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- Airbnb, which filed to go public last week, appears to count Warren Buffett among its admirers.
- The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO told Leigh Gallagher for her 2017 book, "The Airbnb Story," that he was impressed by the home-sharing platform's fast growth, scale, popularity, and CEO Brian Chesky.
- Buffett said that he's hosted many guests over the years, but wouldn't be joining the platform himself.
- "The truth is, at my age and with my habits, I'm not going to be doing an Airbnb thing."
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Airbnb's plan to go public during a pandemic might be too rushed for Warren Buffett's liking, but the famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO appears to be a big fan of the home-sharing platform and its leader.
"It clearly has very strong appeal on both sides, to the customer and the provider," Buffett told Fortune editor Leigh Gallagher for her 2017 book, "The Airbnb Story: How three ordinary guys disrupted an industry, made billions ... and created plenty of enemies."
"It's a very, very big hosting machine," Buffett continued.
The 12-year-old company boasts north of 7 million listings across more than 220 countries and regions, and has racked up at least 750 million guest arrivals to date, according to its website.
The Berkshire chief predicted Airbnb would compete with the world's largest hotel chains, pointing to its rapid growth and the rate at which it adds listings. He also regretted that he didn't have the idea first.
"It's got a lot of advantages," he told Gallagher. "I wish I'd thought of it myself."
Buffett also expressed admiration at Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky's passion for his job.
"He feels it all the way through," the investor said. "I think he would be doing what he's doing if he didn't get paid a dime for it."
Buffett recognized the value of Airbnb's service partly because his family has hosted people many times in the past.
Their guests ranged from politicians such as the late George McGovern — who lost the 1972 presidential election to Richard Nixon — to students from Sudan and other countries, he told Gallagher.
However, the 89-year-old billionaire said he wouldn't be renting out his spare bedroom to strangers anytime soon.
"The truth is, at my age and with my habits I'm not going to be doing an Airbnb thing," he said. "It doesn't appeal to everybody."
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