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Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

nytimes.com

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Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#181

Post by klintcho »

andy_ppp wrote: post #42
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 nothing but bad experiences with Airbnb and hosts who are basically trying to rinse as much money as possible for as little effort as possible. I’m not sure after a long journey I want to wonder around the Edinburgh fringe again, trying to decipher Scottish, while the wind is going crazy and there are millions of people floating around just to get keys. I think Airbnb is great if there are 15 of you sharing…

I have a lot of good things to say about AirBnB, it's beautifully designed, the one time we used it, it was great. Awesome host and at that time, much cheaper than a hotel.

However I can't get over the service and cleaning fees, especially as they are added on the second page. I don't mind them, but why not include them on the listing page?

Not sure if it's an US thing or if it's something people actually falls for? This is a practice that is prevalent throughout industries, but one standing out of course is restaurants. The menu price: 20USD BUT + SF mandate + service fees + sales tax + mandatory tips, the dish is actually at least 30USD ? Why not just put that on the menu? In Sweden for instance (and most of Europe) the price you see in stores and on menus is the price you pay. Someone starting the next AirBnB and just shows you the actual price on the front page that is on your statement of your credit card in the end, will be very successful (I hope!)

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#182

Post by snthd »

dorchadas wrote: post #119
rafiki6 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two arguments can be made. On the one hand, there are definitely more private places to be rented out then there are hotel rooms in those 5 chains. On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure that Airbnb can ever be profitable enough with all of those rentable places to justify the cost, especially since much of their stock is misused long term rental capacity that many municipalities are cracking down on now. So yes, i…

> especially since much of their stock is misused long term rental capacity that many municipalities are cracking down on now. And thank heavens they are. I've been on the suffering end of trying to find a place to rent before but couldn't due to everyone preferring AirBnB for long term rental properties as they could make more money. I won't say it's the root cause of housing crises in cities worldwide, but it's def…

The pandemic makes the impact measurable eg

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/pandemic-reveals...

>availability in the rental market has bounced, with 41 per cent more properties for rent nationally and 92 per cent more in Dublin.

>In Dublin availability was almost double what it was a year ago, with nearly 3,000 homes on the rental market on August 1st compared to fewer than 1,600 in August 2019,

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#183

Post by hamolton »

subsubzero wrote: post #132

Some of my experiences with airbnb, always a guest not an owner: Bads - Had a really bad house with cabinet doors torn off the cabinets, trash in the garage, place was a total dump. Stayed one day and got the rest of my money back. Another place had a bad mouse infestation, this was dealt with by the owner but it was still pretty shocking as I have never lived or stayed in a place that had a single mouse my entire li…

Exorbitant fees not shown in the search function is the most annoying part about searching Airbnb, because it makes the prices in the search page prices look artificially low. I think it's designed encouraging owners to do so, since it makes it seem like airbnbs are way cheaper than hotels.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#184

Post by cactus2093 »

gonehome wrote: post #179

Another strong argument in favor of doing a direct listing to determine market price (and raising privately beforehand if possible). Anytime one party does a transaction repeatedly as their job and one party does a transaction once (maybe twice) in their life, the transaction will be structured to favor the first group (along with a compelling narrative/PR of why this is not the case). Airbnb lost out here. It's easy…

> If I was on the company side, I'd be pissed at the initial pricing and the money that was left on the table.

Eh, would you really though? I suppose maybe a maniacally focused founder or CEO might. But anyone in a position to be involved in these decisions has a huge personal stake in the situation. If I thought I was going to make $100M and instead I made $200M, it's hard to imagine being mad at the bankers for leaving the company's money on the table. But maybe that's why I'm not a big company executive.

But anyway, the flip side of a transaction that is incredibly important and you do only once, is that if you go against the norm and it goes badly, it could go very badly and you might not get a redo. If you go along with the experts, you are genuinely probably taking less risk.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#185

Post by [deleted] »

fullshark wrote: post #87
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.

Semantics. If I buy your car for half its value guaranteed, you will regret it, and you basically handed me 1/2 its value.

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#186

Post by dorchadas »

snthd wrote: post #182
dorchadas wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> especially since much of their stock is misused long term rental capacity that many municipalities are cracking down on now. And thank heavens they are. I've been on the suffering end of trying to find a place to rent before but couldn't due to everyone preferring AirBnB for long term rental properties as they could make more money. I won't say it's the root cause of housing crises in cities worldwide, but it's def…

The pandemic makes the impact measurable eg https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/pandemic-reveals... >availability in the rental market has bounced, with 41 per cent more properties for rent nationally and 92 per cent more in Dublin. >In Dublin availability was almost double what it was a year ago, with nearly 3,000 homes on the rental market on August 1st compared to fewer than 1,600 in August 2019,

> https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/pandemic-reveals...

It's interesting you quote the Irish Times, as Ireland is where I had my trouble.

> In Dublin availability was almost double what it was a year ago, with nearly 3,000 homes on the rental market on August 1st compared to fewer than 1,600 in August 2019,

It literally doubled the market, something much needed. And there's honestly probably still more where the owners didn't hop back into long-term rent. Hopefully it stays like this next year when I plan to go do a masters. And that the government works on fixing it.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#187

Post by jliptzin »

tc313 wrote: post #180
kamilszybalski wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think that the CFO should be accountable for pricing in market hype? I would much rather under-estimate and over-perform then over-estimate and fall short. The narrative between those two scenarios is drastically different. Related. Look at Snowflake, it's trading well beyond any logic. Most retail doesn't realize that ~10% float is trading. Watch for Monday as lock-ups expire, the price action will be…

> The narrative between those two scenarios is drastically different. Who cares about the narrative unless you need to raise capital again soon? The money you get in an IPO actually goes into the business, while the trading price of the stock has no impact on the business.

Yea, plus people completely forget the narrative anyway after 2 weeks. No one really has any attention span whatsoever.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#188

Post by pfarnsworth »

The reaction of the markets to Airbnb's IPO is definitely an echo of the dotcom days.

The only question is, is Airbnb's IPO equivalent to Netscape (ie. near the beginning of the boom) or Pets.com (near the end). Only time will tell I suppose.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#190

Post by pfarnsworth »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #154

I recall that Facebook's first day closed at or near the offer price: Opened at $38 and closed at $38.23. That's a masterful IPO pricing accomplishment, meaning, FB left $0.23 per share on the table. Moreover, the stock traded below the open for 5 quarters before starting it's impressive rise. Even with that pause, buying at the open and holding till now would have yielded nearly 27% annualized return. It's just my o…

This is incorrect. There needs to be large investors willing to buy at $140 in order to say the CFO failed. There likely wasn't.

You can't compare the actions of "smart money" like Fidelity, etc to a small investor swept up in the speculative mania and buying 50 shares at $140. Those are the ones propping up the prices until the big money deems it safe enough to buy large volumes.

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