Info on Airbnb shares for hosts (USA only)

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From the email (I know not everyone seems to get their emails)

Dusty,

Hosts like you are a foundation of our company, and we’re deeply grateful for the community you have built over the last 13 years.

As you may know, Airbnb has taken steps towards becoming a publicly traded company. We’ve heard from Hosts who are interested in purchasing shares as part of our proposed IPO, and we’re writing to tell you that we plan to offer a Directed Share Program. This means we intend to reserve a portion of Airbnb shares for eligible hosts to purchase at the initial public offering price at the time of our proposed IPO.

This is a complicated process, so we’ve provided more information about the eligibility criteria, and answered some frequently asked questions, here .

The program will be administered by a broker-dealer, not by Airbnb. And in the coming weeks, program capacity permitting, the Administrator will send an email with more information directly to eligible Hosts who are interested.

If you’re interested in learning about the Directed Share Program, complete this form to pre-register by Friday, November 20, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Here are some important details:

** The number of shares available at the IPO price is limited. Receiving this message and completing the form is only the first step in the process and does not guarantee that you will be able to participate.*

** If more Hosts express an interest in participating than the program is able to accommodate, eligible Hosts may be invited to register by the Administrator based on tenure, as determined by the year they first hosted on Airbnb. Registration will be available on a first come, first served basis, by invitation from the Administrator.*

** When the program reaches capacity, registration with the Administrator will be closed. If this occurs before you complete the registration steps you will not be able to participate.*

** Program capacity permitting, Hosts who complete the above form will receive information about the program directly from the Administrator in the coming weeks. By submitting the form, you consent to us sharing your responses with the Administrator.*

** We expect that there will be a minimum purchase amount of at least $300 in addition to a maximum purchase amount. We may further limit the amount any one Host can purchase depending on total demand for the program and Airbnb’s initial public offering price.*

** There are certain regulatory and other requirements that may restrict the ability of a Host to participate in the program. Hosts must be United States residents to be eligible.*

Completing the form now doesn’t obligate you to purchase shares, but if you don’t complete it by Friday, November 20, 2020 , you won’t be able to participate and will not receive any more information related to the program.

Thanks for opening up your world to the Airbnb community. We’re inspired by your passion and generosity every day.

The Airbnb Team

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@kaiserdr. I’m tagging you in here so you can easily see replies. I also submitted the form indicating interest. If this IPO is like any others I’ve ever been familiar with it will be way oversubscribed and there will be a bunch of hosts complaining about it. In other words, Airbnb will be damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

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@Lesia_Null It’s really helpful if we just have one thread on this topic.

FWIW I’m not a stock broker but as someone who has attempted to buy into an ipo before, this is pretty standard procedure. As for if it’s a good value, we don’t have a price yet so how could anyone have any idea?

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I received my email this afternoon. I’ve submitted ‘the form’. We’ll see what it amounts to.

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My wife and I both received e-mails around 5pm this afternoon. We discussed it, and determined we aren’t going to participate because we don’t have faith in Airbnb’s ability to grow.

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Interesting so this is only for US hosts @

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Airbnb is constantly growing, and so is our responsibility to ensure that hosts and guests can use our platform without encountering prejudice or discrimination.

Well, only offering an in on the IPO to US based hosts sounds a bit discriminatory to me, don’t think the SEC have any rules over residence and ownership of shares in US companies.

:stuck_out_tongue:

JF

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I would think next year will be better than this year… I am going to invest, nothing is without risk though.

RR

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I’m hoping that being a host for 8.5 years helps with priority. If it’s meant to be!

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I think it’s just an arbitrary way to limit the number of people who request access. It’s going to be oversubscribed. Airbnb does this so they can say “we value our hosts who built us up from nothing 13 years ago, blah de blah.” But the shares made available will be quite limited, similar to their programs this past spring to help Airbnb hosts slammed by their EC refunds.

One doesn’t have to get in on the IPO to buy the stock. It’s quite possible the stock will debut and get that “pop” that makes news but you’ll be able to buy it cheaper later, like when the insiders dump their stock.

I filled out the form expressing interest as a way to get information and to have the option if I want it. As much as anything I’m curious to see if I get the chance to even buy any and how the process works.

I agree. As for their ability to grow, I don’t know. If I did I wouldn’t be an Airhost and I wouldn’t be on this forum. But, they’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations so far.

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That’s what they said but there’s going to be no way to know. After they make allocations I expect there will be posts here where people say “I’ve been a host since day one and I didn’t get any shares,” and someone else will say “I’ve gotten Airbnb many thousands of $$ of revenue and I didn’t get any shares,” and so on.

It will be a fun distraction.

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Possibly, but now the figures are out, maybe not as oversubscribed as it would have been two years ago.

JF

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I am guessing those who opt in to buy 500 shares would take priority over the host trying to buy in at the minimum $300 level

Money talks
Cash is king

RR

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Air bnb did not have a choice in this. It is a securities and exchange commission regulation.

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Has anyone received an email about the IPO after expressing interest? Still waiting here

RR

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Nope. …

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So I filled out the form to get more info. Just saw that the IPO was today. It pretty much doubled! I looked back on my emails and didn’t get an email on how to purchase before the IPO. Did anyone else get one? Feels like I missed out… :confused:

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Most recent discussion is here:

You were probably not one of the people invited to buy shares. Out of curiosity, how long have you been a host?

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They closed the option to purchase last night at midnight and from what I understand the max shares they allowed hosts was 200 shares. At least that’s what my max offer was and several other hosts have shared the same.

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Yeah, but I’m just wondering if I was even given the opportunity to buy. I searched and never saw that follow up email!