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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#211

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

jariel wrote: post #204
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #165

In my view, AirBnb made the travel pie substantially larger. More people can afford to travel when rooms in far away places can be rented for small amounts. If the choice is not traveling at all vs. putting up with the friction of finding the property and getting the key, reviewing the house rules and then stripping the bed and taking out the trash before you check out, many people will choose the convenience hit and…

It's mostly regulatory arbitrage, same as Uber. If cities and townships were to have looser regulations on hotels - which evidently they should, given the vast demand and 'mostly' it's not excessively problematic for communities - then AirBnB wouldn't exist because hotel prices and types would have much more variety and competitiveness, and so would listings. If anyone could just get in their car and tell the local d…

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.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#212

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

> It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the first 9 months of 2019 and 2020 despite having drastically different revenue numbers. They had to spend roughly the same amount (600 million) to support 30% less revenue

That's not surprising to me at all. I'm sure their support and operations teams have been working insane hours during Covid dealing with cancellations, unclear lockdown/quarantine policies, more guest/host disputes, etc.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#213

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

RhodoYolo wrote: post #209
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…

Would you call Tesla a tech company?

Yes. They make and sell technology to customers.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#214

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jariel wrote: post #204
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #165

In my view, AirBnb made the travel pie substantially larger. More people can afford to travel when rooms in far away places can be rented for small amounts. If the choice is not traveling at all vs. putting up with the friction of finding the property and getting the key, reviewing the house rules and then stripping the bed and taking out the trash before you check out, many people will choose the convenience hit and…

It's mostly regulatory arbitrage, same as Uber. If cities and townships were to have looser regulations on hotels - which evidently they should, given the vast demand and 'mostly' it's not excessively problematic for communities - then AirBnB wouldn't exist because hotel prices and types would have much more variety and competitiveness, and so would listings. If anyone could just get in their car and tell the local d…

Absolutely this.

These companies have a weird human shield - that prosecuting individual house owners or drivers has little tin no impact on the supply (whereas it would have a huge impact on a normal commercial supply) - so the usual weapon regulatory bodies have is simply useless.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#215

Post by quickthrower2 »

elwell wrote: post #105
tallgiraffe wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's got a place to live, and food to eat, and he spends 200% of his time at work. At that point money is really just a thing that idles in the bank.

> he spends 200% of his time at work Perhaps the money goes towards cloning costs?

Or some kind of space-time warp drive

Re: Airbnb S-1

#216

Post by formercoder »

newguy1234 wrote: post #148
formercoder wrote: post #53

2bn in debt on negative 250mm of adj. ebitda? Wow

Not a concern at all. For IPO type companies, the objectives is to grow as fast as possible. Losses in the short-term don't matter.

For a normal non-tech company, this would be considered beyond over leveraged, in fact no one would have ever lended to them at all. Granted these notes have warrants attached, I’m guessing SVB was involved, but still that’s a lot of debt service for a company with no cash flow.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#217

Post by milesskorpen »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #206
mym1990 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. I imagine it is also a company that is heavily invested in its software engineering workforce and all the resources that support/flow from that. To note, it feels like 'tech company' is a bit ambiguous these days and doesn't necessarily have great clarity.

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.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#218

Post by cutenewt »

julianlam wrote: post #202
BMorearty wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience has been really different from yours. After my first stay in an Airbnb five years ago I learned I needed to be more careful about reading the reviews and the descriptions. Since then I’ve only had positive experiences. The places I stay in are usual run by an individual, not a manager (and when it is a manager it’s clear up front). The service has been fantastic and the places have been beautiful. My la…

You've hit the nail right on the head. When I first started using airbnb, I would run into these awful listings because I was scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. On a visit to Boston, I once stayed in a cheap AirBnb in the bad part of Methuen, MA, where the local grocer knew I was from out of town because I paid in cash and not food stamps. My wife, on the other hand, always reads the reviews and I've never…

"Reading reviews" hit the nail on the head for me.

I miss the days where I can just make purchases without having to "read the reviews."

I'm so time-constrained as it is; making customers responsible for ensuring that they've contracted with a quality host / Uber driver / seller on Amazon -- is one of the things I hate about new age "marketplaces."

Re: Airbnb S-1

#219

Post by tenpies »

finolex1 wrote: post #160
edoceo wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's the other one? Microsoft?

Apple. Tesla too, if you're willing to stretch definitions a bit.

Did they? Not only is national demand nowhere near enough to use up the Shanghai production, but they're having to export MIC vehicles and adding Model Y production. All of this with strong government backing of Tesla (as Musk said "the same as any Chinese company") and Chinese banks being told to accept any loan for a Tesla vehicle. Despite that they've had more price cuts than quarters and demand does not show any signs of improvement.

This also on the back of the ticking time bomb that is their Shanghai contract. We should probably wait until the end of 2023 to see if Tesla "succeeds" in China.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#220

Post by callmeed »

tahoeskibum wrote: post #207
callmeed wrote: post #33

I heard a podcast discuss the possibility of AirBnB offering shares or options to superhosts (like me) ahead of the IPO–essentially as a "thank you" to the people who helped build the marketplace. Anyone have thoughts on if that is possible or plausible?

I just got an email from AirBnB outlining their plan to offer shares to hosts as a part of the IPO with first dibs to hosts that first came on the platform.

Yup, just got it too.
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