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Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

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Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#81
In an effort to keep both the demand and supply sides of its marketplace healthy enough to survive hibernation, Airbnb has allowed users to cancel some reservations without penalty, and provided financial succor to its hosts.

Unsure if this will ring true to most hosts. They were heavily penalized with full cancellations, while Airbnb issued vouchers.

Airbnb will have to make a lot of effort to win hosts' trust back.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#82
post #44

Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the res…

That's why when a yet another aspiring startup wants to hire me, I ask for a high sign on bonus as an insurance, monthly vesting cycle, at least 200k in base pay and high severance upon termination. Never been given that, but I don't regret: looking back, all those "just 1 year till IPO" companies are underwater.

The "high severance upon termination" is smart, I never thought about asking for that. I'll definitely try that in the future!

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#83
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of tech is getting hit, it seems like Airbnb is more in the spotlight

Why do people consider AirBnB tech? They are a services company with a website connecting external parties. This isn't hard tech, this is marketing. Edit: It seems people are under the impression that because you have lots of technology that is required to run your company you are a technology company. I don't believe that to be true in this day and age, tire distributors probably have more technology requirements th…

Their core business is a marketplace connecting travelers to hosts and their homes/rooms. That marketplace is software. If you're a company selling a service that is completely software based, are you not a tech company?

By the definition you seem to be using, the only companies that can be considered tech are enterprise SaaS.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#85

Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the res…

I found COBRA to be extremely expensive. I instead enrolled in obamacare via job loss exception.

My read of that is that AirBnB is paying the premiums for the next 12 months, as regardless of what the company does all employees are eligible to stay on their employee plan and pay their own premiums for 18 months.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#86

Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the res…

Dropping the cliff period for new employees is pretty much useless. The equity/ESOPs new employees will be exercising will be of the last valuation price which would be already high, and after Covid-19, with the struggles of tourism industry as such the notional value would have fallen a lot. So if you exercise those significantly expensive options now, you would probably need to hold it for a long time and really be…

From some other comments it sounds like they're RSUs, not options.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#87
post #68

I'm shocked that 2020 revenues will come in only 50% below 2019. I don't think anyone will be travelling for the bulk of this year, especially with the looming threat of potentially getting sick in a foreign country or away from your home. It will take 5+ years for them to get back the same level of inventory/hosts/customers as they had in 2019. Many hosts will foreclose on their rented properties during 2020 or conv…

> I'm shocked that 2020 revenues will come in only 50% below 2019 This is a fair point, but it also suggests strongly that a significant minority of their business is month to month rentals, possibly in place of leasing. And hey, being frank, I wouldn't mind considering going somewhere else for a few months now that I can work remotely for a while.

> a significant minority of their business is month to month rentals

I was wondering about that too. My next-door neighbors vacated their place when the lockdown started, but someone else has been living there. Since they often rent their place on Airbnb for weekends, my assumption has been that this is another Airbnb renter. She's been there for over a month now.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you not want optionality? Optionality always has carries an intrinsic positive value.

If you started working at Boeing exactly a year ago and were leaving today, would you rather have been granted RSUs at a notional initial value of $371.60/sh or been granted options at a strike price of $371.60/sh?

Wouldn't you pay income tax on the RSUs based on the notional initial value, and only pay tax on the options if you exercised them?

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#89
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deleted

In parts of countries like Canada, the last part isn't particularly important, but it's not nothing. Typically, white collar employers cover, in part, or in full, medical insurance premiums that every resident is expected to pay. In BC, prior to the recent phase-out, it was ~$900/year. (That money now comes out of income taxes.) Employers paying for that kind of benefit is either tax-advantaged, or just consistency o…

Damn, deleted the comment to soon it seems... Agree, for the US it isn't to bad a package, especially considering the circumstances and the health care system. All the best for the affected people!

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~~Yes, because it's pretty shitty for Europe.~~ I didn't understand well, sorry.

"In many countries, the severance pay is a lump sum that increases with the employee’s tenure in the company and their wage level. In the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain, employees with service of up to one year are entitled to severance pay (in most cases one month’s pay), while in Luxembourg employees have to have a minimum of five years within the organisati…

yup, it's better then what you would get in most of the europe.

does US have an unemployment plan. how long and how much do you get ?

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