
Airbnb to Halt All Marketing, Most Hiring as Losses Mount - justswim
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-to-halt-all-marketing-most-hiring-as-losses-mount
======
Fission
I think there was a previous discussion on this article a couple of days ago
at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707365)

The link there is non-paywalled.

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blackoil
It would be surprising if marketing wasn't already down by 99% a month ago.
Travel industry is going through an existential crisis. Even when the pandemic
is controlled, it would take atleast 1-3 quarters for consumer confidence to
be back enough to sustainable tourism industry. Corporate will also reduce
travel because of scare and in general financial pressure.

Places like Maldives, Bali, Hawaii will be badly hit, as most of the economy
is based on tourism.

~~~
3fe9a03ccd14ca5
This is precisely why I’m largely against bailouts. This is a time for the
better run companies — whose CEOs were prudent, saved up for a rainy day, and
are all-around better operators — _should_ be snapping up inferior run
companies at bargain prices.

The sick companies should be allowed to die a peaceful death so the better
ones can multiply.

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
> The sick companies should be allowed to die a peaceful death so the better
> ones can multiply.

I don't quite buy that for travel, though, which is in a depression that has
never been seen before. It's not like putting some antibiotics on a petri dish
and letting the "strongest" microbes survive to reproduce. It's like throwing
the petri dish in an incinerator and saying "Oh yeah, just waiting for those
fire-resistant microbes to get stronger!"

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kensai
I wonder, in such moments is it better to layoff completely or put the
employees in perhaps pre-aggreed 20 to 25% work regimes, in order to be
flexible when the times are good again? Because eventually, they will.

~~~
freepor
Most employees will not accept this and would rather go work somewhere full
time, and can find such work since the FAANGs shouldn’t be too harshly
impacted.

~~~
barbecue_sauce
I think you're being a little overly optimistic. FAANGs will have pick of the
litter, they're not just going to absorb all refugees from travel tech.

~~~
freepor
Right, but I feel like almost any Airbnb engineer can get more than 25% of
their salary somewhere.

~~~
barbecue_sauce
But why do you feel that way?

~~~
freepor
Because software engineering is valuable even in a recession, and someone will
be willing to pay someone more to work than Airbnb will pay them to not work.

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gurtgurt
It's going to be interesting to see what they do about their IPO, it seems
like their RSU's "are set to start expiring in November 2020 and in mid-2021"
[1]

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/technology/airbnb-
employe...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/technology/airbnb-employees-
ipo-payouts.html)

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sdan
Say bye to that projected 2020 IPO

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jcims
Ironically the amount of people that want to get out of town for a weekend is
likely higher than ever. Was just looking at flights tonight, $42 round trip
from Columbus to San Diego on Spirit (pack light!) and $200 on pretty much any
airline to any spot along the west coast. I'm working from home, my kids are
either unencumbered or schooling remotely, really never been a better time to
book a place for a month and get out of this undecided Ohio weather. Tis a
shame...

Edit: I'm not really going to travel folks, lol.

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
AirBnB has always had a really high concentration of units in cities, though,
were people are leaving, and a lower concentration of units in "typical"
vacation destinations like beaches and mountains when compared to a site like
VRBO. That has changed a lot over time as AirBnB has expanded and VRBO has
tried, especially after it was acquired by Expedia, to get more urban
inventory, but my guess is it is still largely true. The more traditional
vacation homes on VRBO are also the types of homes where I would prefer to be
in a quarantine, as opposed to a place that looked (and felt) like it was
obviously someone's primary residence most of the time.

~~~
jcims
Yeah we almost exclusively used VRBO for 10+ years as the family was growing.
The thing here is i wouldn't want anything to do with a metro or vacation
spot. I'd be looking for a place in some backwater town that nobody would have
any interest vacationing in. That kind of setting seems like the domain of
AirBnB. My local town has three properties on AirBnB, for example, and nothing
on VRBO within ten miles.

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fermienrico
"Start up" companies need to also cut down their frivolous expenditures such
as office deco, unhealthy snacks, company boondoggle trips...and a long list
of pareto tail items that if added can be a significant recurring cost to the
business. It almost feels like when economy is good, instead of capitalizing
on efficiency and perfection; the choice is instead to ship broken products
and waste insane amounts of money - reminds me of pre-dotcom bubble when
people were spending VC cash like there is no tomorrow. Use capital to
increase business leverage. Employees are also at fault - startup folks demand
such cool places to work because that's what everybody does. The effect
compounds with no one looking at it from the bird's eyes perspective - not
company leaders, not employees and not investors.

~~~
zemo
really not sure what you're getting at and how this is connected to the
pandemic. Contrary to what HN may peddle, "startup" is not an industry. Many
startups are in industries that are doing extremely well right now. E.g., with
people spending so much time inside, online entertainment in all its varieties
is thriving.

~~~
fermienrico
I am just speaking in general - nothing to do with this pandemic. If we look
at the difference of company culture in say Munich, Boston, Osaka, etc vs.
Silicon Valley; there is a huge amount of waste:

Airbnb Office:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+offices&client=firefo...](https://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+offices&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWw_WOrcHoAhUEP30KHXp5AuAQ_AUoAXoECBYQAw&biw=1920&bih=921)

I am sure there are exceptions but I am commenting on what I perceive as a
person living in the silicon valley. "Start up" companies - meaning the
unicorns - sink a lot of money into things to attract people. What they have a
simple office and benefits, provide more pay to the employees or invest back
into the company to increase leverage? I also heard that Airbnb CEO was
grilled by the board for all this spending, quoting WSJ [1]

> Executives were grilled at a board meeting late last year on why overheads
> such as its head office and employee expenses had been allowed to balloon,
> outpacing even the then-rapid growth in revenue.

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-racks-up-hundreds-of-
mil...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-racks-up-hundreds-of-millions-in-
losses-due-to-coronavirus-11584723498)

This seems to be a pattern in silicon valley. Get a ton of VC money, spend it
on nice stuff because profitability is 10 years down the line.

