Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

That being said, our bookings been hit pretty hard by the coronavirus. We’ve hade multiple cancellations recently, and the month of April is basically wide open. We usually have an occupancy rate for 85%. I think we’ll be lucky to have 50% of the next couple months.

It's like those SROs in the TL where cheap tourists are thrilled to be close to things and think it will be like a hostel. No.

Not sure what you want to do? Pay more so that Airbnb reviews them for you? Are you really up for paying old hotel prices again?

I came to a rental apartment which was trashed and uninhabitable and left it after a tiring few hours on the phone with Airbnb to convince them not to charge me and finding a place to stay (hotel) in the meantime (They also tried to find a 'suitable' replacement but nothing was comparable).

The host left me a negative review complaining 'I didn't want to vacate the apartment' (!). I was shocked that the host received invitation to write a review on a guest who hasn't stayed.

After numerous emails with Airbnb they confirmed that the host is able to leave reviews in all cases, as well as a guest, but they deliberately didn't e-mail me an invitation. They claimed they did, but after further investigations I found a proof this was deliberate omittance.

- Had cockroaches and rats scurrying around one my places.

- Another place completely flooded and all the electrical sockets shorted out during a rain storm.

- My host threatened me over WhatsApp because I left a bad review. I showed AirBnB the chat logs and they said they would so something but didn't.

I've stopped using AirBnb.

The trend of all these "regulation arbitrage" startups seems to be to show consumers why the regulation existed in the first place.

AirBnB gave me a refund and a 10% off coupon for that last one. Overall I've been happy with it; must just be luck.

Nice to have my own apartment again though. The nomad life is fun, I just wanted a home after awhile.

https://www.airbnbhell.com

I also had a couple bad experiences with AirBnb years ago and am much more cautious and lean towards a regular hotel more often - despite yearning for the old Bed-n-Breakfast concept.

On the other hand I only stay at Airbnbs when I travel, and have been for as long as I can remember, and I've never had these issues.

My biggest issue is that they lie about the prices per night.

I always look at Airbnb first when traveling because I value options like a kitchen where I can cook my own meals, a washer and dryer where I can wash my clothes, and a sofa to relax on.

I have to say though that I hate that they lie about the price/night.

Also the case in Australia where I live, the hotels are super expensive, easily > 150 a night for pretty low level.

For example we were down in LA last month and picked a hotel for the night because the prices were about the same. However in Bangkok late last year staying at an Airbnb apartment was significantly cheaper than a hotel (roughly 1/3 the cost for the duration).

Croatia is not Somalia, but it doesn't exactly scream "rule of law", either. Airbnb is not inherently safe so should only be used in countries where nobody would even think of breaking a law, like Switzerland or something. I have reservations about using it in America even.

Like, I hope the AirBnB trend slows down greatly for all of the reasons you listed, but they exist because people don't have the need or ability to pay for more expensive, temporary lodging.

You really do have to read the reviews, though, both as a guest and as a host.

It's the same story at home in Australia.

The caveat, perhaps, is that as a family of 6 we have trouble finding hotel rooms. We also usually book out full places, and want no interaction with the host unless things go wrong.

Do you mean having to click on "price breakdown" to see the service and cleaning fees?

Do you mean hosts asking for cash payments for things like linens and key deposits? (These have happened to me, but it is against ToS and Airbnb took my side)

My current travel plans are chaos due to cancellations. We have up to 10 flight segments over a month away that we are eating 100% of the cost on due to a cancelled cruise. We are dealing with 3 airlines with multiple hour waits and confusing policies with no success so far.

AirBnB, by comparison has been a total delight. In the app, I push the "cancel" button, and it's like "yea, that's months away, no problem here's 100% to your credit card today"

AirBnB hasn't failed. It has plenty of users, and over $2bn in revenue. That's not enough though, because the costs of running the business are higher than $2bn and so we see articles about how it made a loss again.

It seems fairly clear to me that a large number of loss-making unicorn companies need to get their costs under control, and the obvious way to do that is to lose some staff, or pay them less. At the moment that's hard because there's enough competition between companies that people can choose where to work but eventually the need to cut costs will outweigh the need for "the best people", and salaries for new jobs will start to fall. The result for many developers will be that they have to either stay in their role for a long time or accept a pay cut to move company. It might be worth considering that possible outcome if you work in dev right now.

When you open the door to your 70th floor room and the blinds automatically open to a floor-to-ceiling view of the city...yup, memorable.

But I actually remember a lot of the hotels I've stayed at. It's the Sheratons and Marriotts that blur together. They're perfectly fine hotels, they're just all the same.

The pictures and description never matches what I find when I arrive and by that time, it's too late and Airbnb has rarely stepped in to help.

I know what I can expect at hotels, with Airbnb, I never fully know until I show up.

If they skimp on salary it'll be extremely difficult to attract the kind of people they need.

Regarding the loss - airbnb is already mature and still generating so much loss? What a bad way to run a business. Would not invest.

Edit - Examples pulled from the notes from 2019:

Paris - AirBNB $650 a night, 3rd story walk-up ~1900 sq feet apartment with a balcony. Hotel price for something similar? $12,442.00/night. Hotel for a basic room ( ~300sq feet) ? $220/night.

Barcelona - 2nd floor apartment in El Born. ~1500 sq feet. $590/night. 1500 sq feet room in a hotel? There were two in the entire city. Price? ~8k/night. Basic room in a hotel? $180/night. King room in a hotel ( ~370 sq feet! Amazing! ) $440.

I can go on and on.

At below hotel prices AirBnb competes with cockroach infested motels.

Your example of Tokyo feels absolutely tone deaf to me as someone who has been there multiple times. That's just the reality of the Tokyo rent market. The places are tiny and that's how the culture is there.

Kyoto, Hiroshima, etc. are a different story. But Tokyo is pretty much the most cramped place I've ever visited, both indoors and out.

"The world's biggest home-sharing company reported a loss of $276.4 million excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared with a loss of $143.7 million a year earlier"

The loss increased by almost 100% versus the same time last year--and that's before COVID-19. This really makes me wonder how their planned IPO this year will perform.

EBITDA is basically "how profitable would the business be if they had no debt and their existing assets never lost value?". For companies with factories, airplanes, etc. the physical plant deterioration matters a lot. For biotech companies with patents that expire after 20 years, asset value loss matters a lot too. But tech companies have neither physical capital nor TTL'ed intellectual property, so EBITDA is a good approximation.

What happened here is that the whole travel industry is falling apart, not accounting gimmicks.

Consider the flipside. What would be a good home for a family of five, is now taken off the market.

As such companies grow and see huge market in front of them, it makes sense to take on loses to grab bigger market share.

Consider a company that makes widgets, profitably on a unit-basis. If margins are thin and it costs a lot to make said widgets, then they need something called 'working capital' which is the money to pay suppliers etc. before they, themselves get paid by their customers. This 'working capital' is kind of like a permanent need for some kind of debt, and weirdly, it grows as the company grows! So in a similar way, a 'high growth' company can have an ever-increasing need for debt as long as it's growing. Without access to this working capital, it can starve and die. It seems like it's a paradox, but it's not.

COVID will hit AirBnB pretty hard.

Now we get to have really cool experiences - staying on a couple farms and watching our hosts go to work milking cows or feeding horses, staying in a really old Mexican woman's huge mansion and looking at pictures on the wall of her and her family with presidents, popes, all sorts of other really cool art, then having her cook us a delicious breakfast. That kinda thing.

If we wanna stay in a hotel and just have eachother to keep ourselves company, Airbnb can't compete. But for a really cool side-experience to the main vacation, that's something a hotel can't offer.

When traveling alone or with just one other person (with whom I'm sharing a room), I agree, hotels are hard to beat.

Another example why, often the facilities which are advertised making an apartment seem on par with a hotel, often end up being some poorly maintained "home" version.

We always use Superhosts, and have never had an issue.

The only odd thing we had once was a host telling us that if anyone asks we are his "friends from America".

I think the key is sticking to superhosts. Also read all the reviews for the juicy nuggets. Sometimes there are some big red (or green) flags in the reviews.

The number of bookings is decreasing, and they are refunding their cut from bookings made months ago.