4 ms·

and I thought they were struggling because everyone is staying home due to Covid...

by zwieback 6y ago

whimsicalism 6y ago
I think the interior of America has given up on distancing.
- tudelo 6y ago
  To be fair... you can stay at an airbnb and still be completely distanced from the owner of said airbnb. Yeah, you have to travel, but for many this is also possible without any close contact.
  - whimsicalism 6y ago
    I can't guarantee, but my bet is the majority of people vacationing in Airbnbs aren't being distant. The marginal impact on deaths now is probably lower than it was in March, but only barely.
    - zeroonetwothree 6y ago
      I’ve stayed in Airbnbs many times (zero since March) and have not even once met my host in person.
      - whimsicalism 6y ago
        I'm not talking about interaction with the host, I'm talking about the general risks of traveling and then going to a new place where you are interacting with the people shortly after traveling. My claim is that most of these people are not going on exclusively nature-exploration vacations, they are going to see people or to patronize their businesses.
- rezz 6y ago
  Maybe ease up on the costal holier than thou sentiment. I’m in Miami right now and 90% of the people I’ve met are tech / finance types from NYC doing blow inside of clubs until 4am.
  - maximente 6y ago
    to be fair, that was also Miami pre-pandemic
    - rezz 6y ago
      No doubt, point I’m making is it’s not just folks from red states disregarding government advice.
  - whimsicalism 6y ago
    I was in Texas recently. I'm not going to ease up on it when mask compliance compared to SF or DC (haven't been to NYC) is measurably awful. > I’m in Miami right now and 90% of the people I’ve met are tech / finance types from NYC doing blow inside of clubs until 4am I don't even know what this means. 90% of people you've met in Miami do "blow"? What? Are you a coke dealer?
    - rezz 6y ago
      Maybe go out to a high end dinner in Miami and meet people before assuming I’m a drug dealer.
      - whimsicalism 6y ago
        So, I can't criticize the interior of America for generally failing to distance because of some rich finance people you met at a high-end dinner and somehow know their drug habits? Sorry, I really don't see the relevance to the original claim.
  - toby 6y ago
    Without any judgment, your sample may be extremely biased...
brianshaler 6y ago
I imagine cancellations skyrocketed and bookings halted for a few weeks in the spring, but by summer they started to publicly reveal trends were working in their behavior. The number of bookings was a bit depressed, but the number of nights booked had actually increased. In covid times, people seem to prefer staying in a private home for 1-2 weeks over sharing hallways with other guests at hotels for a few nights. With WFH, you can even relocate to an airbnb for a month or more.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I was going to uncharacteristically rent an AirBnB in January because I wanted my own place I could cook in rather than have to go to restaurants, at least for every meal. (As a base for hiking.) I ended up canceling because the situation is so fluid/crazy but it made more sense than staying in a hotel.
jeffbee 6y ago
They are struggling. They IPO not due to the health of their business, but because so many dupes are putting their dumb money on the table these days.
- bob33212 6y ago
  I assume most investors are smarter than that and are hoping AirBnB will build a monopoly similar to how google did with search and Wikipedia did with online encyclopedias. A 5% monopoly tax on most rentals/hotels does give you a huge profit eventually.
  - Ekaros 6y ago
    I really wonder if these monopolies will happen. Is there any paid service with actual monopoly yet? Amazon has market share, but also competitive prices. To me all of these big markets like taxi, food delivery and online booking seem rather low barrier of entry. And that the customers will be price aware. That can't be really compared with free services like Google, Wikipedia or Youtube...
    - ialex 6y ago
      VISA and Mastercard are close to monopoly there are also debt rating companies that control a market but cannot remember their name.
    - chungus_khan 6y ago
      The optimal shape for most markets is a duopoly. Both competitors get a large enough stake to continue growing, but don't really meaningfully compete, and don't have to worry as much about antitrust.
  - chungus_khan 6y ago
    There are a lot of tremendously unprofitable monopoly plays riding this sort of dream train, particularly since 2008. Which ones will work and which ones won't is hard to tell, but that is indeed what investors are betting on. At least Airbnb has a business model that could theoretically make it to profitability. An alarming number of these don't have any coherent path.
tomhoward 6y ago
But also due to covid, many people have relocated to temporary accommodation out of the cities - booking through Airbnb. I heard somewhere they saw record bookings in one of the past few months.
disown 6y ago
Lesson 1: Don't get your financial information from news or social media. From tesla to bitcoin to anything really, it's amazing how wrong the news and social media have been. Just not too long ago, the news and social media was saying tesla was overpriced and going to crash. Instead it's gained 10X or more in value.
- JanisL 6y ago
  I also remember not too long ago Tesla's CEO was saying Tesla was overpriced.

and I thought they were struggling because everyone is staying home due to Covid...

whimsicalism 6y ago

I think the interior of America has given up on distancing.

tudelo 6y ago
To be fair... you can stay at an airbnb and still be completely distanced from the owner of said airbnb. Yeah, you have to travel, but for many this is also possible without any close contact.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  I can't guarantee, but my bet is the majority of people vacationing in Airbnbs aren't being distant. The marginal impact on deaths now is probably lower than it was in March, but only barely.
  - zeroonetwothree 6y ago
    I’ve stayed in Airbnbs many times (zero since March) and have not even once met my host in person.
    - whimsicalism 6y ago
      I'm not talking about interaction with the host, I'm talking about the general risks of traveling and then going to a new place where you are interacting with the people shortly after traveling. My claim is that most of these people are not going on exclusively nature-exploration vacations, they are going to see people or to patronize their businesses.
rezz 6y ago
Maybe ease up on the costal holier than thou sentiment. I’m in Miami right now and 90% of the people I’ve met are tech / finance types from NYC doing blow inside of clubs until 4am.
- maximente 6y ago
  to be fair, that was also Miami pre-pandemic
  - rezz 6y ago
    No doubt, point I’m making is it’s not just folks from red states disregarding government advice.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  I was in Texas recently. I'm not going to ease up on it when mask compliance compared to SF or DC (haven't been to NYC) is measurably awful. > I’m in Miami right now and 90% of the people I’ve met are tech / finance types from NYC doing blow inside of clubs until 4am I don't even know what this means. 90% of people you've met in Miami do "blow"? What? Are you a coke dealer?
  - rezz 6y ago
    Maybe go out to a high end dinner in Miami and meet people before assuming I’m a drug dealer.
    - whimsicalism 6y ago
      So, I can't criticize the interior of America for generally failing to distance because of some rich finance people you met at a high-end dinner and somehow know their drug habits? Sorry, I really don't see the relevance to the original claim.
- toby 6y ago
  Without any judgment, your sample may be extremely biased...

brianshaler 6y ago

I imagine cancellations skyrocketed and bookings halted for a few weeks in the spring, but by summer they started to publicly reveal trends were working in their behavior. The number of bookings was a bit depressed, but the number of nights booked had actually increased. In covid times, people seem to prefer staying in a private home for 1-2 weeks over sharing hallways with other guests at hotels for a few nights. With WFH, you can even relocate to an airbnb for a month or more.

ghaff 6y ago
I was going to uncharacteristically rent an AirBnB in January because I wanted my own place I could cook in rather than have to go to restaurants, at least for every meal. (As a base for hiking.) I ended up canceling because the situation is so fluid/crazy but it made more sense than staying in a hotel.

jeffbee 6y ago

They are struggling. They IPO not due to the health of their business, but because so many dupes are putting their dumb money on the table these days.

bob33212 6y ago
I assume most investors are smarter than that and are hoping AirBnB will build a monopoly similar to how google did with search and Wikipedia did with online encyclopedias. A 5% monopoly tax on most rentals/hotels does give you a huge profit eventually.
- Ekaros 6y ago
  I really wonder if these monopolies will happen. Is there any paid service with actual monopoly yet? Amazon has market share, but also competitive prices. To me all of these big markets like taxi, food delivery and online booking seem rather low barrier of entry. And that the customers will be price aware. That can't be really compared with free services like Google, Wikipedia or Youtube...
  - ialex 6y ago
    VISA and Mastercard are close to monopoly there are also debt rating companies that control a market but cannot remember their name.
  - chungus_khan 6y ago
    The optimal shape for most markets is a duopoly. Both competitors get a large enough stake to continue growing, but don't really meaningfully compete, and don't have to worry as much about antitrust.
- chungus_khan 6y ago
  There are a lot of tremendously unprofitable monopoly plays riding this sort of dream train, particularly since 2008. Which ones will work and which ones won't is hard to tell, but that is indeed what investors are betting on. At least Airbnb has a business model that could theoretically make it to profitability. An alarming number of these don't have any coherent path.

tomhoward 6y ago

But also due to covid, many people have relocated to temporary accommodation out of the cities - booking through Airbnb. I heard somewhere they saw record bookings in one of the past few months.

disown 6y ago

Lesson 1: Don't get your financial information from news or social media. From tesla to bitcoin to anything really, it's amazing how wrong the news and social media have been. Just not too long ago, the news and social media was saying tesla was overpriced and going to crash. Instead it's gained 10X or more in value.

JanisL 6y ago
I also remember not too long ago Tesla's CEO was saying Tesla was overpriced.