Airbnb’s Inventory Worth Extra Than Doubles in Market Debut

Airbnb, co-founded in 2008 by now-Chief Government Brian Chesky, modified the hospitality business by demonstrating that tens of millions of individuals had been prepared to skip resort stays and ebook areas provided by hosts on its platform. The corporate says it has constructed a robust model, with the vast majority of visitors this 12 months going on to Airbnb when reserving short-term leases.

The corporate ended the day price $100.7 billion, based mostly on a totally diluted share rely, better than the mixed market worth of Marriott Worldwide Inc., Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Hyatt Inns Corp.

Airbnb’s first-day efficiency is more likely to proceed to gasoline pleasure over the IPO market, the place traders have been clamoring for shares of scorching newly public corporations.

Along with Airbnb, shares of DoorDash Inc. and C3.ai Inc. additionally surged on their first day of buying and selling, leaping 86% and 120% respectively on Wednesday. DoorDash’s inventory slipped 1.9% Thursday, whereas C3.ai continued to rise, gaining 40.6%.

By each quantity and inventory worth efficiency, these corporations are buying and selling into one of many hottest IPO markets in historical past. Thus far in 2020, greater than $155 billion has been raised on U.S. exchanges, far exceeding the earlier full-year file set on the peak of the dot-com growth in 1999, in response to Dealogic information that date to 1995.

Airbnb’s itemizing caps a troublesome 12 months through which the corporate was whipsawed by a pointy decline in journey brought on by the unfold of Covid-19. The pandemic upended holidays and work-related journeys, forcing Airbnb and different corporations—together with airways, resort chains and cruise operators—to retrench.

“Should you can survive a worldwide pandemic that shuts down world journey, you’ll be able to survive something,” stated Alfred Lin, associate at Sequoia Capital and an Airbnb board member and early investor.

This spring, as shoppers sheltered in place, Airbnb borrowed $2 billion to shore up its money reserves. In Might, the corporate stated it could lower 1,900 jobs, or one-quarter of its workers, and pause investments in noncore operations. Airbnb slashed different huge bills, together with for advertising.

“I assumed that this disaster was a storm that might be unrelenting for years,” Mr. Chesky stated in an interview.

However the firm was in a position to latch on to demand from folks in search of journeys nearer to house in the course of the pandemic, fueled by shoppers wanting a change of location. In August, for instance, greater than half of bookings made via Airbnb had been for stays inside 300 miles of the visitor’s location. Income is nowhere near pre-pandemic ranges—down 32% 12 months over 12 months within the first 9 months of the 12 months—however has nonetheless recovered from lows within the spring.

“One of many advantages of the disaster is that it did require us to get actually targeted.…That enabled us to inform a narrative about who we’re and what we’ll be,” Mr. Chesky stated. Within the weeks main as much as the debut, Mr. Chesky spoke to potential traders on video carrying sweatpants.

As of the top of September, the corporate had greater than Four million hosts and seven million listings of house leases and experiences, comparable to guided actions, in additional than 220 locations globally, in response to a prospectus concerning the IPO.

The corporate’s prices jumped fivefold between 2015 and 2019 because it expanded into new areas comparable to media and transportation, constructed a brand new headquarters and aggressively invested in gross sales and advertising. Mr. Chesky stated he ran via lots of of expense objects in the course of the pandemic. Whole prices dropped 22% within the first 9 months of this 12 months in contrast with the year-earlier interval. The corporate’s hefty gross sales and advertising finances was lower by greater than half.

The price cuts, together with the unexpected pickup in native stays, led the corporate to submit a revenue within the third quarter of this 12 months. The June-September quarter is often sturdy for the platform due to seasonal components together with summer season holidays, and Airbnb has turned a revenue in that interval since 2018.

However like many Silicon Valley startups which are bleeding pink ink after they go public, Airbnb has by no means posted a full-year revenue. Its loss final 12 months was better than its losses within the earlier 4 years mixed. And it misplaced greater than twice as a lot via the primary 9 months of this 12 months than it did within the year-earlier interval, largely due to shrinking income earlier within the well being disaster.

“I don’t know what the long run brings however that we are able to adapt to it,” Mr. Chesky stated. He pointed to Airbnb redesigning its app and web site to give attention to native stays in the course of the pandemic.

Some traders stated the run-up in costs for Airbnb’s shares made them too costly and averted shopping for the inventory throughout Thursday’s debut.

“I’m a giant fan of Airbnb, and I actually wished to purchase some as we speak myself. However I wasn’t in a position to do it as a result of I simply don’t really feel that the mathematics is affordable, and the inventory ought to come down in my opinion,” stated Tony Roth, chief funding officer for Wilmington Belief, which manages $124 billion in property.

The corporate’s development in recent times has drawn sharp opposition from many corners. Many householders have been pushing to fight Airbnb, elevating objections to residing close to short-term leases due to noise, events and worries about property values. In its stock-offering prospectus, the San Francisco firm notes that landlords, neighborhood teams and condominium associations have moved to ban or limit house sharing.

Denver, Boston and different cities have tightened guidelines masking short-term rental operations, as have cities that earlier than the pandemic had been main vacationer locations, together with Rome and Barcelona. In the meantime, some mayors have stated that traders have bought houses to lease out via Airbnb, exacerbating housing shortages and affordability. Airbnb stated in its prospectus that it’s going to proceed “to collaborate with policymakers to implement smart laws in cities world wide.”

Organized-labor teams tied to accommodations have additionally fought the corporate. In New York, for instance, a serious hotel-employee union had put collectively a lobbying effort to attempt to curtail it. Airbnb earlier this 12 months stated it could rent union building staff for new-real property tasks the place it’s concerned.

Write to Preetika Rana at preetika.rana@wsj.com, Maureen Farrell at maureen.farrell@wsj.com and Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com