Airbnb

Over 13 years after its founding, one of the defining startup
companies of the past decade finally makes its public debut — and
boy was it a big one. But for all the hype (and all the
legitimately great things Airbnb has accomplished), this is a
company that looks very different today than in the past. Even
before COVID, Airbnb's once-exponential bookings growth had
declined to linear levels while the company's costs continued to
balloon at accelerating rates. What’s going on here? Are public
investors smart to bet on a permanent shift in travel behavior
coming out of the pandemic? Or is this a case of unrealistic
expectations? As always, we dive in. 





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Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at
https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/airbnb





Carve Outs:


David — San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker:
https://www.sfballet.org/productions/nutcracker-online/

Ben — Star Wars Lofi HipHop:
 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5iu1sp3UBb1rjf8KNKETtJ?si=WxPdJcRpSnelHN9qh0xYSw