Airbnb has grown so much as a brand since it was first found in August 2008 in California, United States. As it evolves over the years, the original branding could not keep up with the brand anymore as it could not define the core mission of Airbnb. Also, the public started giving it the wrong image as “renting houses.” In fact, what Airbnb offers is a lot bigger than just renting houses, it offers hospitality to its users. Moreover, Airbnb is all about home; its core mission is to connect one big global community and allow them to belong anywhere in the world. This big idea is what makes this organization so unique and irreplaceable in our present world. Therefore, Airbnb decided to rebrand itself in order to fully communicate its core value; this “belonging” idea to the world. Their end goal was to elevate their international brand to the next level.

Airbnb did a total rebranding own its logo. Usually, rebranding may cause trouble for the audience to recognize the logo; however, for Airbnb it was different. By 2014 there were more than 9 million customers and was a fast-paced company that was constantly evolving and growing around the world. Everything from the previous logo had changed, the colour, the logo and the typography. I’ve always known Airbnb with their new logo and not the previous one, but for millions of customers it was a shock and the change was everywhere on Twitter.

The rebranding did turn out to be a great decision because their new logo is more friendly and has a nice colour which makes it easily recognizable. Airbnb explained that the new logo was about love, people, places and Airbnb. All these elements are present in the logo. Their primary goal during the making of the logo was to connect people. In my opinion, the logo became popular because of its friendliness and is easily recognizable; however, during this time smartphones were becoming a thing same as the apps, and maybe they also wanted a logo that could fit into a small icon for mobile phones, therefore instead of the horizontal logo they had, they made it into a small square logo which can be fitted everywhere.

Airbnb calls its new logo Belo, and it represents

“the universal symbol of belonging.”

The founders of Airbnb decided to carry out a new branding effort to consolidate their existing success and take the company to the next level. They agreed with the global brand and design agency Design Studio for this campaign. For this, the agency started a new campaign, and in this context, they redesigned their social media accounts, web pages, colour choices, and a new logo. However, discussions about their logo more important and had a positive and negative impact on the campaign.

Graphically, the new Airbnb logo is very successful. With its simple design, it manages to explain a lot of things. The logo was designed to express the four main elements: people, place, love, and Airbnb’s “A”. With this goal, the logo aims to convey the idea of ​​”belonging” to the target audience.

The new logo caused some controversy at two main points. Some people claimed that there was a similarity between the new logo and the female genitalia. They shared some content on social media and discussed this issue. The new logo bears a striking resemblance to another small start-up, “Automation Everywhere.” People generally did not accuse it of a type of plagiarism, but they wondered how it happened.

The logo became the main component of the campaign. People just discussed the new face of the company on these two issues. There was no significant negative discussion about the firm’s services. The fact that people discussed only the Airbnb logo increased the brand value and awareness of the company. As a result, this new campaign of Airbnb has benefited the company.

The rebrand of Airbnb drew a successful and effective outcome with the new proposition, visual language, and Belo icon. The rebranded logo presents the symbol and purpose of the company in a simple and clear way. The rebrand Airbnb raised a boom on Twitter and also won a host of awards. Furthermore, it is globally recognized as category-defining. As a result, Airbnb was able to propel its valuation to $29 Billion above their closest competitor in less than 4 years. Airbnb became a huge scale company that evolved into a multi-billion dollar business in the field of the travel industry beyond other hospitality companies.

Michael M. Dogan, Javin Cauleechurn, Youngah Chae, Daniel Chan

Airbnb – Belong anywhere. (2020, July 22). DesignStudio.

Retrieved from https://design.studio/work/airbnb/

Ben, B. (2014). “This is Airbnb’s ‘obscene’ new logo”. CNN.  Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/2014/07/16/technology/social/airbnb-logo/

Clifford, C. (2014). Airbnb, Why the New Logo?. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235709

Dan, H. (2014). New Airbnb logo: “Someone didn’t do their homework”. Retrieved from https://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/17/new-airbnb-logo-comparisons-automotive-anywhere-habitat-genitalia/#:~:text=London%2Dbased%20DesignStudio%20has%20sparked,symbols%20used%20by%20other%20brands.

Kelion, L. (2014). Airbnb’s new logo faces social media backlash. BBC NEW. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28343130

Mackenzy, Z. (May 2020). Life in a Sharing Economy: What AirBNB, Turo, and Other Accommodation-Sharing Services Mean for Cities. Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs. Retrieved from https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=jlia