
Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August - minimaxir
https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-plans-to-file-confidentially-for-ipo-in-august-11597164041
======
romanhn
I recently had the occasion to stay with 4 different Airbnb hosts over the
span of under a month, my takeaway was that if I owned any Airbnb stock, I
would've sold it immediately.

The first two accommodations were huge let downs in terms of cleanliness,
despite both advertising Enhanced Clean. The first trip was booked for a
month, but we got sick of ants, mice and lack of action after about a week and
left early. The second was so incredibly filthy that we left the morning after
checking in. While Airbnb corrected the issues by letting us get out early,
this was incredibly disruptive to our plans and not representative of what was
promised.

The worst part came later, after our mutual reviews for that second place
became public. My review and scores got removed with no notice, so that host
continues to advertise as Superhost with Enhanced Clean and decent enough, if
few, reviews. On the other hand, he posted a nasty review of me full of spin,
which remains there to this day. My response to it contained a link to a
gallery with evidence, and Airbnb removed that as well. My questions to
support remain unanswered.

This turned into something of a rant, but the main takeaway is that I have
entirely lost trust in the review system. Not only does is skew towards high
marks, but critical reviews can be removed at a moment's notice with no
recourse. That does not reflect well on the company, IMO and there are clearly
hosts that have learned to play the system. Too bad.

~~~
OnlyLys
While we're on this topic...

Late last year I wrote a detail review of a place I stayed at that was poorly
maintained. I made the review very detailed, even providing picture evidence
of the dirty microwave and clogged air conditioners to prove that the place
did not deserve all the 5-stars it was getting.

After I posted it, I realised that no one will ever read it, because all the
paragraphs I wrote were merged into one huge wall of text. In particular, the
numbered list of issues I wrote was merged into a mess.

All the links to pictures were also stripped out from my review without
warning. If links are not allowed, shouldn't it have brought up an error when
I tried to post the review? I don't understand why they would allow my review
to go through, but then censor it later.

I then got really mad when I tried to rewrite my review into something
shorter, but couldn't, because Airbnb does not allow you to edit reviews if
the host has already reviewed you. Since all the host had to say was "Great
guest", his review was up first, and so my unreadable review was permanent.

~~~
romanhn
Yep, I literally went through all same reactions, until I realized that these
decisions were all intentional on Airbnb's part and served to inflate the
ratings and reviews on the site. That's when the trust was lost.

~~~
ryandrake
I'm always shocked that anyone still trusts online ratings and reviews of
anything. You've also got fake Amazon reviews, Yelp manipulating reviews based
on whether the business pays them, and all kinds of other examples of online
reviews being total rubbish, yet somehow people still look at them. It's like
the X-files: "I want to believe!"

------
Judgmentality
Didn't AirBnB just take out a huge loan on less-than-stellar terms?

[https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/airbnb-ups-its-debt-
by-1bn...](https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/airbnb-ups-its-debt-by-1bn-amid-
the-coronavirus-travel-crunch/)

Not to mention how the company is getting _hammered_ by the coronavirus, in
addition to having to face the reality of having used shady tactics to prop up
positive reviews over the years.

[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-
ho...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-
airbnb)

This sounds like they're trying to cash out while they still can with the
expectation of it going further south over time.

~~~
geronb
What do you mean by "shady tactics to prop up positive reviews over the
years"? I'm an employee and we have very strict policies around review
fairness. If anything, most review-related complaints come from hosts who want
to have negative reviews removed due to perceived unfairness. By policy,
negative reviews are rarely if ever removed this way much to the chagrin of
hosts.

Reviews are usually ranked chronologically, but in some cases there may be
sorted by predicted relevancy ranking based on review length and language.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
I stayed in an AirBnB in Houston in the summer with broken AC. I left before
the first night and was not refunded a cent.

My review is buried on the page. It wasn't on top when I wrote it, and the
stars weren't displayed, just the text.

I deleted my AirBnB account.

~~~
fwn
> I deleted my AirBnB account.

How? I'm trying to delete my Airbnb account since months (as part of my
regular declouding routine).

First, to my surprise, it was only 'deactivated', despite a wording that
suggested otherwise, as far as I remember. Then I followed a tutorial on the
Internet that said that I need to contact support through a somewhat hidden
web form to actually delete my account. .. but to access this form I need to
be logged in, which was impossible for me after my account deactivation.

To reactivate my account I need to talk to support, but, surprise, that's not
accessible without being logged in.

In the beginning of July I wrote to the email they link in their site imprint.
Two weeks later someone told my that my request was forwarded to someone else
who will contact me soon. ... and that's the last thing I got.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
I did only deactivate my account. I followed up on Twitter, and on a support
thread and requested my account be fully deleted, and they didn't get back to
me on either request.

------
ionwake
I have to weigh in.

Spent on 8 Airbnb rental trips. All ok. Then one crazy host without feedback
left a false review claiming property damage in a room I never used and that I
“used escorts” when I stayed with my family. I had no time to reply and was
unable on multiple appeals to get the false review removed from Airbnb.

To this day I’m not sure what was in her mind but I think she got into trouble
with her neighbour for hosting on Airbnb and then lied on my feedback out of
malice/being emotionally disturbed.

The problem wasn’t this odd event - the problem is a completely stopped using
Airbnb because this one false reviewed ruined my reputation even though it had
been perfect until then.

Airbnb being unable to handle lies / fabrications even from hosts with next to
no feedback compared to a reputable guest - me - result in a broken system.

Really disappointed this was never resolved. It could happen to you when you
least expect it - be warned.

~~~
CaptainZapp
> It could happen to you when you least expect it - be warned.

No, it couldn't. Last time I used an AirBnb was 2017 in Japan and I will
never, ever do so again.

Even if two of three places were OK, what came to light about the company as
essentially a societal parasite would (and did) stop me of giving them any
more business.

But in addition to, in my opinion, bad karma there are very practical reasons
to just book a hotel room and not having to put up with a laundry list of
crap.

What I mostly resent is having to tiptoe around other guests or neighbors, who
are quite rightfully annoyed about an illegal hotel in their shared building.

Then there's the fact that you don't really have an idea into what you
actually get. It can be fine, or it can be a pretty crummy place.

Hotels usually also don't hide surveillance equipment, or even if it's
specified in a listing I don't want any fucking cameras pointed into my
direction in the privacy of a room for which I paid.

There are no additional cleaning charges tacked to your stay. The advertised
room rate is what I pay for (save for that insane "resort fee" you only find
in America and which is borderline fraud to begin with).

Not only is it extremely convenient to pick up your key at a well staffed
reception. The staff can also function as an on-location trouble shooter if
something goes wrong.

And that the prices are so good is ancient history at best. In areas with high
demand Airbnb prices are usually not cheaper than hotels. Especially when you
factor in the hassle and the cleaning fees.

Finally, I can book exactly what I want in the price range I want and know
pretty precisely what to expect. If I want to splurge I'll chose the
LeMeridien in town, if money is more of a concern I go to the local Ibis.

But you know what? I know that both of them provide a really good bed.
Something I never really enjoyed in an Airbnb.

So no, I really don't have to reckon with bad reviews destroying my travel
plans.

------
lasgsf
Not an employee but overall I am quite bullish on Airbnb as ironically they
will be the definition of a what a post-covid travel company will become.
Couple points in their favour:

1\. Work from home becomes work from anywhere: The WFH trend is here to stay
and will grow. If you have an option why not stay anywhere in world and work
vs. close by home? I expect we will see a big % of WFH markets be global
travelers. Proving this thesis would be Airbnb can show on S1 the % of guest
who book outside their home location and for stays more then 2 weeks (to
account that it is not simply vacation time).

2\. Stays gravitating to Tier 2 or lower vs. Tier 1: People will not want to
fly or be close to other folks so you will see travel go to Tier 2 or lower
cities. This helps Airbnb in two ways.. less competition as these cities won't
have as much hotels...second allows them to increase their breadth of revenue
based across many more cities then being dependant on just Tier 1 which have
risk (regulation, disaster, etc.). Show this on S1 by % of travel that is now
on Tier 2 and lower markets and how this has grown as a proportion of your
overall revenue base.

3\. Safety: Simple it's getting close to accepted that the #1 way of covid
transmission is via airborne. Based on this you as a traveler should want to
minimize as much unnecessary humans interaction as possible thus hotels suck
with all the traffic that is there. You may argue that hotels have policy that
are more strict on cleaning but this doesn't mean much when the way to catch
covid is via airseol.

4\. Inventory: With the economy still in shambles they will get more host who
will monetize their living assets more and thus provide more inventory.

I could go on and on but thats my thesis.

~~~
eanzenberg
Covid is going away in 6-12 months. I wouldn’t stake a long term business
proposal on it.

~~~
taurath
They had a thriving business model before it, and there won’t be fewer WFH
people after Covid

~~~
piva00
Thriving business model while the slow cooker of regulations don't catch up to
them.

There are reports of some touristic cities starting to cap Airbnb rentals, or
just outright outlawing them. It's for good measure, Airbnbs in Barcelona,
Lisboa and a number of other European cities have priced out the local
population, investors buying 4-10 apartments on the same house to rent out as
short-term rentals.

Airbnb created a pressure in the housing market that didn't exist before, for
cities that already suffered with housing it really really sucks.

So it's the same as Uber: get into a regulatory grey area, capture the market
and then fight over so regulations don't catch up with you. The whole business
model of Airbnb was based on avoiding regulations, landlords have used this to
prop up their short-term profits as it's much more profitable to rent out an
Airbnb in Barcelona for 7-10 days per season-month than renting it out long-
term monthly throughout the year.

~~~
unishark
Illegal taxis and rental housing (whether short or long term) have been around
forever though. And they weren't just a fringe thing. College students and
immigrant groups may predominantly use them in many places. If there's a
current increase in such things, I'd blame it on the factors and regulations
restricting the legal supply of these things rather than on airbnb/uber.

~~~
piva00
Illegal child pornography, terrorism radicalisation and other modern issues
have also been around forever, it doesn't mean that the scale and leverage of
the internet haven't made it worse, at least in tooling.

The same applies to illegal taxis and housing, yes, they were problems before
but you didn't have a centralised global network of rentals (many illegal)
connecting to the market of people looking for accommodation. The scale is the
problem here.

~~~
unishark
> Illegal child pornography, terrorism radicalisation and other modern issues
> have also been around forever, it doesn't mean that the scale and leverage
> of the internet haven't made it worse, at least in tooling.

Ergo I can't disprove causation with my argument? I certainly concede that.
For one thing it's a negative, not to mention the fact that you can't prove
causation either. But then I don't concede it should be assumed true unless
proven otherwise. Further, I can make arguments against it of course. And I
made not one, but three: that it existed already, it was not a fringe activity
(like, say, terrorism or child porn), and three that effects blamed on
uber/airbnb can be explained by larger cultural changes. I think there's a
bias in these arguments towards the experience of a certain group of people
who actually travel the world and use apps to do so.

------
tristanj
For context, in September of last year, Airbnb publicly announced they intend
to IPO during 2020 [0]. The IPO delayed due to COVID.

Airbnb has a lot of pressure to IPO. In 2018, The Information described how
employees & investors were frustrated that their equity was still tied up, a
decade after the company founded [1]. At the time, Airbnb said they planned to
IPO in 2019 or 2020.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016724](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016724)

[1] [https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-promises-
more...](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-promises-more-cash-
for-employees-plots-ipo-by-2020)

------
xiaolingxiao
Could they be running out of cash, and given COVID-19 is not dying down in the
U.S., could the investors are forcing a cash-out? In this case most of the
employees will be wiped out right?

~~~
geronb
Airbnb is actually doing very well right now, and is essentially fully
recovered if not growing, same as the competitors like VRBO. There's been a
huge surge in nearby getaway trips. [https://www.financial-
world.org/news/news/business/6074/cali...](https://www.financial-
world.org/news/news/business/6074/california-vacation-rental-airbnb-bookings-
pick-up-cross-one-million-on-a-single-day/)

~~~
adventured
Given you've posted that twice to this thread now, can you prove what you're
saying better than posting a link that doesn't actually support what you're
claiming?

It's doing very well - versus what? It's profitable? It's not bleeding huge
amounts of cash? Its sales are higher than this time last year? Please provide
some potent information to defend the premise.

Airbnb had to fire 1/4 of its staff. It's doing very well versus having to
fire 3/4 of its staff?

Essentially fully recovered, if not growing - can you provide supporting
information that shows that Airbnb sales have fully recovered? That's a
gigantic claim.

Besides that, is there good reason to believe any recent sales bump post
lockdown isn't temporary? People bursting out of lockdown and desperate to
get-away for a brief spell before school starts and Summer ends, and prior to
the Covid deathwave that is inbound this Fall & Winter (which will prompt
further lockdowns, short of a miracle vaccine being distributed everywhere
before January or February).

~~~
jdm2212
> Airbnb had to fire 1/4 of its staff

It's not so much "had to fire 1/4 of its staff" as "fired 1/4 of its staff
preemptively because by the time you actually have to fire 1/4 of your staff,
it's too late". As a bonus, if it turns out the cuts weren't necessary, they
look _really_ good going into the IPO because their biggest cost (labor)
dropped by a lot.

------
simonebrunozzi
I don't have any horse in this race (meaning: no economic interest in how
AirBnB's stock will perform), but I'd like to say something: irrespective of
which company we are talking about, it's much easier to pile on and trash a
company, than to root for it; as it's easier to find reasons why the stock
should go down, etc.

I, too, had a few issues with AirBnB in the past, of course. But I also used
AirBnB as a guest maybe 100 times; and I hosted on AirBnB for several years. I
kind of hate to admit it, but I am happy that AirBnB exists, despite it's not
perfect by any means.

What I hope is that AirBnB will be able to transform itself into a better
company, and that many people will benefit from its existence (not just owning
the stock; I mean actually using the service).

What would I do if I had absolute power over the company's strategy?

1) Fix the review system. It's a problem somewhat similar to Covid-19, in
terms of "flattening the curve": you want to pursue wrong reviews, false
reviews, etc so aggressively that people eventually realize they will get
caught most of the time, and will essentially stop doing it. Perhaps create a
"protocol" to check in, where the guest can film entering the property for a
few minutes, and even leave the video to be reviewed by other future guests.
And so on.

2) There are two categories of hosts: the ones that simply do it for business
(they buy multiple properties in a city and rent it out 100% of the time), the
ones that do it to mingle with guests (a-la couchsurfing). Make it easy to
distinguish between the two, and possibly offer a slightly different web
experience for guests.

3) Training: help hosts (and maybe guests) learn what's important and
essential to provide a great experience; a "udemy" of sort, for AirBnB hosts.
And maybe a little for guests too. You become a certified "guest", I give you
a discount.

Perhaps the above would mitigate some of the issues that AirBnB had in the
past.

Just my 0.02.

------
wdb
The biggest mistake I made when moving to London was not to check out the
neighbourhood on AirBNB. I was stuck in area which is popular for AirBNBs
where multiple random people arrive nearly daily to stay at apartments in my
building, and neighbouring ones.

The amount of inconvenience AirBNB causes is huge, if you are living near a
hotel it's obvious but these hidden hotels are just horrible. Sure, they a
cost effective for the visitor.

I wish there would be stricter rules for AirBNBs and yes I have been that bad
neighbour which reported the landlord that this was happening. As it wasn't
allowed in the standard tenancy agreement. As the nuisance was just too high,
excessive noise, rude behaviour, wild parties, police involvement.

~~~
Leherenn
What happened after you reported them?

------
DeonPenny
Eh maybe this is a good idea. Airline and hotel stocks have been up and people
are planning for the end of COVID-19 by Jan. So by Jan they could of reached
their old level's plus raised cash in a cash strapped world.

I doubt anyone believes airbnb is going to flop anytime soon.

~~~
tunesmith
Who's planning for the end of COVID by January? That sounds a lot like how
when everyone decided it was over in May.

I've heard some optimism about the end of 2021, maybe 2nd half of 2021 for
rich countries, but not January.

~~~
meddlepal
Throw January out the window. Answer this question? Is AirBNB a valuable idea?
I think the answer is yes. Stocks go up based on future projections.

Even if they have to IPO, declare Chapter 11 in 2020, and reform for 2021
there's still a valuable company in my mind because the product is
revolutionary.

Before COVID killed travel I would always favor renting a AirBNB for over a
hotel. It was marginally cheaper and offered a better experience usually (in
my experience).

~~~
maest
> Is AirBNB a valuable idea?

That is a meaningless question. What matters is value vs price and the IPO
price isn't known yet.

------
blobbers
Why does Airbnb have no competitors? The site itself is not a huge value add.
Their search is not fantastic.

Uber has Lyft, Airbnb has ... vrbo??? no major competitors?

~~~
toto444
Could you expand on what's wrong with their search ?

~~~
blobbers
There's nothing in particular "wrong" with it but it has missing features with
tradeoffs.

Try searching for certain amenities that you might need when traveling with
younger kids, or trying pinpointing exact locations, and you won't be able to.

There are certainly reasons they use regions rather than addresses, that I do
not dispute.

~~~
geronb
What are some amenities you aren't able to search for?

~~~
fibbery
Not the person you replied to, but here's my list of gripes/wishlist for
airbnb

\- I want to see prices listed as total price, not price before fees which add
30%-50% on top of the listed price

\- I want to select properties where there is no one else on the property
grounds. Airbnb allows people to claim "Separate property" for somebody's
basement suite where you're sure to encounter the host/other residents

\- I want the pool/hot tub checkboxes to be limited to private pool or hot
tub, and to not include results where the property has some membership to a
shared pool in a HOA or whatever

\- I want the ability to search for keywords, such as "backyard" or "creek"

\- I want to be able to exclude certain hosts from results. In some cities the
same host runs multiple properties and they all have bad reviews. I want to
hide their properties.

\- I want to be able to easily flag or report listings that are abusing the
search terms - claiming a living room as a bedroom, for example

\- I want to be able to search for properties by driving distance from a
location

~~~
geronb
Thanks for posting this. I will relay this feedback to the relevant teams.

\- I want to see prices listed as total price, not price before fees which add
30%-50% on top of the listed price

* The total price display is something that is being experimented on at the moment and will likely launch to everyone soon. If you manage to get assigned into the experiment you can actually see this live now.

\- I want to select properties where there is no one else on the property
grounds. Airbnb allows people to claim "Separate property" for somebody's
basement suite where you're sure to encounter the host/other residents

* Agreed this would be useful. Basically a privacy level designation instead of just binary Entire home vs not, although I can see this getting tricky with the diverse ranges of properties people list. For example, where would you put a condo on this scale?

\- I want the pool/hot tub checkboxes to be limited to private pool or hot
tub, and to not include results where the property has some membership to a
shared pool in a HOA or whatever

* Also agreed this would be useful. Typically the listing describes this, but having a search filter would be helpful. On the host side, there are already designations for private vs shared amenities so it should be possible.

\- I want the ability to search for keywords, such as "backyard" or "creek"

* This is an interesting idea. You see this on car selling websites and it's definitely useful. One challenge would be handling of multiple languages and the diverse ways people would describe the same attributes even within the same language, but agreed if implemented properly, it could be a super useful feature. Airbnb used to have a free text search engine and it didn't work well so it's been scrapped for now.

\- I want to be able to exclude certain hosts from results. In some cities the
same host runs multiple properties and they all have bad reviews. I want to
hide their properties.

* Would a review rating filter basically accomplish this? Agreed this would be useful.

\- I want to be able to easily flag or report listings that are abusing the
search terms - claiming a living room as a bedroom, for example

* You can do this by going to the listing and clicking on "Report this listing" link under the book button.

\- I want to be able to search for properties by driving distance from a
location

* Stayed tuned on this one!

~~~
fibbery
Thanks for your response! I'm super excited to hear that some of those
features are in development.

Regarding the "separate property" problem, I agree it is a bit tough to tackle
however there's one way to distinguish it: does the property have a separate,
legal address? A basement suite or a guest house does not, a condo or
apartment in a 4-plex does. Airbnb could require hosts to provide those
details in order to be counted under the "have the whole place to yourself"
category.

Another way I was thinking you could do it is to add a higher level of
grouping to the property type menu (the one that has "townhouse", "cabin"
etc.) And clarify which of those types should be considered standalone and
which are more guesthousey. Those categories currently feel super arbitrary,
so they could use more structure regardless.

------
anm89
I've lived primarily out of aribnbs for about 3 years while working remotely.

Ive had as many horror stories as everyone else but there is a way to get
consistently good results on airbnb:

Always assume the worst. If the whole apartment looks beautiful but there are
no bathroom pics, assume the bathroom is a dungeon.

If you see clothes in a closet or personal belongings, assume the whole place
is cluttered with someone else's mess.

If they don't show the bedsheets, assume they are disgusting.

You get the point.

The places that care about having a good experience show all of these things
in detail because they know they are doing better than the rest and it's a
selling point. If the place is not painfully documented in pictures, just
assume they are hiding the bad parts.

------
iliekcomputers
I would have expected them to postpone for sure, given COVID. Does anyone have
any ideas on why they didn't postpone? Could it just be them expecting that
it'll get much worse?

~~~
gopalv
> Does anyone have any ideas on why they didn't postpone?

If Airbnb has handed 10 year expiring stock options to core employees, then
they're right at the cusp of expiring this year.

I would guess it doesn't affect anyone who opted for an 83B early on, but for
those who held onto them without exercising them on the pennies might be very
unhappy without a 2020 IPO.

It feels like a different era now, but this was discussed in detail in late
2019 [1].

 _The discontent has been exacerbated because Airbnb, which has been valued at
$31 billion, doled out two tranches of employee equity that are set to start
expiring in November 2020 and in mid-2021; those shares will become worthless
if the company is not trading publicly by then, they said._

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

~~~
canada_dry
> employee equity that are set to start expiring in November 2020 and in
> mid-2021; those shares will become worthless if the company is not trading
> publicly by then

I'd say you nailed it on the head. Because aside from this, it's pretty
terrible timing for an industry that's been killed by the virus and won't
rebound until it's long over.

~~~
geronb
Not really. Airbnb has fully recovered, same as VRBO (which is growing about
60% YoY) and having proven that the business has been resilient even during
the pandemic can be a good story for the IPO. [https://www.financial-
world.org/news/news/business/6074/cali...](https://www.financial-
world.org/news/news/business/6074/california-vacation-rental-airbnb-bookings-
pick-up-cross-one-million-on-a-single-day/)

~~~
canada_dry
> Airbnb has fully recovered

That just makes no sense given record unemployment and virus still very much
prevalent! Travel and tourism are still significantly below average across the
globe.

Re: VRBO... this quote _" One of Airbnb's biggest competitors is Vrbo, owned
by Expedia Group. The company doesn't break out Vrbo's individual results, but
noted it returned to bookings growth in June."_ I believe is plainly
misleading. I'd suggest that the "growth in June" is simply compared to the
80-90% decline from the spring's total lockdown, and likely only a 10-20%
increase from that bottom.

The Airbnb report celebrating _1M bookings worldwide_ is still significantly
below the norm (i.e. probably around 10% - tho I can't find clear stats)
especially for the summer - so it hasn't "fully recovered" by a long shot.

~~~
geronb
The recovery is very surprising and counterintuitive so you are right to be
skeptical.

Here's some additional datapoints:

\- Similarweb traffic: VRBO traffic is above February traffic levels
[https://www.similarweb.com/website/vrbo.com/](https://www.similarweb.com/website/vrbo.com/)

\- Airbnb traffic shows a V shaped recovery
[https://www.similarweb.com/website/airbnb.com/#overview](https://www.similarweb.com/website/airbnb.com/#overview)

\- VRBO drives Expedia group recovery
[https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2020/07/07/expedia-g...](https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2020/07/07/expedia-
group-begins-recovery-vrbo.html)

\- Airbnb shows unexpected growth [https://fortune.com/2020/06/30/airbnbceo-
brian-chesky-bookin...](https://fortune.com/2020/06/30/airbnbceo-brian-chesky-
bookings-rentals-recovery-2020-ipo-coronavirus-pandemic/)

\- May article showing early signs of V-shaped recovery
[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/airbnb-booking-
data...](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/airbnb-booking-data-points-
to-v-shaped-recovery-in-the-us-301056322.html)

\- "Airbnb saw more nights booked for U.S. listings between May 17 and June 3
than the same period in 2019, and a similar boost in domestic travel
globally." [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-12/airbnb-
re...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-12/airbnb-revenue-
tanks-67-in-second-quarter-ipo-planned-for-2020)

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petejames
Looking forward to buying in at a reasonable price. If it wasn't for COVID,
they would likely have hit 100Bn market cap pretty quick which doesn't leave
as much room for growth.

~~~
rayuela
Just a 100Bn? Why not make up a bigger number?

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MarkMc
I'm willing to be that Airbnb has good long-term growth prospects. Is there
any way I can bet on them before they are listed on the stock exchange at the
end of the year?

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Havoc
Strange timing. I thought they’re in deep trouble thanks to covid

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cultofmetatron
unpopular opinion but I love airbnb.

I am a nomad an I basically take short term 1-3 month rentals. Airbnb did a
lot to make my current lifestyle possible. Hotels are way too expensive even
with monthly rates. Sure I'm paying more than locals would pay but I get to
have a preview of the apartment among many, instant book and not have to deal
with deposits.

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TedShiller
The fact that Airbnb's business is fairly COVID-resilient has been one of the
great business-related surprises this year.

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neonate
[https://archive.is/Gt20z](https://archive.is/Gt20z)

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mrkramer
Brave decision indeed.

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TedShiller
Not really. Airbnb has an infinitely more solid business model than Uber, and
even Uber went IPO.

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maest
If I had a solid business, why would I want to sell?

~~~
TedShiller
If they had a solid business model, why did Google go IPO? Or Nike? Or Apple?

