Since launching in 2008, the company has grown to over four million hosts and $8.4 billion in annual revenue derived from a ~14% service fee on guest bookings and an additional ~3% fee levied on its hosts Airbnb.
Investors see Airbnb as an "opportunity" in people's right to explore and as a reliable and necessary stock in their portfolio, but "The Bear Cave" sees things differently. According to the company's research, heaps of scandals and scary stories behind the experiences on the platform are revealed.
Some professional Airbnb hosts are even creating their own booking platforms and offering cheaper rates to "cut off" traffic from Airbnb, developing their own email lists and offering discounts to regular booking customers. In short, the future of Airbnb will be very different from what the analysts say so far, something that is also reflected in the stock market where the share price records losses of up to about 12% in April so far.
"Horror" stories from guests staying at Airbnb-managed properties abound online, including surprise appointments from cleaning crews, hidden cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms and even attempted rape.
"Airbnb is in a much more favorable market and it's a lot more like Amazon: everything on Amazon is almost bought in another way, but that doesn't make it a less valuable platform," according to Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke.
Currently, however, the company has been cutting operating costs, laying off staff last month in order to maintain its profit margins. Airbnb's 2022 revenue grew 40% year over year and was the company's most profitable year in history. The San Francisco-based company reported a 16% increase in active listings in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Bookings were up 20% from a year earlier, but missed estimates of the analysts.
