Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

news.airbnb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 118 posts

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#41

Post by cco »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #14
analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

From knowledge of the travel industry: 1. Hotels are still in the dumps. 2. Single home rentals, a la VRBO and AirBnB, are doing fantastic as people decamp from urban areas and work remotely. 3. Urban rentals are in the shitter. 4. Shared spaces are also in the shitter. AirBnB has a lot more urban inventory and shared spaces than for example VRBO (which was always more based around vacation destinations), but I have…

If urban areas are in the shitter it sure isn't reflected in the prices. Prices in Seattle and Portland at least are still as strong as they were pre-pandemic.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#42

Post by echelon »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #12
analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

IBM lawsuit

https://www.forbes.com/sites/washingtonbytes/2020/03/13/airb...

> Thes patents at issue are used primarily in e-commerce—and some of them date back to the time of dial-up technologies such as Prodigy.

Dial-up era!? Patents shouldn't last that long! This is centuries in technology!

I think the only valid use for software patents (if there are any at all), is to prevent bigger players from moving into your space. But small companies don't have the time, energy, or money to wage fights in the courtroom. They have pressing existential issues.

Companies without products are patent trolls and shouldn't be permitted to have them. If you "invent" yet don't do anything with it, what good are you to society?

Ossified and decaying companies like IBM shouldn't be allowed to trample upstarts.

It's all so backwards.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#43

Post by tempsy »

Travel might come back but one thing I'm more confident that the pandemic has changed is awareness and empathy for systemic inequities in our society. Uber and Lyft are currently dealing with an existential crisis to their business model in California that I think will reverberate into housing eg greater empathy across cities on issues related to affordable housing and how Airbnb has crowded out would be renters and buyers for what are essentially illegal hotels.

Also with business travel being depressed for quite some time I doubt many business travelers would be looking to Airbnb to get a deal when hotel prices will be depressed for the foreseeable future.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#44

Post by admax88q »

syshum wrote: post #20
analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

Another big factor in Airbnb, like other "platforms" like this vs their traditional counterparts, they have no assets that incurr costs no matter how down the market it Hilton, Marriott, etc all still have MASSIVE amounts of physical property that they have to maintain year around no matter if they are full or empty. Airbnb has none of those costs. This makes them more flexible and are able to quickly respond to chan…

Marriott doesn't own their hotels, they lease them from third party owners. I would wager that Hilton is doing the same.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#45

Post by davidsawyer »

analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

Brian Chesky pretty much said exactly this in his interview with Guy Raz on How I Built This a week or so ago.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=594606847885635

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#46

Post by thebean11 »

cco wrote: post #41
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From knowledge of the travel industry: 1. Hotels are still in the dumps. 2. Single home rentals, a la VRBO and AirBnB, are doing fantastic as people decamp from urban areas and work remotely. 3. Urban rentals are in the shitter. 4. Shared spaces are also in the shitter. AirBnB has a lot more urban inventory and shared spaces than for example VRBO (which was always more based around vacation destinations), but I have…

If urban areas are in the shitter it sure isn't reflected in the prices. Prices in Seattle and Portland at least are still as strong as they were pre-pandemic.

NYC rental prices are down easily 20%

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#47

Post by janitor_monkey »

syshum wrote: post #20
analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

Another big factor in Airbnb, like other "platforms" like this vs their traditional counterparts, they have no assets that incurr costs no matter how down the market it Hilton, Marriott, etc all still have MASSIVE amounts of physical property that they have to maintain year around no matter if they are full or empty. Airbnb has none of those costs. This makes them more flexible and are able to quickly respond to chan…

Actually Marriott works with a franchise model. If the franchisee goes bankrupt, that's a problem for Marriott... but it is also a problem for Airbnb (many owners of several properties are going bankrupt).

As an anecdote, I had an Airbnb stay in Rome but the landlord went bankrupt due to Covid and had to close the business.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#48

Post by mgiampapa »

nostromo wrote: post #29
analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

The timing is certainly interesting... Presuming Airbnb makes it through the crisis, they're set up for many quarters of blistering earnings "growth" as things return to normal.

The timing probably has more to do with expiring options than it specifically does around strength of the market or the business.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#49

Post by asdff »

syshum wrote: post #20
analyst74 wrote: post #9

I heard that Airbnb's business is actually stronger in US and Europe now than pre-pandemic, as tourism shifts towards local and people shy away from hotels. On the other hand, they're still in money saving mode, reducing ad spending and laying people off. Anyone know what is going on?

Another big factor in Airbnb, like other "platforms" like this vs their traditional counterparts, they have no assets that incurr costs no matter how down the market it Hilton, Marriott, etc all still have MASSIVE amounts of physical property that they have to maintain year around no matter if they are full or empty. Airbnb has none of those costs. This makes them more flexible and are able to quickly respond to chan…

Depending on the city some hotels aren't doing as poorly as you might expect. LA has been running project roomkey during this pandemic, where they basically pay for a hotel or motel room for homeless people.

Re: Airbnb announces confidential submission of draft Registration Statement

#50

Post by thebean11 »

schnable wrote: post #33
MarkMc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm super eager for the opposite reason: I want to go long. In 3 years people's travel habits will mostly be back to normal, and AirBnb has a very strong competitive moat

What's their moat?

The main one to me is network effect. Hosts will join the platform because there are renters there, renters will join because there are hosts.
Post reply on HN