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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

#61

Post by adamt »

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…

I think you miss the point if you rate the market leader by customer satisfaction rather than revenue or customer base. I just did a few searches of smaller US and UK cities, and found 5-40x as many listings on Airbnb as VRBO.

For example in my nearest city (Cambridge, UK, which is both highly techie and touristy), Airbnb returns 38 results, VRBO 0. I tried various US and European cities and got a common pattern.

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

#62

Post by mrgordon »

adamt wrote: post #61
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…

I think you miss the point if you rate the market leader by customer satisfaction rather than revenue or customer base. I just did a few searches of smaller US and UK cities, and found 5-40x as many listings on Airbnb as VRBO. For example in my nearest city (Cambridge, UK, which is both highly techie and touristy), Airbnb returns 38 results, VRBO 0. I tried various US and European cities and got a common pattern.

Thanks. Interesting data points. Surprised VRBO has nothing in Cambridge!

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

#63

Post by dataminer »

revorad wrote: post #52
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 deser…

Does Airbnb have yearly revenue of a billion dollar? According to the article 1.6 million nights have been booked through them, if they are a "billion dollar" business than average booking revenue will be $625.

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

#64

Post by paul »

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?

VRBO is awful.

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

#66

Post by chrisaycock »

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…

If I understand your first complaint, it's that short-term rentals increase the cost to buy real estate in a touristy location.

I believe a more accurate way to phrase this is that the short-term rental market provides a more accurate valuation of the property.

High prices are complaint only for the buyer; the seller will be glad that his condo is now valued correctly.

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

#67

Post by revorad »

dataminer wrote: post #63
revorad wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 deser…

Does Airbnb have yearly revenue of a billion dollar? According to the article 1.6 million nights have been booked through them, if they are a "billion dollar" business than average booking revenue will be $625.

Did you read the headline?

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

#68

Post by mlinsey »

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…

This is pretty mild as "calling outs" go. I would summarize your first two points as "there is tremendous demand for this concept".

Your first point is that this basic concept has been so successful that governments have felt the need to regulate it to combat its adverse effects, which is a risk Airbnb is pretty well aware of. In fact, all of the adverse effects you list are true of hotels as well, except for "shorting cities on their hotel taxes". If municipalities eventually decide to force Airbnb to charge hotel taxes, that would diminish their appeal but probably not destroy the business. Hugely successful companies like Amazon are facing similar problems.

Your second point is essentially that the idea of providing an online marketplace to remove inefficiencies of brokerages is not a new one, and therefore Airbnb should not be "overly" congratulated. But we're not congratulating Airbnb for the novelty of the idea, but for building a business which is apparently worth a billion dollars. Many hugely successful startups have ideas which might be obvious.

As for your third point, there might be something legitimate there. I don't know anything about VRBO vs. AirBNB in terms of traction and customer satisfaction, but it appears from one of your other replies that your only evidence is anecdotal. My personal anecdotal evidence is that everyone I know has been very happy with using AirBNB.

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

#69

Post by hvass »

chrisaycock wrote: post #66
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…

If I understand your first complaint, it's that short-term rentals increase the cost to buy real estate in a touristy location. I believe a more accurate way to phrase this is that the short-term rental market provides a more accurate valuation of the property. High prices are complaint only for the buyer; the seller will be glad that his condo is now valued correctly.

How is a one night/one week rental a 'more accurate' valuation? I don't get it.

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

#70

Post by ChuckFrank »

revorad wrote: post #52
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 deser…

Obviously that's a strawman argument. If I'm mistaken about calling Airbnb to the table, address my points, as I will address yours.

1. They haven't build a billion dollar business, they are only valued at that. There's a bid difference.

2. Ordinary homeowners have and had many other options to rent their properties - Short term rental brokers and VRBO are just two of them. Craigslist in another one. Airbnb alone cannot take that as their success.

3. Perhaps they have provided better accommodations than their competitors. Do you have anything to support that?

4. The internet itself is destabilizing the entrenched markets.

5. And here's the reason I responded, because I am most interested in the work that they are doing to address the social and local government issues. Please provide something to support that. Google doesn't have anything..

http://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+address+local+issues&#...

Nor does Airbnb themselves

http://www.airbnb.com/help/search?q=local+government

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