TEN YEARS AGO, Airbnb passed a milestone: the number of people who had used the service to book a night’s stay surpassed 4 million. In those days, I had a weekly slot talking about web culture on BBC Radio 5 Live, and I pitched the story to my producer. “Too niche”, was his response. “Impressive growth, yes—but in terms of the numbers of tourists, it’s a very small player. Let’s drop it.”
I was reminded of this exchange over the weekend, as I dried myself on the Ralph Lauren towels provided for me by my "host", John, in his Eton townhouse (£213.41, house manual
