AirBnB is doing fine. They've posted healthy profits for the past few years, which is more than can be said of nearly every other tech/startup company that has announced an IPO recently (Uber, Lyft, Pelaton, WeWork, Cloudflare, Slack, Postmates, and Pinterest are all unprofitable).
They raised billions and now they make more money every quarter so there is no reason to raise more money unless there are specific larger acquisitions or expansions that can't be self-funded.
It seems the regulatory product lifecycle is that AirBnB enters a new market, and then some time later that market starts to regulate and restrict it. How many new markets does AirBnB have left to exploit regulation?
They're clearly not - or if so, they're doing a pretty bad job at it, because most big-name tech startups that have announced IPOs have posted a track record of losses, not profits.
As you mentioned, net income can easily be massaged, adjusted EBITDA, etc. Cash flow is harder to fake. Airbnb should have decent to good unit economics though.
What? This isn't true at all.
Even if that profit was after tax and amortization, etc. (which it wasn't) it's a tiny fraction of what booking.com makes while Airbnb is still charging higher fees.