Pandemic hits Airbnb hard

The company which filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Monday, revealed that its business will continue to be affected as Covid-9 continues to spread.

New Delhi: Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the home-rental service Airbnb saw its gross booking revenue (GBV) nosediving by 39 per cent to reach 18 billion, while generating sales worth $2.5 billion (down 32 per cent year-on-year) in the nine months that ended in September 30.

The company which filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Monday, revealed that its business will continue to be affected as Covid-9 continues to spread.

---

Airbnb generated $1 billion of net cash provided by operating activities and incurred $507 million of purchases of property and equipment cumulatively from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2019.

“We believe that we are still early in the global shift in consumer preferences toward one-of-a-kind stays and experiences, which provides an opportunity to further grow our community and business,” said the company.

In 2019, Airbnb generated Gross Booking Value of $38 billion, representing growth of 29 per cent from $29.4 billion in 2018 — and revenue of $4.8 billion, representing growth of 32 per cent from $3.7 billion in 2018.

“COVID-19 has materially adversely affected our recent operating and financial results and is continuing to materially adversely impact our long-term operating and financial results,” the company admitted. “However, we believe that as the world recovers from this pandemic, Airbnb will be a vital source of economic empowerment for millions of people”.

As of September 30, Airbnb had over 4 million hosts around the world, with 86 per cent of hosts located outside of the United States.

“Our hosts had 7.4 million available listings of homes and experiences as of September 30, 2020, of which 5.6 million were active listings,” the company informed. In 2019, 54 million active bookers worldwide booked 327 million nights and experiences on its platform.Since its founding, there have been over 825 million guest arrivals on Airbnb.