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Comment by rolltiide | Hacker News Reader

Cant AirBnB just stop marketing and slow their runway burn to almost nothing?

They dont provide infrastructure or subsidies it should be okay

Airbnb is a middle-man, they make money from the transactions (bookings) between guest and host. The more bookings, the more money they make.

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

Yes but to GP's point what are their costs? Marketing and a website? The last place I went to book for 3 days had almost $90 in 'service fees'. ???

International customer service in many languages.

Serious question, have you ever used AirBnB's customer service? It's so spare as to be nonexistent. They make Google look high-touch. The host is providing 95% of the service. AirBnB is only there if the host won't answer messages or there is some colossal problem with the listing. I've had several dozen stays and only invoved AirBnB service on maybe 5 of them. AirBnB should be making money hand over fist since essentially they're providing a pricey listing service.

I'm a super host and can be talking to a real person usually within 5 minutes. I'm in Australia, it might be a time zone thing.

I'd cynically like to say political lobbying (and be right, they spend a LOT) but much would be support, development and hosting.

BTW Airbnb charge both the guest and the host, they make a commission from both parties.

Payroll for a company the size of AirBnB is easily north of a billion a year.

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