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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#121

Post by user5994461 »

paxys wrote: post #52
ramish94 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to read the S-1, but I'm assuming it's the same issue as Uber. Inflated overhead due to higher baseline operating costs. Uber/Airbnb don't need near the amount of product/engineering they actually have.

Uber I can still believe due to their complex app (real-time tracking of drivers and riders, matching algorithms, route mapping, pooling, fare calculation, surges). Not to mention other divisions like food delivery, autonomous driving, freight etc. AirBnb is...a database of static listings and a search engine on top. Their top technology problems were all solved by Expedia like 20 years ago.

Uber is not that difficult. There's work for hundreds of developers between the few products, the localization for tens of countries with different language/currency/culture, and maintaining the main applications in working condition 24/7 at global scale. That's about it.

They have thousands of engineers sitting idle or making pet projects, struggling to justify their existence, as regularly attested by internal employees when an article pops up.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#122

Post by beambot »

godelmachine wrote: post #72

>> the board of directors reduced Mr. Chesky’s base salary from $110,000 to $1, set his target bonus at $0, and granted him a long-term, multi-year equity award comprised of 12,000,000 RSUs (the “Multi-Year Award”). Its quite surprising that CEO of Airbnb should make just $110k/ annum in base salary before the company goes public. I would expect it to be around $500k.

It's much more tax efficient for Chesky to get loans against his equity in lieu of cash compensation -- especially if he believes that the equity will grow dramatically in value due to an IPO.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#123

Post by edoceo »

carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

Who's the other one? Microsoft?

Re: Airbnb S-1

#124

Post by apocalypses »

edoceo wrote: post #123
carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

Who's the other one? Microsoft?

Apple

Re: Airbnb S-1

#125

Post by svbanker »

edoceo wrote: post #123
carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

Who's the other one? Microsoft?

Apple probably

Re: Airbnb S-1

#126

Post by henryfjordan »

rossdavidh wrote: post #113
user5994461 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q2 saw all travels being cancelled due to lockdown across the world. It's surprising the activity bounced back this quick, back to normal in Q3.

Widespread supposition is that AirBnB does better than hotels lately because: 1) when people do travel, they'd rather be at a single apartment or cabin than a many-person hotel (not saying that's well-founded, just that it's a widespread opinion) 2) some people who are now remote working decided that if they couldn't do anything in this city, they would live elsewhere for a little while. I have, however, no hard data…

The CDC recommends AirBNB style vacation rentals over staying at a hotel or even with family while traveling: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-r...

Re: Airbnb S-1

#127

Post by pdxandi »

edoceo wrote: post #123
carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

Who's the other one? Microsoft?

I would guess Apple.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#128

Post by ghaff »

rossdavidh wrote: post #113
user5994461 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q2 saw all travels being cancelled due to lockdown across the world. It's surprising the activity bounced back this quick, back to normal in Q3.

Widespread supposition is that AirBnB does better than hotels lately because: 1) when people do travel, they'd rather be at a single apartment or cabin than a many-person hotel (not saying that's well-founded, just that it's a widespread opinion) 2) some people who are now remote working decided that if they couldn't do anything in this city, they would live elsewhere for a little while. I have, however, no hard data…

Yeah, it's hard to say how the numbers work out overall. But, if I were to travel at all over the next few months it would almost certainly be to a place with a kitchen (and preferably someplace separate) so I didn't need to go to restaurants for every meal or mingle generally. Certainly, couldn't find AirBnB for fall time off I was considering.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#129

Post by wongarsu »

wholien wrote: post #25
raiyu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Covid hit and they had to cut advertising expenses from 2019 they didn't see as large of a drop in traffic as they expected based on ad spend. So they are definitely getting a tremendous amount of organic traffic because "Airbnb" became a verb like Google or Uber. Especially around the fast growing millennial sector which is very focused around experiences and travel.

oh is that what happened? that's a pretty amazing "natural" experiment they ran. Definitely helps that Airbnb has become a verb - can't beat that.

Even if they would spend more on ads if Covid hadn't happened, it's still remarkable how great their numbers are with this little ad spend. It really speaks to the brand they have been able to build.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#130

Post by Marciplan »

beambot wrote: post #122
godelmachine wrote: post #72

>> the board of directors reduced Mr. Chesky’s base salary from $110,000 to $1, set his target bonus at $0, and granted him a long-term, multi-year equity award comprised of 12,000,000 RSUs (the “Multi-Year Award”). Its quite surprising that CEO of Airbnb should make just $110k/ annum in base salary before the company goes public. I would expect it to be around $500k.

It's much more tax efficient for Chesky to get loans against his equity in lieu of cash compensation -- especially if he believes that the equity will grow dramatically in value due to an IPO.

Hi! Random q, but where could I read more on this specific topic? :)
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