphasis on digital products. After Let’s Go Travel Guides, it was one of the first series of travel books aimed at backpackers and other low-cost travellers. As of 2010, it publishes about 500 titles in 8 languages, as well as TV programmes, a magazine, mobile phone applications and websites.

Lonely Planet is headquartered in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, with affiliate offices in London and Oakland, California.

The company name comes from a misheard line in “Space Captain”, a song written by Matthew Moore and first popularized by Joe Cocker and Leon Russell on the “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour in 1970. The actual words are “lovely planet”, but Tony Wheeler heard “lonely planet” and liked it.