Is WeWork still worth something ... guess co-working is a bum idea right now.
Guess you've not been reading Money Stuff - they were already imploding, with lots of borderline fraud by the CEO, but this has really killed them.
Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
81–90 of 118 posts
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
They employ a lot of people and have office space. Any big company has a large amount of fixed costs that will drag you under when income dries up.
Airbnb has over 5 million listings and 150 million customers around 190 countries and they don't make enough in commissions to pay rent, salaries and server costs?
you forgot marketing costs. Airbnb is a household name for a reason.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#83Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone that would like to buy a house one day, I welcome this. People owning multiple houses to rent out to vacationers that people would like to actually live in doesn't upset me at all. If people buying houses to rent on Airbnb artificially inflated the housing market, it's just a necessary correction and federal support would be a mistake.
Look, I'm all for affordable housing, but when viewing this within the context of a looming recession and potential financial crisis I can assure you that the last thing you want to do is add in a potential amplifier to a housing market crash. Houses may get cheaper, but everyone is going to suffer in very difficult to imagine ways. Corporate debt markets are looking scary as hell right now. If you threw a housing ma…
A house is rarely used as an interesting business asset for generating productivity for the rest of the nation. AirBnB is like the height of how commercially productive a home can be. I would argue that the home is most interesting to a nation when it houses a family which is contributing to the economy.
What we're talking about is making the housing market more healthy, where health is viewed from the perspective of the nation.
There is inefficiency being absorbed by the system when very finite housing capacity is being used primarily by vacationers who already have a home, and now that terribly finite supply is being translated to mere vacation enhancement.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look, I'm all for affordable housing, but when viewing this within the context of a looming recession and potential financial crisis I can assure you that the last thing you want to do is add in a potential amplifier to a housing market crash. Houses may get cheaper, but everyone is going to suffer in very difficult to imagine ways. Corporate debt markets are looking scary as hell right now. If you threw a housing ma…
A house is rarely used as an interesting business asset for generating productivity for the rest of the nation. AirBnB is like the height of how commercially productive a home can be. I would argue that the home is most interesting to a nation when it houses a family which is contributing to the economy. What we're talking about is making the housing market more healthy, where health is viewed from the perspective of…
those are good ideas but imagine someone barely making ends meet on an "inflated" mortgage which then loses a lot of value. the bank expects them to pay back $250K but then their home value collapses down to its true price of $150K. you just created a situation where a household has negative equity - literally worse off than if they had never bought the home at all, and difficult to wiggle out of if they live there (very likely). that obviously has massive effects on their economic outlooks.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
A house is rarely used as an interesting business asset for generating productivity for the rest of the nation. AirBnB is like the height of how commercially productive a home can be. I would argue that the home is most interesting to a nation when it houses a family which is contributing to the economy. What we're talking about is making the housing market more healthy, where health is viewed from the perspective of…
those are good ideas but imagine someone barely making ends meet on an "inflated" mortgage which then loses a lot of value. the bank expects them to pay back $250K but then their home value collapses down to its true price of $150K. you just created a situation where a household has negative equity - literally worse off than if they had never bought the home at all, and difficult to wiggle out of if they live there (…
Yeah, this is absolutely a problem and people's homes being foreclosed due to this type of situation does upset me. But this is a side-effect of people making money off housing shortages, which is the root cause and due for a correction.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hotels are a regulated industry for a reason and Airbnb is completely flouting the rules. No one wants to be a next-door neighbor to an Airbnb'ed apartment, and hotels are a more efficient use of real estate for housing a given number of tourists. So yeah, they're helping out tourists, but they're harming all the people in the city who live there and need a place to live. If you're primarily a tourist then Airbnb is…
Rentals have been a thing since people have been travelers. It's easy to point a finger at Airbnb, but a lack of affordable housing existed long before they were around. You could argue that hotels are using space that could be used for housing locals, too. Is Airbnb a factor in prices going up, yes. Is Airbnb the only factor, clearly no.
I clearly pointed out in my comment how hotels are vastly different from normal apartments that have been converted into short term rentals.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
They employ a lot of people and have office space. Any big company has a large amount of fixed costs that will drag you under when income dries up.
Airbnb has over 5 million listings and 150 million customers around 190 countries and they don't make enough in commissions to pay rent, salaries and server costs?
They don't. Period. That's a simple fact. No questions need asking here; they do NOT make enough money from their listings to cover all of their costs, full stop.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're just doing what almost all VC-funded private tech companies do: Spend massive amounts of money to grow faster than if you limited yourself to what could be accomplished while maintaining profitability. And the comparison to Facebook isn't really fair; not everyone can be a Facebook. They're an exceptional success story. Airbnb isn't.
Airbnb takes approximately 15% off every booking. What are they doing as an intermediary that 15% on each booking isn't enough to pay salaries, rent and server costs?
I don't understand the point of your questions. Are you disputing the fact that Airbnb is not profitable? Because they very clearly and obviously aren't.
Or are you saying that their business isn't well run, that their costs are too high, etc.? Because I can't answer this part of it; I don't work for them, I don't set their strategy, etc. I can't defend them on that mark. But it is true. They are spending more than they are earning. Just because you don't understand how or why doesn't mean that it isn't in fact happening.
Re: Airbnb Racks Up Hundreds of Millions in Losses Due to Coronavirus
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
those are good ideas but imagine someone barely making ends meet on an "inflated" mortgage which then loses a lot of value. the bank expects them to pay back $250K but then their home value collapses down to its true price of $150K. you just created a situation where a household has negative equity - literally worse off than if they had never bought the home at all, and difficult to wiggle out of if they live there (…
Yeah, this is absolutely a problem and people's homes being foreclosed due to this type of situation does upset me. But this is a side-effect of people making money off housing shortages, which is the root cause and due for a correction.
The people with these AirBnbs are no worse than the residents who vote for policies and politicians that create and exacerbate the shortages in the first place.