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Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

nytimes.com

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Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#21

Post by ngold »

whimsicalism wrote: post #9
grailed wrote: post #8

I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…

I feel like this is not some great engineering feat with Airbnb and has much more to do with classism and the type of person who typically owns that beautiful vacation home you want to stay in.

I guess it would be more like renting someone's fancy car for a weekend.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#22

Post by whimsicalism »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #7
boringg wrote: post #4

Talk about setting the wrong price for their stock. Looks like airbnb just handed over boatloads of money to wall street.

They already priced well above the expected range. It's highly unlikely they would have been able find subscribers for the 51,551,723 shares of the offering at the post-IPO price, before the IPO.

> It's highly unlikely they would have been able find subscribers for the 51,551,723 shares of the offering at the post-IPO price, before the IPO.

I don't believe that. They opened at $140 but couldn't have found subscribers for anything more than $68? I don't think they're that bad at modeling the markets.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#23

Post by tudelo »

whimsicalism wrote: post #13
zwieback wrote: post #3

and I thought they were struggling because everyone is staying home due to Covid...

I think the interior of America has given up on distancing.

To be fair... you can stay at an airbnb and still be completely distanced from the owner of said airbnb. Yeah, you have to travel, but for many this is also possible without any close contact.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#24

Post by whimsicalism »

tempsy wrote: post #18
boringg wrote: post #4

Talk about setting the wrong price for their stock. Looks like airbnb just handed over boatloads of money to wall street.

that isn’t how an IPO works. just because your stock pops doesn’t mean you handed over money to “wall street” if you’ve raised the money you sought at the set IPO price. the investors who bought the IPO allocation got an immediate 100% return but that is not at the expense of the company.

Leading economists disagree with you: https://twitter.com/BloombergTV/status/1337400042668306435

> the investors who bought the IPO allocation got an immediate 100% return but that is not at the expense of the company.

Could they not have allocated at higher?

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#25

Post by [deleted] »

grailed wrote: post #8

I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#26

Post by tudorizer »

grailed wrote: post #8

I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…

There are plenty of horror stories, even if not directly murder. Rending out a nice, luxurious/novel holiday home is the story they sell, but that's far from the bulk. They enable a secondary, dodgy market in a lot of towns around the world.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#27

Post by whimsicalism »

tudelo wrote: post #23
whimsicalism wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the interior of America has given up on distancing.

To be fair... you can stay at an airbnb and still be completely distanced from the owner of said airbnb. Yeah, you have to travel, but for many this is also possible without any close contact.

I can't guarantee, but my bet is the majority of people vacationing in Airbnbs aren't being distant. The marginal impact on deaths now is probably lower than it was in March, but only barely.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#28

Post by nrmitchi »

grailed wrote: post #8

I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…

> How often do you hear it for Airbnb? I haven't heard someone express that worry yet.

I think the "not getting murdered" but is more to do with the demographic of people who are "hosts" with the service that they offer (which are mostly whole-homes). It is just at a higher price point that doesn't match the stereotype of "murderous Uber driver". If someone did "something" it's a lot riskier to kill someone in a property that you own vs a moving vehicle. I'm not saying that stereotype is valid in any way, UberAirbnb isn't really a valid comparison there.

That being said, I have 100% heard both stories and concerns about people's privacy being violated in Airbnb's. Hidden cameras, nosey "hosts", etc. That's not even including the trust issues around "I showed up and the host won't let me in and Airbnb is not being helpful, what am I supposed to do now?". Those trust issues definitely still exist.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#29

Post by tempsy »

whimsicalism wrote: post #24
tempsy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that isn’t how an IPO works. just because your stock pops doesn’t mean you handed over money to “wall street” if you’ve raised the money you sought at the set IPO price. the investors who bought the IPO allocation got an immediate 100% return but that is not at the expense of the company.

Leading economists disagree with you: https://twitter.com/BloombergTV/status/1337400042668306435 > the investors who bought the IPO allocation got an immediate 100% return but that is not at the expense of the company. Could they not have allocated at higher?

all he said was it makes the stock market look bad when some people double their money in a day.

has nothing to do with whether Airbnb was screwed over by wall street.

no one can predict the public market appetite in this environment. Airbnb was arguably richly valued at $50B as is and is richly valued at $100B. Setting your price too high and then crashing your stock is worse for the company due to tax implications and overall investor sentiment.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#30

Post by itronitron »

grailed wrote: post #8

I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…

I've had better experiences with VRBO than AirBnB
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