Over 1 Million Guests Stayed in Airbnb Properties on New Year's Eve

Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky in a tweet confirmed the figures and said, "We had a record night of 1.3 million guests staying in an Airbnb on New Year's Eve."

The company in a blog post added that the number registered this year was double the amount on the same night last year. It further said that the New Year's Eve was the "largest number we've seen in one night on Airbnb to date!"

Airbnb was launched in 2008 and claims to have over 40 million users worldwide. The company has been a rival to the traditional hotel chains and has also faced ire of local authorities in New York and Paris. The home rental company claims that it's now spread in over 34,000 cities.

The company last year raised a whopping $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 9,578 crores), which sent its value up to $25.5 billion (roughly Rs. 1,62,820 crores). According to several reports, some of the funds that helped Airbnb raise money were General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GGV Capital, Horizon Ventures and from China Hillhouse Capital Group and China Broadband. The company is still in talks to expand its business to Asia.

Online travel giant Expedia last year bought rival online marketplace for rentals, HomeAway, for $3.9 billion (roughly Rs. 25,607 crores) in an attempt to boost its presence in the rental business.