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Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

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Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#51

Post by prayag »

pg wrote: post #41
thaumaturgy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, you (reportedly) weren't fond of the idea, either ...

We weren't. This is a good illustration of why you want to invest based on the founders rather than the idea. The founders we liked immediately. Also, the idea was different initially. Initially they expected the host always to be there.

I also remember someone talking about airbnb airlifting breakfasts for the guest. That seemed like a weak link.

I am kind of surprised that you didn't buy in the idea. Couchsurfing.org has been very successful

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#52

Post by revorad »

ChuckFrank wrote: post #43

I've been waiting for some time to call out Airbnb, and I think this is the right time. Firstly, the idea of short term residential rentals is not new. Long before Airbnb major cities, Paris, London, New York, and Toronto were dealing with the issues and the problems of short term / nightly residential rentals. In fact the latest condo boom in Toronto has been ascribed to international investors buying condos explici…

Finally, someone had the insight to call out this company! I mean they've only managed to build a billion dollar business by turning ordinary homeowners into businessmen, provided better accomodation to hundreds of thousands of travellers across the world, destabilised an established old industry with entrenched market leaders while taking on a myriad of social and local government issues.

Seriously, they don't deserve all this hype and buzz.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#53

Post by Klinky »

mtw wrote: post #42
st3fan wrote: post #34

What is their revenue? How much profit are these guys making? How big is their team?

I'd like to know this as well (although $1 billion makes sense, they make a cut on every transaction, as opposed to Facebook which doesn't make a revenue on every customer)

Given that they probably sell at least some of their advertising CPM, every new customer probably does equal more revenue. How much, not sure, but it could be pretty high when you consider how many impressions an active user will make each day.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#54

Post by prostoalex »

ChuckFrank wrote: post #43

I've been waiting for some time to call out Airbnb, and I think this is the right time. Firstly, the idea of short term residential rentals is not new. Long before Airbnb major cities, Paris, London, New York, and Toronto were dealing with the issues and the problems of short term / nightly residential rentals. In fact the latest condo boom in Toronto has been ascribed to international investors buying condos explici…

Do you have good stats on the size of the market? I somehow thought http://www.homeaway.com was the leader here, and if you count in timeshare rentals, eBay being a close competitor, but I could be way off.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#55

Post by tonystubblebine »

ChuckFrank wrote: post #43

I've been waiting for some time to call out Airbnb, and I think this is the right time. Firstly, the idea of short term residential rentals is not new. Long before Airbnb major cities, Paris, London, New York, and Toronto were dealing with the issues and the problems of short term / nightly residential rentals. In fact the latest condo boom in Toronto has been ascribed to international investors buying condos explici…

It surprised me that VRBO leads in renter satisfaction. Do you have a source for that?

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#56

Post by helwr »

tptacek wrote: post #30
mrchess wrote: post #26

This might be a stupid question but what do you do after you secure such a large series of funding? Go on mass expansion? Would anyone mind telling me how startups typically use this kind of money (closing Series with 100+mil)?

Big ticket items: * Mainstream promotional marketing * Direct sales efforts (identifying target markets, staffing sales teams to pursue them) * Business model changes to ramp up customer acquisition at the expense of profitability * Rollups of related companies and acquisition of complementary companies. * International expansion * Lobbying And there's just always something to be said for having a war chest; in today…

I'd add lawyer fees to the list

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#57

Post by ChuckFrank »

prostoalex wrote: post #54
ChuckFrank wrote: post #43

I've been waiting for some time to call out Airbnb, and I think this is the right time. Firstly, the idea of short term residential rentals is not new. Long before Airbnb major cities, Paris, London, New York, and Toronto were dealing with the issues and the problems of short term / nightly residential rentals. In fact the latest condo boom in Toronto has been ascribed to international investors buying condos explici…

Do you have good stats on the size of the market? I somehow thought http://www.homeaway.com was the leader here, and if you count in timeshare rentals, eBay being a close competitor, but I could be way off.

Homeaway bought vrbo for 160M in 2006.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#58

Post by maxwell »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #10
olivercameron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the point of Airbnb that you don't stay in a hotel? Edit: By hotel, I mean generic hotels like Holiday Inn's. I'm just going by their mission statement: "We are a community marketplace for unique spaces".

No, the point is to rent spaces to people. When you look at them that way, a billion may be low. I was confused when I first heard of them, I thought they were just planning to be what they are right now- spare private room rentals to travelers. But then they explicitly stated a desire to directly disrupt the moribund hotel industry by offering services that make hotel room pricing more dynamic. Hotels are dynamic no…

I don't know about the chains, but independent boutique hotels and inns already do this.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#59

Post by ChuckFrank »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #55
ChuckFrank wrote: post #43

I've been waiting for some time to call out Airbnb, and I think this is the right time. Firstly, the idea of short term residential rentals is not new. Long before Airbnb major cities, Paris, London, New York, and Toronto were dealing with the issues and the problems of short term / nightly residential rentals. In fact the latest condo boom in Toronto has been ascribed to international investors buying condos explici…

It surprised me that VRBO leads in renter satisfaction. Do you have a source for that?

I can't seem to find the exact reference. Though I clearly remember making a mental note of it.

See previous post on the topic.

http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2333475

See charlie4real comments.

Finally, all my friends who rent space in their residences do so with VRBO. Across the board they say that after using and comparing both services, VRBO is a superior service than Airbnb for those wanting to have short term rentals in their house. So while this may not be representative, it sure seems informative.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#60

Post by hitechsites »

olivercameron wrote: post #9

I think a lot of startups put too much weight on what an investor thinks of their idea. Airbnb is a prime example of carrying on in the face of rejection, even if people are saying "it's a stupid idea". I know a lot of founders who, after being told by many of the Valley's finest angels that their idea is no good, would just give up. It just goes to show that you can create a $1 billion company, even if no one really…

Totally agree. Ultimately the only test for your startup idea is market acceptance and resonance - and experience repeatedly shows that no amount of prior experience and knowledge helps in predicting correctly what the next big thing will be. After the fact, it is easy to look back and rationalize and attribute certain factors for all the big successes - but no matter how many times this happens, we always miss the next big thing. Market resonance is very hard to predict - since there are so many parameters for success.
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