The company, which began renting a single air mattress in a San Francisco apartment, is now worth $ 100 billion.
Airbnb debuted in the long-awaited stock market on Thursday and more than doubled the bid price.
From a distance, this may have turned out to be a kind of time for hostels to go public, as the coronavirus continues to destroy the travel and hospitality industry. But the history of Wall Street is different.
The IPO spree is booming in the financial sector, with more companies coming out this year than after the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.
“The IPO market is red, so they’re surprised at how hot that iron is,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at the Atmosphere Research Group.
Next consideration: Employees have shares in the company that will expire this year. If Airbnb continues to resist calls to publish it, employees may miss the opportunity to redeem it. That, according to Harteveldt, was a major issue for Airbnb.
“So they just came to the conclusion: it’s better to come out now,” Harteveldt said.
At least for now, it seems to be the right bet.
Shares of Airbnb were offered for $ 68 a share on Wednesday, but when it began trading on the public market under the ABNB symbol on Thursday, that price rose again to about $ 144 a share.
This increased the company’s value to $ 100 billion, or more than the combined value of the Hilton, Marriott and Intercontinental hotel chains.
Instead of ringing the bell on the floor of the Nasdaq, Airbnb has released an elegant video in which hosts around the world ring their doorbells.
“You gave us hope that the idea of strangers being together, in each other’s homes, after all wasn’t so crazy,” Airbnb founder Brian Chesky said in the video. “Airbnb is rooted in the basic idea that people are good, and we do it together,” said Chesky, who has a stake in the company of more than $ 11 billion. USD.
Airbnb’s public offering came just one day after the launch of the DoorDash program for delivering food to a public place, with its stock market debut at 85%.
80% of revenue decreased in two weeks
The story of Airbnb’s return is amazing. When the first pandemic broke out, the Airbnb business collapsed. The numbers gave a disturbing picture: the company recorded more cancellations than new orders.
"In two weeks, revenue has dropped by 80%. And the worst thing was that we didn't know how long it would last," Airbnb founder Nathan Blecharczyk told NPR in an interview on Thursday. "But people, who want summer, were very eager to come into their homes."
Airbnb fired 1,900 workers, took billions of dollars in loans, offered hosts deep cleaning recommendations, and updated its website to promote beach vacations in the nearby woods.
“It often just meant getting in a car and driving to the countryside,” Blecharczyk said. They love the idea of having a home for everyone where they can be in their own balloon, have their own kitchen and cook their own food.
These movements led to a bounce. Airbnb bookings have not fully recovered, although the company is doing much better than most hotel chains.
The company managed to make a profit in the third quarter of this year, but it was still never able to make a profit all year - and you don't know if it will.
“We have suffered a net loss every year since the start of operations and perhaps we will not be able to achieve profitability,” Airbnb wrote in its IPO application.
Pandemic support backed by Airbnb hosts: will “small wallet” be enough?
Take retired mail worker Louis Koorndyk, who owns two properties outside of Las Vegas that he uses as an Airbnb lease.
"We're getting orders much closer to home. People don't necessarily fly, especially people who prefer to stay longer," said Koorndyk, who also runs the Great Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association.
Koorndyk said guests asked for the opportunity to work remotely. After all, he advertises pandemic-era pads.
“I really had to upgrade my WiFi and provide a 20-foot Ethernet cable for people to hold Zoom meetings,” he said.
Koorndyk saw orders increase by about 50% when they hit bottom. He is grateful even for the poor support provided by Airbnb, which cannot be said about all the hosts.
“They’re really good at saying,‘ We have your back, we take care of you. We are partners in all of this. “But from the perspective of many hosts, this has never been true and has never been as true as it is today,” said Michigan attorney Enrico Schaefer, who represents the Airbnb owner in a lawsuit. a class alleging that the company stole hosts during the pandemic.
In fact, Airbnb is nothing without 4 million hosts worldwide. Many were furious when the company surprised him
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