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Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

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Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

b/c you can sell them at that point, the shares today are illiquid and they'd probably have to do something like a prepaid variable forward to be able to afford to exercise and pay tax (~23% of FMV - strike price) we're talking millions of dollars for early employees who didn't do an 83b election. once airbnb IPOs they could do either of the following: * Cashless (exercise and sell to cover: sell enough of your share…

You clearly know more about this since it affects you personally. But airbnb shares aren’t that illiquid. I purchased some myself in a secondary market. You might lose 5% to commission, which I guess is enough to want an ipo if you have a lot of money tied up there.

How/where can one purchase Airbnb shares? Is there a minimum amount needed to be purchased?

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#72
post #46

Not an employee but overall I am quite bullish on Airbnb as ironically they will be the definition of a what a post-covid travel company will become. Couple points in their favour: 1. Work from home becomes work from anywhere: The WFH trend is here to stay and will grow. If you have an option why not stay anywhere in world and work vs. close by home? I expect we will see a big % of WFH markets be global travelers. Pr…

Covid is going away in 6-12 months. I wouldn’t stake a long term business proposal on it.

They had a thriving business model before it, and there won’t be fewer WFH people after Covid

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#73
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you have an option why not stay anywhere in world and work vs. close by home? I expect we will see a big % of WFH markets be global travelers. Well, if a business is allowing their employees to work from home due to COVID, they don't want them traveling off abroad and being classified as tax residents of various countries. If people are moving to cheaper cities or locations in their own country, getting a long t…

FWIW in most countries you dont become tax resident until you've been there more than 3 months, in some cases 6. source: I work(ed) for an international company and missions were somewhat commonplace, you get paid from your subsidiary unless you're there for longer than 3mo.

Problem is you’ll probably be on a tourist rather than work visa.

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#74
post #36

Didn't AirBnB just take out a huge loan on less-than-stellar terms? https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/airbnb-ups-its-debt-by-1bn... Not to mention how the company is getting hammered by the coronavirus, in addition to having to face the reality of having used shady tactics to prop up positive reviews over the years. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-ho... This sounds like they're trying to cas…

What do you mean by "shady tactics to prop up positive reviews over the years"? I'm an employee and we have very strict policies around review fairness. If anything, most review-related complaints come from hosts who want to have negative reviews removed due to perceived unfairness. By policy, negative reviews are rarely if ever removed this way much to the chagrin of hosts. Reviews are usually ranked chronologically…

I stayed in an AirBnB in Houston in the summer with broken AC. I left before the first night and was not refunded a cent.

My review is buried on the page. It wasn't on top when I wrote it, and the stars weren't displayed, just the text.

I deleted my AirBnB account.

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#75
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid is going away in 6-12 months. I wouldn’t stake a long term business proposal on it.

They had a thriving business model before it, and there won’t be fewer WFH people after Covid

Right. Not to mention pent-up demand for leisure travel.

I invest almost exclusively in funds because owning even one individual stock highly-disproportionally overweights your portfolio into that stock.

I might have to make an exception for AirBnb.

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#76
I recently had the occasion to stay with 4 different Airbnb hosts over the span of under a month, my takeaway was that if I owned any Airbnb stock, I would've sold it immediately.

The first two accommodations were huge let downs in terms of cleanliness, despite both advertising Enhanced Clean. The first trip was booked for a month, but we got sick of ants, mice and lack of action after about a week and left early. The second was so incredibly filthy that we left the morning after checking in. While Airbnb corrected the issues by letting us get out early, this was incredibly disruptive to our plans and not representative of what was promised.

The worst part came later, after our mutual reviews for that second place became public. My review and scores got removed with no notice, so that host continues to advertise as Superhost with Enhanced Clean and decent enough, if few, reviews. On the other hand, he posted a nasty review of me full of spin, which remains there to this day. My response to it contained a link to a gallery with evidence, and Airbnb removed that as well. My questions to support remain unanswered.

This turned into something of a rant, but the main takeaway is that I have entirely lost trust in the review system. Not only does is skew towards high marks, but critical reviews can be removed at a moment's notice with no recourse. That does not reflect well on the company, IMO and there are clearly hosts that have learned to play the system. Too bad.

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#77
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber and AirBnB have revealed that the Western World is far more lawless than we had imagined. Who knew you could just 'start running cabs'. Even city hall says 'no' ... they just keep going. It's really bizarre. Irrespective of whether or now we should allow AirBnB and Uber it's crazy that civic institutions seem to have no control. If I was mayor and we decided 'no' on Uber I would be fining Uber millions and indiv…

> Uber and AirBnB have revealed that the Western World is far more lawless than we had imagined. What an extraordinary extrapolation.

The lawlessness of Uber and AirBnB is not extrapolated, it's real. Ergo, Western Cities are lawless.

City of Montreal has all sorts of rules against AirBnB and Uber and yet ... it still exists.

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#78
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber and AirBnB have revealed that the Western World is far more lawless than we had imagined. What an extraordinary extrapolation.

The lawlessness of Uber and AirBnB is not extrapolated, it's real. Ergo, Western Cities are lawless. City of Montreal has all sorts of rules against AirBnB and Uber and yet ... it still exists.

And in eastern cities, someone picks a pocket. So that illegality means an equal amount of lawlessness there as here, right? Because all lawbreaking is equal, right?

(You may have a point about montreal, could you post some links to the laws against uber and Abnb)

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#79
post #73
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW in most countries you dont become tax resident until you've been there more than 3 months, in some cases 6. source: I work(ed) for an international company and missions were somewhat commonplace, you get paid from your subsidiary unless you're there for longer than 3mo.

Problem is you’ll probably be on a tourist rather than work visa.

Working for a foreign company that's paying you in a different country is a grey area. Many countries have business visas that allow "business" but prohibit "work", with the main (but not sole) determinant being whether you're paid locally.

Some countries are also starting to offer long-stay remote work visas: https://www.traveller.com.au/countries-such-as-barbados-to-o...

Re: Airbnb Plans to File Confidentially for IPO in August

#80
post #46

Not an employee but overall I am quite bullish on Airbnb as ironically they will be the definition of a what a post-covid travel company will become. Couple points in their favour: 1. Work from home becomes work from anywhere: The WFH trend is here to stay and will grow. If you have an option why not stay anywhere in world and work vs. close by home? I expect we will see a big % of WFH markets be global travelers. Pr…

Covid is going away in 6-12 months. I wouldn’t stake a long term business proposal on it.

> Covid is going away in 6-12 months.

I think it will take a lot longer than that for people's behaviors to change back though.

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