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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#261

Post by buerin9 »

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…

While I never really had a bad experience with Airbnb I only consider them as a last resort. If there is an issue with a room at a hotel, I can get another room usually. If there is an issue with Airbnb it's a bigger hassle. Not worth the risk in my opinion.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#262

Post by fakedang »

wombatmobile wrote: post #171

I just started hosting with AirBNB and experienced a bug with the platform. It offered the wrong price ($100 instead of $278) and the guest accepted before I could intervene because the platform defaulted to AutoAccept. When I reported the problem, the support rep claimed it happened that way because I had "Smart Pricing" on. It was set ON by default. But AirBNB's own documentation says the Custom Price I set for the…

Why don't you just cancel the reservation? I've had a bunch of places cancel up on me like that.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#263

Post by fakedang »

newguy1234 wrote: post #154
cletus wrote: post #102

I'm curious how badly the pandemic has hit and will hit AirBnB. I scanned a couple of tidbits from the S-1: - Reducing full-time employee headcount by approximately 25% (I'm curious from what/to?) - Setting expectation for the potential of no employee bonuses for 2020 and reducing executive team member salaries for six months (interesting that executive team _salary_ is getting reduced rather than bonuses, no? At thi…

While those are certainly negatives. I could see AirBnB turning into a double-edged sword for communities. Yes, AirBnB would bring in some nuisances but it would also bring in tourists - who spend money in your community. Areas that ban AirBnB would suffer the loss of tax revenue and have to figure out how to deal with that. Also AirBnB just gets blamed for the rental shortage in many communities. The truth is poor z…

> Many areas with rental unit shortage have that shortage because zoning does not allow for high-density construction. The easiest solution to any shortage is to simply increase supply.

London says Hi!, where every garbage building that has some semblance of age is marked a Listed Property, and where it's more fashionable to let people be homeless/living in refurbished toilets than to build taller buildings because they would "destroy the character of the city".

Re: Airbnb S-1

#264

Post by martinesko36 »

smitty1110 wrote: post #199
afterwalk wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can an unprofitable companies rack up $1.3b in taxes?

Well, you spend money as part of doing business, but then, in theory, you make some money. This is revenue. Revenue is taxed at 21% in the US as of the 2019 tax year. Now, if you screw up, and the IRS catches you, you owe penalties. And you owe interest on the money you didn’t pay. And these can add up, especially, like the S-1 filing says, if you have irregularities dating back 7 years. I’m sure they will have to ma…

I'm sorry, I was under the impression that only profit is taxed?

Re: Airbnb S-1

#265

Post by wombatmobile »

fakedang wrote: post #262
wombatmobile wrote: post #171

I just started hosting with AirBNB and experienced a bug with the platform. It offered the wrong price ($100 instead of $278) and the guest accepted before I could intervene because the platform defaulted to AutoAccept. When I reported the problem, the support rep claimed it happened that way because I had "Smart Pricing" on. It was set ON by default. But AirBNB's own documentation says the Custom Price I set for the…

Why don't you just cancel the reservation? I've had a bunch of places cancel up on me like that.

I suppose I have to do that, thanks.

I was trying to actually solve the problem by identifying the bug and having it rectified. But I'm in the wrong industry for that now, aren't I? D'oh!

Re: Airbnb S-1

#266

Post by rattray »

alexpotato wrote: post #229

> 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.

(for others wondering, this is their CFO)

Re: Airbnb S-1

#267

Post by edogg »

pathseeker wrote: post #172
newguy1234 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easiest solution is to force new hosts to provide a "surety bond" to basically be an honest host. Maybe make them pay 10-25k lump-sum in cash. After a certain amount of guests have visited the offering then the money can be returned. If the host is a scammer then the money can be used to reimburse the guests for their troubles. The risk vs rewards under this system would discourage bad hosts from joining the platform…

>Maybe make them pay 10-25k lump-sum in cash. After a certain amount of guests have visited the offering then the money can be returned. This is so detached from reality. It would wipe out probably 99% of listings from people not doing it professionally.

25k seems excessive, but 10% of a years anticipated revenue might be appropriate. It is not unusual to have to but up a bond in order to bid on a contract.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#268

Post by TheSmiddy »

Reason077 wrote: post #244
khuey wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don’t see why that’s a hard problem. If hotels can register their guests automatically with the police as required, then why not AirBnB?

I just finished staying in an airbnb for a month in China and didn't have to go to the cop shop. I've now just rented an apartment and did the registration no issues, they didn't highlight any gaps on my travel record so I assume it was all above board.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#269

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

jariel wrote: post #226
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

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

I doubt that. I'm not sure I can justify my doubt, but I doubt it.

Also, the "myriad ways to book a hotel room" works only because more or less every hotel is on more or less every such way of doing it.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#270

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

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.

AWS isn't a "marketing platform", and it's where most of their profit comes from. It's a bundle of many different and related technologies, most of which have only a few competitors and would be tricky to implement locally.

And then there's that "Amazon doesn't make anything" claim so neatly demolished by jodrellbank.

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