Airbnb reveals its fears: Google, mayors and earthquakes

As Airbnb prepares to sell billions of dollars in shares, the accommodation giant has spelt out the wide range of risks that it faces: from search engines and angry city mayors to earthquakes.

Since the peer-to-peer platform was founded in San Francisco in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, it has become a dominant force in the hospitality industry.

The company is seeking to attract investors to an initial public offering to raise around $3bn (£2.3bn). As part of the process it is obliged to reveal its “risk register” in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 

The accommodation giant cites another Californian giant as a prime concern.

The Airbnb prospectus warns: “We believe that our SEO [search engine optimisation] results have been adversely affected by the launch of Google Travel and Google Vacation Rental Ads, which reduce the prominence of our platform in organic search results for travel-related terms and placement on Google.”

Airbnb also warns of the threat posed by “listing and meta search websites, such as TripAdvisor” and headlines Booking.com, Expedia and Trip.com – which includes the comparison site Skyscanner.

“Our competitors are adopting aspects of our business model, which could affect our ability to differentiate our offerings from competitors,” says Airbnb. “Increased competition could result in reduced demand for our platform from hosts and guests, slow our growth, and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

“Many of our current and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages over us, such as greater name and brand recognition, longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets, and loyalty programs, as well as substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources.”

But traditional hotels are well down the list of worries: “Hotel chains, such as Marriott, Hilton, Accor, Wyndham, InterContinental, Oyo, and Huazhu, as well as boutique hotel chains and independent hotels.”

A particular concern is the practice of some Airbnb hosts of “cross-listing” their properties.

“When properties are cross-listed, the price paid by guests on our platform may be or may appear to be less competitive for a number of reasons, including differences in fee structure and policies.”

Airbnb typically takes over 15 per cent of the value of each booking.

“Certain property managers reach out to our hosts and guests to incentivise them to list or book directly with them and bypass our platform,” it notes.

The coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll. “Many hosts and guests are apprehensive about or not willing to share homes due to concerns surrounding the transmission of Covid-19.”

Longer term, the prospectus identifies political antagonism in Europe as a problem: “A group of mayors representing 22 cities (including Amsterdam, Barcelona, and London) has been meeting with the European Commission to seek increased regulatory control in relation to short-term rental platforms.

“Such regulations include ordinances that restrict or ban hosts from short-term rentals, set annual caps on the number of days hosts can share their homes, require hosts to register with the municipality or city, or require hosts to obtain permission before offering short-term rentals.

“We are subject to a wide variety of complex, evolving, and sometimes inconsistent and ambiguous laws and regulations.”

Natural disasters also present a threat. “Our corporate headquarters, a significant portion of our research and development activities, and certain other critical business operations are located in San Francisco, built on a high-risk liquefaction zone and is near major earthquake fault lines.

“In addition, Northern California has recently experienced, and may continue to experience power outages during the fire season and our headquarters does not have power generator backup to maintain full business continuity.”

Airbnb also notes the risk associated with “sources of political uncertainty, such as the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (‘Brexit’)”.

But the company believes it has a good story to tell: “In more than 220 countries and regions around the world, our hosts have welcomed over 825 million guest arrivals and have cumulatively earned over $110bn (£83bn). “Airbnb” has become synonymous with one-of-a-kind travel on a global scale.

“And just as when Airbnb started during the Great Recession of 2008, we believe that people will continue to turn to hosting to earn extra income.”