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Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

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Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#151

I'm shocked that 2020 revenues will come in only 50% below 2019. I don't think anyone will be travelling for the bulk of this year, especially with the looming threat of potentially getting sick in a foreign country or away from your home. It will take 5+ years for them to get back the same level of inventory/hosts/customers as they had in 2019. Many hosts will foreclose on their rented properties during 2020 or conv…

People may “travel” within their local area.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#152
Predicted that weeks ago. AirBnb is super bloated, they have a similar amount of employees as the other major travel groups but only serve a fraction of the products and customers https://thehftguy.com/2020/03/23/will-airbnb-go-bankrupt-and...

Good to hear that they are giving a decent severance package.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#153
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully they have cash to cover the exercise and the taxes! Tough choice to make right when you just lost your job. The tax bill could be tens of thousands of dollars or more.

I'd expect the options might be under water based on recent funding announcements. Probably still expensive to exercise, but I can't see how there would be a tax liability if they are under water.

i’m not super in the know here, but why would corporate financials be relevant to the tax obligations of individuals?

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#154

I'm shocked that 2020 revenues will come in only 50% below 2019. I don't think anyone will be travelling for the bulk of this year, especially with the looming threat of potentially getting sick in a foreign country or away from your home. It will take 5+ years for them to get back the same level of inventory/hosts/customers as they had in 2019. Many hosts will foreclose on their rented properties during 2020 or conv…

You might be surprized how many people are "stuck" around the world right now, and are staying in Air B N B's waiting for all the closures to end.

For example Argentina has cancelled ALL plane flights (in/out and domestic) until September.. and unless you have signed authority you can't even drive town to town. So anyone that was travelling there is now stuck, and are essentially forced to rent a place and stay put.

A few friends are caught there, and many others in similar situations around the world.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#155
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would too, but the thing holding me back is if the shit hits the fan, and I need to do something like buy a freezer to store extra food, I can't conveniently do that in an Airbnb. And if I somehow get sick, I'm at the mercy of the doctors and hospitals in this foreign land. I'd rather be in my own home with the doctors and hospital system that I'm familiar with. I think more than 50% of people feel this way, which…

> This is catastrophic for Airbnb. They have a functional system. If they can maintain it going on the cheap, they can pull themselves back up. Still, this gives times for alternatives to come and drink their milkshake.

They do have functional infrastructure but their business is suffering a catstrophic shift. As I mention, a lot of the hosts are either going to go into foreclosure or they will convert to long term rentals. A lot of people were buying condos and converting them to Airbnb because the revenues were so predictable. That won't happen in 2020 and 2021. It will take many years for inventory to come back up to 2019 levels and less inventory means less revenues, even if people started to travel again, which also is unlikely in the next couple of years.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#156

Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the res…

Glad to see the money they are stealing from those of us who can't cancel our summer airBNBs is going to a good cause.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found COBRA to be extremely expensive. I instead enrolled in obamacare via job loss exception.

It sounds like it's saying that Airbnb will pay for COBRA for that duration.

Airbnb employee here-- this is the consensus.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people consider AirBnB tech? They are a services company with a website connecting external parties. This isn't hard tech, this is marketing. Edit: It seems people are under the impression that because you have lots of technology that is required to run your company you are a technology company. I don't believe that to be true in this day and age, tire distributors probably have more technology requirements th…

Their core business is a marketplace connecting travelers to hosts and their homes/rooms. That marketplace is software. If you're a company selling a service that is completely software based, are you not a tech company? By the definition you seem to be using, the only companies that can be considered tech are enterprise SaaS.

The defining feature of tech is marginal cost of production close to zero at scale . Meaning, as you grow your business you increasingly automate away human labour. That's why Instagram was worth billions with 13 employees.

You're not a technology company just because you rely on software. Walmart makes software too, much more of it than airbnb actually. You're a technology company if you automate away human labour. This doesn't really seem to be the case for most of these 'marketplace' companies which is reflected in their margins. They just have to keep adding more labour as they expand.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#159
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In many countries, the severance pay is a lump sum that increases with the employee’s tenure in the company and their wage level. In the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain, employees with service of up to one year are entitled to severance pay (in most cases one month’s pay), while in Luxembourg employees have to have a minimum of five years within the organisati…

It's not, people just love shitting on America. 14 weeks + 1 additional for each year served at US salaries + unemployment + paid health insurance for 12 months is extremely generous compared to the peanuts that Europe pays engineers.

Unless you realize that you're comparing severance package of one of top US companies to EU standard.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would too, but the thing holding me back is if the shit hits the fan, and I need to do something like buy a freezer to store extra food, I can't conveniently do that in an Airbnb. And if I somehow get sick, I'm at the mercy of the doctors and hospitals in this foreign land. I'd rather be in my own home with the doctors and hospital system that I'm familiar with. I think more than 50% of people feel this way, which…

> I’m at the mercy of the doctors and hospitals in this foreign land That’s where you can carefully pick the foreign land whose medical system you trust more than your own home country

That would mean that a lot of people would avoid going to the US or other countries where health care is complicated and/or expensive. And I would harbor a guess that travel insurance companies will put in anti-pandemic clauses going forward. That has already started by the way, so who knows what insurers will cover in late 2020.
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