Airbnb News

As people wanted to escape from cities and wanted more space, they fled to Airbnbs within driving distance of where they lived. We knew that anecdotally. Now we have hard numbers from Airbnb's S-1 filing.

This system malfunction will hardly be a footnote in Airbnb's history, but the timing sucked for the IPO hopeful.

Regulators in China, Europe, and the U.S. can certainly screw up on execution of their goals with over-regulation, under-regulation, or initiatives that are off-target. But there's something happening around the globe that points to a new and potentially hopeful era for competition and innovation.

In Skift's top travel stories this week, we surface the drama inside Air Canada's loyalty program, write a letter to the next president about travel industry priorities, break down the latest TSA airport security screening numbers, and detail Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian's tough talk to the hotel industry.

This lawsuit on behalf of hosts will do little to deter Airbnb's proposed initial public offering. Although it will generate negative headlines, large companies like Airbnb often treat class action lawsuits as the price of doing business.

From Singapore's very active reopening strategy to Marriott's work from hotel plan and Airbnb's pre-IPO stock split, the Skift team covered the top travel stories this week.

The Airbnb Host Endowment wouldn't turn hosts into investors in the IPO. But by earmarking 9.2 million shares to fund the endowment, it may counteract the feeling among a few hosts that going public would only benefit elite investors and employees. It's a clever and creative move by Airbnb, but more fundamental host issues remain.

Booking.com, Airbnb, Marriott, and every high-end retail shop on the Champs-Élysées want to see the proliferation of Alipay and other digital payment services to capture the spending of Chinese travelers. But Alipay's key cross-border payments strategy, despite a record-setting IPO, has run into major snags.

An Airbnb pre-IPO stock split gives the company's potential public debut more momentum because its share price in theory would be lower. Of course, none of Airbnb's IPO paperwork is public yet so the particulars of the IPO are just guesswork for now.

On the road toward its IPO, Airbnb has engaged in nonstop publicity about its efforts to crack down on house parties. Another less-noticed part of that effort is when Airbnb blocks these bookings of whole homes, it encourages users to book hotels instead.