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Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

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Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#171

Post by Lucadg »

toomanyrichies wrote: post #147
jeremyis wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think NYC is Airbnb's largest market.

The New York Times claims NYC is Airbnb's largest US market[1]. And CityLab claims NYC is Airbnb's 3rd-largest market worldwide.[2] However, with respect to whether "the overwhelming majority of its facilitated transactions are illegal": Speaking strictly for NYC (the town I live + Airbnb host in), I think the more relevant metric is- what percent of Airbnb's revenue comes from the illegal kind of rental (i.e. rental…

Cities all over Europe have restricted or banned short rentals and many more are considering it. It will be messy and probably the results difficult to measure. On the other end Airbnb is collecting tourist taxes on behalf of some cities. This is particularly interesting because you have a corporation helping a city in something they struggle with (collecting taxes) and making themselves irrepleaceable. Smart move.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#172

Post by yarone »

warp_factor wrote: post #113

I'm a regular user of Airbnbs AND hotels. I usually prefer staying in hotels and will look for Airbnb only as a second choice. Reasons are: - Price is usually higher on Airbnb. - Airbnb crazy fees for multiple people, cleaning scam, outrageous service fees etc. - Inconvenience to not have a 24H reception where I can get my keys. The real genius of Airbnb is that they convinced a lot of people that they shouldn't look…

My (newly substantiated) reason for choosing a hotel room: - Security

Just stayed in an AirBnb that was broken-into during our stay. Window smashed, laptops stolen when we were gone for a couple hours.

It feels like we were watched when we arrived, were observed to leave, and then robbed.

We were shaken and ran-off to a hotel.

Really appreciated the hotel staff, secured elevator, anonymity of it all (lots of undifferentiated rooms in a long hallway), deadbolt, additional locks.

At this moment, feeling like I'll never stay at an airbnb again.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#173

Post by scarecrowboat »

ricardobeat wrote: post #125
gandutraveler wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb has long way to go to be major player in hotel/rental market space whereas Uber has effectively killed taxi companies and is the market leader. IMO demand for ridesharing will not lower in bad economy compared to Airbnb which is driven by consumers mostly using during travel.

Counter-intuitively, demand for travel tends to go up in rough times.

Do you have any sources on that? I have family in the hotel industry and anecdotally the entire industry in my area took a nose dive in the last recession. Not quite the same as general demand for travel but it's more relevant to how Airbnb would perform in a recession.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#174

Post by samatman »

asteli wrote: post #89
conanbatt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craigslist has a fantastic moat: they are insanely operationally efficient. To make more money than craigslist at a lower cost is virtually impossible. The real entrance cost to becoming a host in airbnb is not airbnb, its having a house. And a host will use airbnb or whatever to keep the appartment occupied. It can absolutely be commoditized, much like Lyft and Uber have. A service that posts your apt in multiple we…

I have friends who worked at Craigslist, and was astonished to hear them describe a team of IIRC 35-40 employees. They have somewhere around 50 now? Makes you wonder what those 3k+ employees at Twitter all do.

While this doesn't explain all of the difference, Twitter tries, and largely succeeds, to distribute both Tweets and likes in mere seconds, all around the world, while maintaining a search that can find any string in relatively recent messages.

That this is a substantially harder mandate than that of Craigslist I take as a given.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#175

Post by sjg007 »

paulie_a wrote: post #166
sjg007 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious.. why not facebook marketplace?

Because it's Facebook. I know they are heavily spamming that feature but I have literally never seen anything on there of any value. It's a crappy feature that should go away.

It works in my town. In fact it’s preffered.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#176

Post by Gustomaximus »

warp_factor wrote: post #113

I'm a regular user of Airbnbs AND hotels. I usually prefer staying in hotels and will look for Airbnb only as a second choice. Reasons are: - Price is usually higher on Airbnb. - Airbnb crazy fees for multiple people, cleaning scam, outrageous service fees etc. - Inconvenience to not have a 24H reception where I can get my keys. The real genius of Airbnb is that they convinced a lot of people that they shouldn't look…

I think the other thing with Airbnb vs hotels;

1) I find with Airbnb I'm more likely to get lower quality from expectations to what is received.

2) Hotels are better are redressing issues whereas AirBnB doesn't seem to care, and you can't really say to Airbnb I want another room type thing on the spot either.

3) For price, I think it's cheaper for groups most of the time. When traveling alone for work I'd say I use it 30-50% for the cost benefit vs hotel.

Another issue is I feel I can't give honest reviews. As if say every 3rd or 4th place is below par I suspect people wont accept you if they see you give a bunch of brutally honest reviews, so I tend to give nice reviews so it leaves my booking options open for when I do use it.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#177

Post by briandear »

conanbatt wrote: post #57
gringoDan wrote: post #43

They're often considered similar businesses, but intuitively it seems to me that, long-term, Airbnb will be valued higher than Uber and other ridesharing companies. Home rentals seem to be simpler market to operate in than coordinating real-time supply and demand between drivers & riders. Additionally, Uber seems to be facing issues on the driver side of the business - they have a $650 driver acquisition cost & a 12%…

What im not sure about is Airbnb's moat. They have a great brand name and all, but their service is very limited: 15% is a very large cut to take on these transactions. What prevents another company from doing the same at 12% and costing 50% to operate?

15% is a small cut. Ever sold inventory on Booking.com or Expedia? It’s a lot more than 15%. Plus AirBnB actually collects the money for you and you are paid on the day of check in. I own a small hotel in France and AirBnB is far more profitable and easy to use than Booking or Expedia. The marketing value alone is worth far more than 15% — but that 15 also includes credit card fees as well. It’s a great deal.

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#178

Post by puranjay »

paulddraper wrote: post #169
xiphias2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peter Thiel was specifically talking about people thinking that the businesses are similar, while they're not. AirBnB has a much higher network effect, because there's a huge difference in the listings, while I don't usually care which taxi company I use.

Not really. AirBnB has renters and listings. Uber has riders and drivers. As long as you have enough of the two sides, you can have a rival.

But as a customer, your approach to both marketplaces is very different. With Airbnb, I'm far more discerning because a bad host can ruin a long planned vacation.

With Uber, a bad driver means an uncomfortable 45 minutes. Uber can tolerate bad actors more than Airbnb

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#179

Post by briandear »

parent5446 wrote: post #158
atombender wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are different experiences. AirBnB can give you an entire place to yourself, complete with a fully equipped kitchen, multiple rooms, facilities such as a pool, balcony, and so on. An AirBnB is often located where people actually live, not in the middle of a busy downtown. With a hotel, you get... a hotel room. There are some great hotels out there that stand out in many ways, especially if you're very wealthy, bu…

Good hotel still have pools, can be located outside of downtown, and sometimes even in-room kitchens (if that's what you want). They also have maid service, room service, and a front desk. The only advantage you get from an AirBnB is a unique facade, paired with having to clean up after yourself and possible fire and health code violations.

Good hotels also overcharge for parking, have slow, sketchy WiFi, charge $10 for a bottle of water and every person you encounter requires a gratuity. I like hotels but they can be annoying and everything in the hotel is overpriced and designed to squeeze your wallet. There is no excuse for a bottle of water that costs $10 when the same bottle at the 7-11 outside sells it for $1.99. Even worse are hotels that charge a mandatory “resort fee.”

Re: Ahead of IPO, Airbnb achieves profitability for second year in a row

#180

Post by briandear »

matchbok wrote: post #61

Amazing what a company can do when they ignore regulations and simply extract wealth out of our communities. 80% of their profit comes from huge corporate listings yet they advertise themselves as a "home-sharing" site. Nonsense.

They aren’t “extracting wealth” from communities any more than Booking.com does. In fact, AirBnB creates wealth. A person renting out a room on AirBnB is economically better off than if they didn’t.
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