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Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

bloomberg.com

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Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#71

Post by throwaway13000 »

vizzah wrote: post #61
alexandec wrote: post #33

I've had bad experiences with multiple Airbnbs including: - showing up at night with the key not in the agreed location, and not being able to contact the owner until the next day - showing up and someone else was already in the unit - a webcam was plugged in and placed on the bedside table with no warning - conditions in the unit were significantly worse than those shown in the photos All these listings had great re…

Airbnb cheats with bad reviews, so their properties look more attractive. I came to a rental apartment which was trashed and uninhabitable and left it after a tiring few hours on the phone with Airbnb to convince them not to charge me and finding a place to stay (hotel) in the meantime (They also tried to find a 'suitable' replacement but nothing was comparable). The host left me a negative review complaining 'I didn…

How did you find the proof? Its interesting

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#72

Post by vkou »

shmageggy wrote: post #59
nuggien wrote: post #42

Airbnb is a shitty company. Last october we traveled to Seoul and couldn't find the location of the apartment we booked. Even the local taxi driver couldn't find it after circling the area for ~30 minutes. We called the host during the entire 30 minutes and didn't get through to them. After about 1 hour of time, we decided to call it quits and go book a hotel because it was 10pm at night and our kids needed to sleep.…

I friend of mine had her host cancel a couple of days before her several-day Christmas trip. Of course everything else was crazy expensive by then so she ended up missing Christmas. Airbnb refunded her $16.

The host is probably listing the suite on multiple listing sites (Or even just with multiple listings on AirBnB), for different prices. When someone books the more expensive listing, they tell the person who booked the cheaper one to pound sand.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#73

Post by jariel »

hooande wrote: post #66

is there a way to explain these losses other than "I had a bad experience at an AirBnB"?

The growing loses are mostly likely, ironically due to their growth.

As such companies grow and see huge market in front of them, it makes sense to take on loses to grab bigger market share.

Consider a company that makes widgets, profitably on a unit-basis. If margins are thin and it costs a lot to make said widgets, then they need something called 'working capital' which is the money to pay suppliers etc. before they, themselves get paid by their customers. This 'working capital' is kind of like a permanent need for some kind of debt, and weirdly, it grows as the company grows! So in a similar way, a 'high growth' company can have an ever-increasing need for debt as long as it's growing. Without access to this working capital, it can starve and die. It seems like it's a paradox, but it's not.

COVID will hit AirBnB pretty hard.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#74

Post by fbonetti »

3pt14159 wrote: post #39

I have a friend who got into hosting AirBnbs pretty early. Bought a 4 unit place in a rough part of Toronto that was still pretty close to downtown and lived in one of the units while he AirBnbed out the other three. Occasionally he'd go on a trip and AirBnb out his own unit. It was enough money for him to cover his mortgage and not have to work if he watched his spending. He's bleeding money now and it started about…

That’s basically what I’m doing, except with a 3 unit building in Michigan. In an average month, the two AirBnB units bring in 3-4x the mortgage in revenue. Not enough to retire of course, but it’s a nice side hustle.

That being said, our bookings been hit pretty hard by the coronavirus. We’ve hade multiple cancellations recently, and the month of April is basically wide open. We usually have an occupancy rate for 85%. I think we’ll be lucky to have 50% of the next couple months.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#75

Post by zyang »

alexandec wrote: post #33

I've had bad experiences with multiple Airbnbs including: - showing up at night with the key not in the agreed location, and not being able to contact the owner until the next day - showing up and someone else was already in the unit - a webcam was plugged in and placed on the bedside table with no warning - conditions in the unit were significantly worse than those shown in the photos All these listings had great re…

Glad I wasn't the only one. I was an early adopter of AirBnB, but had multiple bad experiences in recent years. The fact AirBnB refused to do anything about it ensured I would never use the service again. Rather pay a little more for VRBO or get a hotel.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#76

Post by technotony »

There must be some difficult conversations happening at Airbnb leadership/Board right now. IPO has to look like needing to be postponed and I guess they will need to start figuring out ways to reduce their burn-rate until market conditions improve.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#78

Post by jcims »

JenrHywy wrote: post #54
Brendinooo wrote: post #4

I'd imagine there's a sizable group of people who think Airbnb is only worth it if the price (and maybe location) is significantly better than a hotel, and that seems to be less true as the company matures.

It's also about facilities. Having a full kitchen and separate rooms makes a world of difference when you're traveling with kids.

This is it for us as well. We always used to use VRBO for vacations for the same reason (and will likely return based on serial bad experiences with AirBnB).

I feel like a snob but I can't stand staying in hotels any more when I'm travelling for fun.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#79

Post by Tade0 »

I'm currently in an AirBnB which saved me from spending a fortune on a hotel or trying to do the impossible - rent a place for one month in Zürich.

Both the app and website UX are horrid though.

In the long run I prefer this over hotels. Not only the price is better, but you also usually have access to amenities like a kitchen or washing machine.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#80

Post by alexandec »

vizzah wrote: post #61
alexandec wrote: post #33

I've had bad experiences with multiple Airbnbs including: - showing up at night with the key not in the agreed location, and not being able to contact the owner until the next day - showing up and someone else was already in the unit - a webcam was plugged in and placed on the bedside table with no warning - conditions in the unit were significantly worse than those shown in the photos All these listings had great re…

Airbnb cheats with bad reviews, so their properties look more attractive. I came to a rental apartment which was trashed and uninhabitable and left it after a tiring few hours on the phone with Airbnb to convince them not to charge me and finding a place to stay (hotel) in the meantime (They also tried to find a 'suitable' replacement but nothing was comparable). The host left me a negative review complaining 'I didn…

I had an experience where an Airbnb host canceled on me at the last minute because they "forgot" they had double-booked the apartment on a competing service. I was unable to leave a bad review because I had not stayed in the apartment. I contacted Airbnb and they confirmed that this is their policy. They claimed an automated message would appear on the listing indicating the host's cancellation -- but it never did.
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