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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#421

Post by triceratops »

eythian wrote: post #354
triceratops wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't find an official source in English, so I'm just going off what I found here: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/europe-western... For tourists, it's something that's rarely enforced. And if you stay at a hotel they'll handle it for you (or presumably, maintain records in case the police have questions).

It doesn't, generally, exist. Here's something I found in Dutch: https://www.politie.nl/themas/kort-verblijf-vreemdelingen-20... Machine translated, then lightly edited by me: > Short stay in the Netherlands > In anticipation of the amendment of the Vreemdelingenbesluit (Foreigners' Order), you no longer need to report to the vreemdelingenpolitie (foreigners' police) as a foreign national coming to the Netherlands fo…

Thanks. It appears my info is outdated.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#422

Post by Tiktaalik »

This is the big risk factor that I'd be concerned about as an investor:

  Laws, regulations, and rules that affect the short-term rental and home sharing business have limited and may continue to limit the ability or willingness of hosts to share their spaces over our platform and expose our hosts or us to significant penalties, which have had and could continue to have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Most of the most big, vibrant cities that are the biggest tourism draws and should be growth areas for Airbnb also have housing pressures, and we have seen housing advocates push governments to implement Airbnb restrictions. Due to covid this has not been a big issue of late, but my expectation is that as tourism increases again, attention will once again return to Airbnb's distortionary impact on the housing market (both sale and rental).

In most of the world Airbnb will not be able to buy a law like Uber/Lyft did with Prop 22 to get out of this jam.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#423

Post by fakedang »

wombatmobile wrote: post #374
wombatmobile wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I couldn't help myself because I'm sure it's a bug and I can't stand to let a bug go so I persisted with technical support. One guy got it and traced through what happened. He's escalated it to the subject specialist. It's an important bug. The "Smart Pricing" is broken, or at least in 3 cases of mine it was, and the documentation in the guides for Hosts is discordant. Airbnb S-1 Page 191 > Serving Our Stakeholders >…

Wow, you're quite the sceptic lol. Good work there.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#424

Post by 737maxtw »

lucideer wrote: post #378
dustinmoris wrote: post #376

Personally I think AirBnb had its time. To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except: - No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included - No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available - No room upgrades available - No early check in/late check out available - No 24/7 access available - No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkw…

To come at this from the opposite perspective: AirBnB's best-case "ideal" setup has always struck me as just "CouchSurfing[0] but monetised". While AirBnB has received a lot negative press for facilitating the letting of would-be residential property by large-scale professional landlords, the marketing from AirBnB's side has always favoured the "local guide, personal human experience" angle, an angle CouchSurfing has…

> While AirBnB has received a lot negative press for facilitating the letting of would-be residential property by large-scale professional landlords, the marketing from AirBnB's side has always favoured the "local guide, personal human experience" angle, an angle CouchSurfing has always tried to cover non-commercially.

Call me cynical, but "Advertise your product for a use that your core moneymaking market doesn't do" would be a good dark pattern to avoid scrutiny/regulation.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#425

Post by azylman »

H8crilA wrote: post #364
azylman wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common misconception I see on HN. To evaluate ad spend, you don't look at just short-term return. There's a reason that "lifetime value" is a critical concept for companies. It's fairly normal in large companies that, in a given year, you may spend more on ads than you gain from those ads - but you expect the customers you gain from them to continue spending over many years. So you may spend $100 to gain a…

Okay, so how would you model that? Can you be precise? What's the lifetime revenue generated by $1 of ad spend? This number is critical, because if that number is too low then the equity is, mathematically, worthless. It's not about patience, it's about whether you're compounding a number that's >1 or a number that's <1. I just cannot tell.

Yes, companies have ways to do this with a decent amount of precision and accuracy based on existing user behaviors. They can often even be detailed enough to know that LTV differs depending on the channel that the customer was acquired by (e.g. organic vs. Facebook ads vs. search ads) and tailor their ad spend accordingly.

I don't know what AirBnB's numbers are, companies aren't required to disclose this and they guard it very closely :)

Re: Airbnb S-1

#426

Post by alpha_squared »

dustinmoris wrote: post #403
everythingswan wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you hired it for specific reasons, finding a low cost option quickly or treating yourself to _all the things_, and I don't think AirBnB tries to do those things well. Try hiring hotels or hostels for large gatherings: bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, family vacations, etc. and I think it will be easier to see the difference. They compete more with vacation rentals, which seems old-fashioned sin…

> Try hiring hotels or hostels for large gatherings: bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, family vacations, etc. and I think it will be easier to see the difference. They compete more with vacation rentals, which seems old-fashioned since their online inventory always sucks. I agree with you that AirBnb fits much better into that category. Having said that, I also frequently rent an entire chalet with friends for…

I think the key here is the brand, which does go a long way. When traveling to a new place, I don't know what to look up to find whole-place rentals in the area and Airbnb is a default to finding what's in the area. In that way, Airbnb's value is in its listing/"aggregation" platform, not necessarily the listings themselves. After all, there's very little to stop a competitor from cloning Airbnb's model (and those clones do exist).

Personally, while I default to Airbnb's for finding stays when I travel, I've found myself gravitating back towards hotels as of late because they were generally better value propositions for what I was looking for.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#427

Post by nerdkid93 »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #310
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.

Also the high paid CEO tax of SF likely means he can avoid the tax in future years by granting a lot today... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/11/overpaid-executi... as I understand it the value of the RSUs is on the _grant date_ for such purposes. (and not at vesting)

That's not how taxes on RSUs work (at least federally in the US). Nothing happens when RSUs are granted because they have no value until they vest. Once the RSUs vest, you are taxed based on the cost basis of $0 (since you pay nothing for RSUs).

Options on the other hand are a different beast.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#428

Post by khuey »

TheSmiddy wrote: post #268
Reason077 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah AirBnB seems to be operating above board in China now but that definitely wasn't the case a few years ago.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#429

Post by maerF0x0 »

nerdkid93 wrote: post #427
maerF0x0 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the high paid CEO tax of SF likely means he can avoid the tax in future years by granting a lot today... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/11/overpaid-executi... as I understand it the value of the RSUs is on the _grant date_ for such purposes. (and not at vesting)

That's not how taxes on RSUs work (at least federally in the US). Nothing happens when RSUs are granted because they have no value until they vest. Once the RSUs vest, you are taxed based on the cost basis of $0 (since you pay nothing for RSUs). Options on the other hand are a different beast.

correct I was referring to the rules, according to a 3rd party, for the SF tax

Re: Airbnb S-1

#430

Post by softawre »

rainyMammoth wrote: post #417
TrackerFF wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb is GREAT if you: - Want to rent an entire house in some specific area - Want to rent something as cheap as possible / on a strapped budget. Very cheap travel/plane tickets and accommodation has made international travel very accessible for a lot of people around the globe. So I can absolutely see why some people swear to using airbnb - but for me? I'll rather pay the extra $50 for a hotel room. That's chump ch…

I never find anything cheap on Airbnb. Actually in my mind, Airbnb is always more expensive than a hotel. Each trip I end up checking both options and I'm amazed at how expensive Airbnb ends up being after you add all the hidden fees. I think the main use case is for big groups and gathering. When you want to stay with 10 people. And even then, it's still more expensive than 6/7 hotel rooms (if you come as a couple y…

> Airbnb manage to convince a lot of people that they are always a better deal than hotels

Strong agree. They have this in common with Amazon. They used to be cheaper but now aren't anymore, but customers don't comparison shop.

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