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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#221

Post by pembrook »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #206
mym1990 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. I imagine it is also a company that is heavily invested in its software engineering workforce and all the resources that support/flow from that. To note, it feels like 'tech company' is a bit ambiguous these days and doesn't necessarily have great clarity.

I would suggest the following: * a car company makes cars that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a tortilla company makes tortillas that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a chip fabrication company makes chips that it ... ... you see where I'm going with this? * a tech company is a company that makes technology that it sells to consumers and other businesses. Amazon is a tech company, but only bec…

All companies are "tech-dependent companies." This is an intellectual dead end.

Traditionally, the business world has qualified tech companies as those which primarily function via zero marginal cost distribution provided by software and the internet.

If Airbnb and Ebay aren't tech companies, then neither are Google and Facebook. All four are marketplaces (Google and Facebook are advertising marketplaces at their core).

Saas and marketplaces are the most solidly "tech" businesses that exist by the textbook definition. They fully take advantage of zero marginal cost distribution.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#222

Post by jodrellblank »

milesskorpen wrote: post #217
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest the following: * a car company makes cars that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a tortilla company makes tortillas that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a chip fabrication company makes chips that it ... ... you see where I'm going with this? * a tech company is a company that makes technology that it sells to consumers and other businesses. Amazon is a tech company, but only bec…

Amazon doesn't make anything. Increasingly it doesn't even own what it's selling. Same with AirBNB. They're selling a marketing platform to businesses.

> Amazon doesn't make anything.

Kindle. Firestick. Echo / Echo glasses/earbuds/wearables. Delivery drone (prototypes). Luna controller. The new AZ1 chip inside Echos. They own Ring (doorbells) and Eero Wi-Fi routers.

They custom design[1] their own internal routers, chips, storage and compute servers and network cards, they own Annapurna.

[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-web-services-secret-wea...

Re: Airbnb S-1

#223

Post by imroot »

dimator wrote: post #196
firekvz wrote: post #181

Airbnb was cool when it was a place to share with hosts and rent a bed and a breakfast during my trips, allowing me to save some money and meeting some cool people. now it’s just a boring business of terrible managed apartments with really bad amenities and problems that make you lose time and totally diverges you from the whole concept of hassle-free vacation/renting. My last 5 airbnbs were apartments fully setted u…

> Aand lastly, Airbnb decided to just void a 500$ giftcard that I got in 2018 and I tried to use early 2020 and they said it was invalid, I just lost the money. If this was in California, gift cards cannot expire (with some exceptions). You might have a recourse there. https://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/legal_guides/s_11.shtml

Most gift card companies are set up in Utah, where the gift card laws are much more lenient.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#224

Post by carlineng »

elpakal wrote: post #134
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…

I'm curious why you think AB&B qualifies as a "tech" company

I don't think the labels of "tech" vs "hospitality" are exclusive in any way. I think there's a good argument to be made that we should consider Airbnb a "hospitality" company, but ultimately the label of "tech" company is shorthand for a set of characteristics of the business that other sibling comments have called out -- large amounts of R&D, low marginal costs, and low CapEx. Their product is hospitality, but the company has operating characteristics that have more in common with Facebook than with Marriott.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#225

Post by imroot »

"We have incurred net losses in each year since inception, and we may not be able to achieve profitability."

At least they're honest about it!

Re: Airbnb S-1

#226

Post by jariel »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #211
jariel wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly regulatory arbitrage, same as Uber. If cities and townships were to have looser regulations on hotels - which evidently they should, given the vast demand and 'mostly' it's not excessively problematic for communities - then AirBnB wouldn't exist because hotel prices and types would have much more variety and competitiveness, and so would listings. If anyone could just get in their car and tell the local d…

Let's suppose that my municipality has adjusted their regulations to be more appropriate. I live in a 6 bedroom house, and only regularly use a couple of them. I decide to make one available for random people to stay, short term. How do I find them? How do they find me? How does anyone find a regular hotel these days? That's why you need a website to coordinate.

"How does anyone find a regular hotel these days? That's why you need a website to coordinate"

? So your point is only AirBnB 'can make a website' ?

If regulations were lax before AirBnB existed there'd be 1000 different sites you could list upon and hoteliers of all kinds would charge less. Or at least many would.

Because AirBnb was the progenitor of the lease-your-room modality they captured the market and have a little bit of a natural monopoly in it, as there's some coordination with marketplace, identity, etc..

Just like there are a myriad ways to 'book a hotel room' - there'd be a myriad was to book your '6 room place'.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#227

Post by khuey »

vailripper wrote: post #197
elamje wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fun anecdote about AirBnB in China: 2 years ago I travelled to Beijing and Shanghai and intended to stay in an AirBnB. AirBnB had tons and tons of listings in both places, all of which had specific instructions to tell the neighbors you were “a friend” and not staying there with AirBnB. At the time, and possibly still so, AirBnB was not operating legally in those particular places, and I presume most of the country…

Had the same experience staying at a AirBnB in Vancouver. In that case it was a unit where (unbeknownst to me) the condo board had banned AirBnB, so we were instructed after booking to say we were 'visiting friends'.

In China you are legally required to go register your location with the police though. It's a bit different than lying to the building doorman or whatever.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#228

Post by njarboe »

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…

Also, when going to restaurants is impossible or a real pain due to COVID, having a full kitchen in your accommodations is very nice.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#229

Post by alexpotato »

> Mr. Stephenson’s offer letter provides for an initial base salary of $600,000, an initial target bonus of 75% of his base salary, and a one-time hiring bonus in the aggregate amount of $2,400,000

While I've received signing bonuses in the past, I was not aware that you could get a signing bonus that was 4x of your base salary.

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