by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 5:34 PM ET, Mon August 14, 2017
A company that began by offering nothing more than a sleeping mat on the floor in an attempt to make a few extra bucks now offers more listing that the world's top five hotel brands, combined.
San Francisco-based Airbnb recently reached a milestone 4 million listings in 191 countries around the world, Business Insider reported.
That figure represents nearly one million more listings than the combined inventory of the top five hotel brands-Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Wyndham Worldwide Corp and Hyatt Hotels Corporation-according to Hotel News Now.
With 660,000 listings, the United States remains the home sharing company's biggest market. However, Airbnb has established substantial markets in France, Italy, Spain and the UK as well.
The company even broke into the emerging Cuban market in 2015, with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky appearing alongside President Obama during a visit to the island nation. Cuba quickly became one of the home-share start-up's fastest growing markets, according to Fortune.
As of 2016, about there were about 4,000 listings in Cuba and 13,000 Americans had booked rooms.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Hotels' Strategy to Fend Off Airbnb Leaked[/READMORE]
And in yet another notable milestone, Airbnb celebrated its biggest night of the year on August 5, when more than 2.5 million people stayed in accommodations booked through the site.
Airbnb's Instant Book feature-created in 2010 to allow guests to reserve a stay with a single click rather than submitting a request to a host and awaiting a response-has also experienced recent growth in use, according to the Business Insider report.
The nine-year-old company is currently the second-highest valued startup in the US. During its latest funding round in March, Airbnb raised $1 billion, pushing its value to $31 billion.
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