How Airbnb Can Make Business Travel More Fun Next time you hit the road on business, skip the hotel and check into an igloo or castle instead.

Believe it: Airbnb can make business travel more fun. Launched in the summer of 2008 by three couch-surfing-inspired twentysomethings, the San Francisco startup has grown from a site featuring a mere 40 listings in New York City into a massive online property-rental network populated with more than 40,000 privately listed locations around the world, from dorm-like shared bedrooms to igloos and entire castles. That's right, castles.

According to co-founder, CTO and host Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb's main target is the casual traveler, but more and more business travelers are booking, some simply out of boredom. "I had a frequent traveler to the Bay Area stay with me because he's been in every hotel in the area and wanted to change it up," Blecharczyk says. "Now he's trying every place on Airbnb that meets his criteria."

Also, younger business travelers are after a "more authentic, cooler" experience, often preferring to book a downtown apartment or condo where they can entertain friends and guests. And for people looking for internship- or project-length sublets, Airbnb has introduced monthly pricing schemes, eliminating the creep factor of Craigslist's temporary housing board. The reverse option is popular, too, for business travelers to monetize their empty spaces.