Founded in San Francisco in 2008 with a coinciding app released early this year, Airbnb is a home-sharing service which opens your house or apartment to strangers looking for a place to crash. Conversely, you can use Airbnb to find a place to stay without ever renting out your own place. The company currently offers more than 100,000 listings in over 192 countries, and boasts 5 million nights booked.<br />
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Airbnb is not only great for finding a cheaper nightly rate. Fewer hotel rooms also mean fewer carbon emissions. Of course, renting out your room to a complete stranger always comes with a risk, as one woman discovered last July when she returned to find her home ransacked by meth addicts. In response to this incident, Airbnb significantly increased its insurance coverage.