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Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

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Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#191

Post by pfarnsworth »

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…

If you pay at the higher end of rates and go with Superhosts, your experience will largely be flawless. I've never had a problem and my stays have been amazing, but I'm also spending hotel-equivalent prices or higher.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#192

Post by gonehome »

cactus2093 wrote: post #184
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 lea…

Which is how it ends up structured to benefit the bankers.

People who only do something once or twice are more likely to defer to the 'experts', the only problem is the experts have their own incentives that are not directly aligned. The experts are also really good at selling since that's mostly their job so it makes it even harder to go against the grain.

I get why founders do it, but I think it's a mistake. Founders are also usually pretty good at first principles thinking and risk taking. DPO is also pretty solid ground now that a few companies have done it.

> "Eh, would you really though?"

Impossible to know, but I think so? After you're worth 5+ Billion it's more about money you can leverage via your company to grow and build. I think personal wealth has diminishing returns a bit before that point. Losing out on that much money for the company would irritate me.

There's a funny story (I searched briefly, but couldn't find) that when Elon took Tesla public via an IPO and the bankers told him the initial price he just said "no, at least $XX or no deal". I think the bank price was $17 and he said at least $19, but I could be off on the numbers. They did his price and that price was still too low.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#193

Post by therealx »

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…

Maybe not murder, but I know women hesitant to stay in AirBNBs due to the stories of hidden cameras.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#194

Post by subsubzero »

vmarsy wrote: post #149
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…

> Ugly - Alot of owners now are pulling a perfectly legal scam of listing a place at a certain price point and then charging an extremely high cleaning fee. When booking it, you are then shocked by the extreme fees, one place (5 days stay) was charging $400 for their cleaning fee. I'm not sure I follow here, the cleaning fee is announced before you confirm the booking isn't it? In a way it's similar to airlines havin…

> the cleaning fee is announced before you confirm the booking isn't it?

That is correct, my issue is I am looking for places in a certain price point per day, say $200, so in my example I see a place for $200 a day I want 5 days, so $1000 plus a small cleaning fee and other fees(maybe $100 or slightly more). This place after I click on it and prepare to book then totals it up before I reserve, then comes to $1600. It has a $400 cleaning fee and there were also other fees attached. So an unsuspecting person could then get taken by this nonsense.

A possible fix is airbnb could add in all the fees and add that to the daily price, a simple UI fix that would stop this unscrupulous behavior by hosts. So instead of showing as $200 a day it now shows as $320 a day.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#195

Post by pfarnsworth »

dasudasu wrote: post #126
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…

You do still hear about hidden cameras however. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/what-...

I scan my Airbnbs with my thermal camera to try to find hidden cameras. I'm pleased to say I've never found one yet.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#196

Post by therealx »

whimsicalism wrote: post #81
iandanforth wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I've had the opposite experience would you be willing to share how you pick places? I rent: "Whole places", with a strong bias towards detached buildings, that rate 4.7 or higher on their scale, and have glowing reviews that mention how nice the host is. These are almost always $90/night or more, with an average of $120/night.

This is basically how I rent and I've also had great experiences. I have rented a "non-Whole place" and I would say that was a pretty bad experience. Our room was supposed to be the only Airbnb, but two nights in, they rented out a room with a frosted glass separator next to us as "420 friendly" and the couple that moved in proceeded to have quite loud sex. We gave them pretty scathing reviews, which I am not wont to…

Ha, that may beat my weird one. I was with an ex, and we rented a room in a home across from Golden Gate park. We cleared with the resident that we would be back around 2am, and that it would be fine.

At 2am, they got mad at us for making so much noise. THEN at 6am, they start blasting some ethnic music as they proceeded to fry food for hours and party. Turns out they were VERY Jewish and were celebrating the Sabbath being over. Surreal.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#197

Post by tootie »

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…

AirBnB is on the long list of very successful startups that I absolutely don't get at all. Staying in some randos house feels so incredibly awkward and unpleasant to me. I'm genuinely surprised how many people are fine with it and even more surprised at how many people are willing to rent their homes to strangers. The whole thing just feels like a giant scam to dodge hotel tax.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#198

Post by dumbfounder »

tempsy wrote: post #63
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…

shorting a stock in this market is a fool’s errand.

Jim Cramer was hilarious when talking about Tesla stock during Doordash's IPO. He said he was talking to a young person about Tesla and was asking them why they bought the stock. And they said "because it goes up! and I want to be rich!". He threw up his hands and said "how do you argue with that?".

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#199

Post by therealx »

klintcho wrote: post #181
andy_ppp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?…

Theres a chrome plugin that fixes the pricing you mention such that the search page shows the true combined price.

Re: Airbnb’s Stunning IPO

#200

Post by therealx »

WanderPanda wrote: post #48
FruityCoconut wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also you're unlikely to see the owner, they certainly won't be inside with you, you can leave any time, you're likely to be with others, and they can't change your location. Contrast that with an intoxicated young woman climbing alone into a stranger's car where he has a lot of control - including being able to lock the doors or take her to a remote/unfamiliar location. Even with all the checks and measures in place,…

> they certainly won't be inside with you Not true, we once stayed in Pisa, Italy, and the (absolutely messy) appartment was shared with the host and her son. It was quite awkward at times but we still enjoyed the stay

I had a similar situation. I was very weary at first, but it was one of the best trips I had in a while. I still keep in touch with the hostess.
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