Airbnb | Business Upturn

What’s the actual reason behind Airbnb’s rising popularity? Here’s the reason why

Kashvi Basu — Fri, 12 May 2023 19:25:15 +0000

Ranging from staycation homes to cottages tucked in the mountains, the demand for Airbnb’s is ever increasing. It is deemed as one such platform that serves as an online marketplace to help people find accommodation during their trip as per their needs. Airbnb is serving over 220 countries and regions across the world today. Hence Airbnb’s are now known as a “community built for belonging” but it had once started as a humble beginning like any other.

Airbnb, Inc was founded by three roommates,in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. Airbnb is actually a shortened version of its original name, AirBedandBreakfast.com. To fund their startup, they began selling election-themed cereals. The Airbnb founders managed to make a whopping $30,000 selling the Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains. They also came up with innovative and catchy jingles to attract attention.

Airbnb raised its first funding of $20,000 They were still making a mere lumpsum $200 a week and thus decided to make good use of the available money to travel to New York, their biggest market, to meet their users. On reaching there, the focus had now changed from shared spaces to all sorts of accommodation. And to their surprise in March 2009 , Airbnb had over 20,000 listings and close to 10,000 registered users.

Airbnb generally falls under the lodging sector of the hospitality industry. This industry is expected to reach a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 8% to reach $5891 billion by 2023’s end. It is an online platform which connects people in search of accommodation with the hosts who are interested in renting out their place. They help the host to find guests by allowing them to display their place on Airbnb’s platform completely free of cost. Airbnb’s revenue comes from the two-way commission charged from both the host and the guest. They charge 3% from the hosts and typically around 14% from the guests for every transaction made.

From starting in a small room in San Francisco, today Airbnb has their listings in over 1,00,000 cities around the world. It is one of those companies, which grew from nothing to a $30 bn firm in just 11 years.

The funding started to flow in gradually from $20,000 in the form of the Pre-Seed round to the highest amount of $1.5 Billion in Series G. The COVID-19 pandemic came as a terrible disaster to their business operation. However, when the company went public in December 2020, Airbnb made a remarkable achievement by entering a $100 Billion market valuation right on the first day of their IPO. The Airbnb share value surged to a record high of 113% from $68 per share to $144 per share. This was one of the highest first-day rallies in US history.

Airbnb is now said to be concentrating beyond traditional connotations of work travel and leisure for its success in the future. It is further aiming to convert Travel into a Living. To achieve this, Airbnb introduced more than 100 upgrades and innovations to its existing services that ensure flexibility among hosts and guests. They have also been steadily working upon a new concept and experience that they would offer their guests in the post pandemic situation.

Amazon Pay collabs with MakeMyTrip to provide smooth travel services

Ayisha Farah — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 12:26:31 +0000

Amazon Pay and MakeMyTrip India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip Ltd, have declared an imperative partnership providing travel services on Amazon.in on a long-term basis. The booking options will be available across Amazon’s mobile app and website.

The partnership is expected to support Amazon Pay provide value to its customers with access to MakeMyTrip’s travel offerings. Rajesh Magow, co-founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, said, “There is an accelerated digital shift happening as a result of the pandemic and through this partnership, we look forward to making travel bookings extremely convenient for new adopters, thereby increasing the online penetration of travel bookings.”

Mahendra Nerurkar, CEO & VP, Amazon Pay India, added, “Our partnership will benefit our customers, allowing them to choose from the offerings and services across the country, followed with the ease of using Amazon Pay, facilitating a seamless journey.”

MakeMyTrip will extend its distribution via Amazon Pay’s large customer base, especially in smaller cities and towns and stimulate online booking of travel services across the country. Amazon Pay strives at smoothening the booking and travelling experience for customers, increasing the availability of making online purchases from anywhere to anyone immediately.

Amazon Pay which has a co-branded credit card with ICICI Bank, will also let customers receive cashback rewards on bookings, and with Amazon Pay Later, customers can book tickets and pay next month with no interest.

Customers can also use various payment modes on Amazon Pay, including Amazon Pay Balance & Amazon Pay UPI to make their payments frictionless. Booking of bus services via Redbus is already live on Amazon.in. Other travel services powered by MakeMyTrip will be going live in the next few months.

India’s online travel services market is expected to reach $56 billion by 2024 with MakeMyTrip, Airbnb Inc., Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd., and Yatra Online Inc, the key players in the segment Technavio, a technology research firm.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s Akasa Airlines obtains NOC from the Aviation Ministry, operations to begin from 2022

Ayisha Farah — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 15:02:42 +0000

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s Akasa Airlines has obtained the NOC from the Aviation Ministry. SNV Aviation Pvt Ltd will operate under Akasa Air’s brand name, and Vinay Dube will be the CEO, reported CNBC- TV 18.

Money control has confirmed the same, and the low-cost airline supported by former Jet Airways chief executive officer Vinay Dube will now address the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for its Air Operator’s Permit.

“We are extremely happy and grateful to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for their support and for the grant of the NOC. We will continue to work with the regulatory authorities on all additional compliances required to successfully launch Akasa Air,” Dube, now CEO of Akasa Air, said in a press release.

The company added to its statement that the airline is seeking to begin operation in India by the summer of 2022. Akasa Air and three other airline companies appealed for no-objection certificates from the civil aviation ministry to begin registered air passenger services and air cargo services in August.

According to reports, Akasa Air is in discussions with Boeing and Airbus for purchasing aircrafts. Earlier on July 28, reports surfaced that Jhunjhunwala planned on holding 70 planes in four years for a new airline investment that he has decided to sponsor. Jhunjhunwala is assumed to own almost 40 per cent of the stake in the new airline and is contemplating investing $35 million in the enterprise.

Ex-President of domestic carrier Indigo, Aditya Ghosh, will be the co-founder of Akasa, Jhunjhunwala and former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube. Apart from Jhunjhunwala, other investors incorporate Airbnb and Par Capital Management, which has investments in US ULCC Sun Country Airlines. Other vital posts at Akasa will see former Jet Airways senior VP Praveen Iyer take up the COO position.

In contrast, former GoAir revenue management VP Anand Srinivasan will be CTO, and former Jet flight operations VP Floyd Gracious will probably have a similar position. Industry veteran Neelu Khatri is being charged as head of corporate affairs.

Airbnb IPO likely to go public in December

Shlok Arya — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 07:22:05 +0000

Airbnb, a home rental company, may make its initial public offering (IPO) registration public by next week. A report said the move will place the San Francisco-based company on track for stock market debut on the NASDAQ in December.

The company was aiming at 3 billion dollars while hoping to secure a valuation of more than 30 billion dollars in the IPO. Through Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners, Airbnb secured emergency funding from investors during the first wave of the pandemic.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the company got a booking for more than 1 million nights in a single day since March 3. The US presidency is hanging on a few key states now, and the country reported more than 100,000 infections for the second day in a row.

The US election has declined the uncertainty for IPO hopefully this week, and a partisan government may not raise taxes due to the stock market rally.

In October, Airbnb said, “It is creating an endowment fund to help financially support its hosts.”

Home rental unicorn Airbnb files confidential paperwork for IPO

News Desk — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 00:31:17 +0000

Home rental unicorn Airbnb has decided to move ahead with plans to go public just months after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the travel industry and brought leisure travel to a halt.

For an initial public offering, the company had reportedly submitted confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, Airbnb had been privately valued at nearly $31 billion.

The company has yet to decide the specifics of the public offering, including the number of shares to be offered and share price.

Airbnb to file for IPO in August after travel rebound

Anjana Krishna — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 09:52:39 +0000

Online vacation rental company Airbnb Inc, is planning to confidentially file paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by August end. The company faced cancellation of 90% of its bookings because of the pandemic and had to let go of 25% of its workforce.

The stock market listing will enable the trading of the company’s shares by the fourth quarter. Airbnb was close to hiring Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as joint lead advisors on its planned stock market floatation according to a Reuters report in October. The decision to go public could help the company recover the huge losses it incurred in pandemic imposed travel ban and lockdowns.

Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky had initially planned to go for a listing in March but the mass cancellation of bookings amounting to 1 billion USD forced the company to fire a quarter of its employees. It had to raise $2 billion in debt and its value fell from $31 billion to $18 billion.

By May Airbnb saw a travel rebound and a 20% increase in bookings over the year in the US and decided to go for the traditional IPO route to stay afloat.