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by geronb 2141 days ago
Airbnb is actually doing very well right now, and is essentially fully recovered if not growing, same as the competitors like VRBO. There's been a huge surge in nearby getaway trips. https://www.financial-world.org/news/news/business/6074/cali...
2 comments

Given you've posted that twice to this thread now, can you prove what you're saying better than posting a link that doesn't actually support what you're claiming?

It's doing very well - versus what? It's profitable? It's not bleeding huge amounts of cash? Its sales are higher than this time last year? Please provide some potent information to defend the premise.

Airbnb had to fire 1/4 of its staff. It's doing very well versus having to fire 3/4 of its staff?

Essentially fully recovered, if not growing - can you provide supporting information that shows that Airbnb sales have fully recovered? That's a gigantic claim.

Besides that, is there good reason to believe any recent sales bump post lockdown isn't temporary? People bursting out of lockdown and desperate to get-away for a brief spell before school starts and Summer ends, and prior to the Covid deathwave that is inbound this Fall & Winter (which will prompt further lockdowns, short of a miracle vaccine being distributed everywhere before January or February).

> Airbnb had to fire 1/4 of its staff

It's not so much "had to fire 1/4 of its staff" as "fired 1/4 of its staff preemptively because by the time you actually have to fire 1/4 of your staff, it's too late". As a bonus, if it turns out the cuts weren't necessary, they look really good going into the IPO because their biggest cost (labor) dropped by a lot.

I'm not sure why people are downvoting the comment. The link I included indicates there were 1 million bookings in a single day, signaling recovery.

A quick Google search shows multiple articles with more data points as well:

- Similarweb traffic: VRBO traffic is above February traffic levels https://www.similarweb.com/website/vrbo.com/

- Airbnb traffic shows a V shaped recovery https://www.similarweb.com/website/airbnb.com/#overview

- VRBO drives Expedia group recovery https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2020/07/07/expedia-g...

- Airbnb shows unexpected growth https://fortune.com/2020/06/30/airbnbceo-brian-chesky-bookin...

- May article showing early signs of V-shaped recovery https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/airbnb-booking-data...

- "Airbnb saw more nights booked for U.S. listings between May 17 and June 3 than the same period in 2019, and a similar boost in domestic travel globally." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-12/airbnb-re...

Regarding layoffs:

Business tanked right after COVID began, and people were laid off because of that, but business recovered unexpectedly in the summer.

Whether this is a temporary recovery:

This is anyone's guess, and it may very well be temporary, but take a look at Airbnbs and VRBOs in less dense getaway destinations near urban centers. You will find a lot of them are fully booked through September and October.

In my country most hotels (and love hotels) are still closed. So for those who want to do local travel outside the cities Airbnb and house rentals are the only option.