AirBnB Plans to go public in 2020
Unlike Uber and Lyft, AirBnB is profitable.
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This has been in the works since early last year. One of the things still being discussed is if current hosts can buy the stock at a discounted rate when it goes public.
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This may be a good thing – hosts (especially host stockholders) might have more say in how we are treated; and how unprofessional and inconsistent many, many of their CS people are.
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My money is on it not happening. I’d seen an article about Chesky saying they wanted to reward some of their “most loyal hosts.” I’d would absolutely love to see how they decide on a measurement of “most loyal” and then deal with the howls of protest when a “loyal host” doesn’t make the cut.
It would be interesting to see what the demand is and if they structure it like an employee stock option, which sort of structure.
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Given that 90% of listings (and therefore 90% of hosts) are located outside of the US and none of them are technically employees, it could take years to figure out how to comply with all of the legalities of offering stock to hosts. And if it was based on “loyalty”, it could get even more sticky.
Some might think they could do something like a typical employee Stock Participation Plan offered in the U.S. and other countries. E.g. ,it allows an employee to contribute up to 10% of their pretax salary through payroll deductions. The deductions are accumulated for 6 or 12 months and then company stock is purchased in bulk at up to a 15% discount. Airbnb could do the same with hosts and host payouts. But, since hosts are not employees and payouts are not salary, it’s a non-starter.
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If there has ever been a time you could get regulators in the US to just suspend the rules, it would be now. But again, my money is on no. I’m also in the divestment, not investment, stage of life. Someone else can have my shares, assuming I could even qualify to get any.
Host stockholders might also be more conscious of the ways that hosts cost the company money and how that affects it’s stock price.
Like what? Needing constant handholding from CS?
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Exactly!!!
If they wrote software that wasn’t buggy and had rules that actually made sense, they could cut the cost of customer disservice significantly. You can pay up front or pay later. Air is paying later.
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Maybe. But I see a ton of posts here and on the Airbnb community forum that indicate there are great numbers of clueless hosts who can’t think their way out of a wet paper bag. Yes, some posts are about the software or a real problem. I’m not referring to that. I’m referring to all the calls about the “unfair review” or Airbnb needs to “tell the guest this or that” because I’m apparently incapable of doing it myself. Or the classic “Airbnb needs to make the guest read the rules.” Bwhahhaha.
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I agree. It would be hard to believe that the customer support time spent on software bugs is even significant when compared to customer service time spent on other host and guest issues. If it was, they’d be all over it because it’s a much easier problem to solve and it’s totally within their control.
What I’m talking about is customer support costs because hosts are inexperienced, control freaks, dishonest, stupid, etc. Maybe they could make the stock purchase discount for hosts proportional to the host’s booking revenue divided by host’s customer support cost.
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This is really exciting!
I find it hard to believe that hosts are even a remote priority here.
Air the concept has been profitable. But what you have is a global service without a lot of brick and mortar equity. If we can navigate past that, what plans for the future command widespread investment and major league ROI? Not seeing it.
I would rank the management team at C level. Up until very recently, there has been no diversity or female representation. There is no direct channel between management, host, and consumer. Mostly it’s a one man show. As a consequence, rules change frequently, and new ventures are launched without a lot of forethought. Immaturity.
At the end of the day, Airbnb’s brand is a lower cost alternative to hotels. And it works. But I need to see real strategy before I start throwing money at it.
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Other than maybe schoochandsteve no one here believes hosts are a priority at all here. It’s strictly time for the angel investors to get paid. Could Airbnb make a show of rewarding their first 5000 hosts (if they are still hosts) with stock options? Sure. Is it going to affect the vast majority of users. No.
I’m only interested in terms of seeing disclosure of information that is required when a company makes their quarterly reports. If Airbnb wants to give me anything, I’ll take it but I’m not going to be investing my money in this or any other company.
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I’m not going to be investing in Airbnb because I don’t think it’s a good investment. My STR business is doing fine (for now; I’m not banking on that continuing forever) but when I zoom out and look at the company as a whole especially with the increasing limitations on STRs, I don’t see value here.
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That’s why they are trying to get into other businesses like experiences and last minute hotels. (this is not an endorsement of Air as an investment)
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Oh, I understand that. I just don’t see it as a way to grow the business; it smacks of desperation to me. I’m undecided on the whole Experiences thing. It seems to me that there are many, many ways for the people to market them without having to give up 20% of the take.
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Yes but if Airbnb becomes a market leader one stop shop for travel then those “other ways” aren’t going to be good enough. It’s like Amazon doesn’t just sell what they have in their own warehouse, they’ve become a one stop shop. I’m sure when Airbnb started people already doing STR thought Airbnb would never make it because why would people pay them 20%? Now they complain that Airbnb has destroyed their business.
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Amazon expanded from books and such into an online bazaar.
Airbnb would be expanding from cheap and cheerful accommodation into … ?
There have been forays, but I don’t get the sense of a clearcut strategy.
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