The limits of Airbnb's rebound
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
While Airbnb is surging on the stock market, its fundamental business might not be quite as healthy as I thought back in September, when an Edison Trends report showed consumers spending 86% more money with the company than they did during the same week of 2019.
Why it matters: Edison Trends strips out any transactions over a certain amount — in this case, $30,000. There are still outliers near that amount, however, — very expensive rentals for multiple months, perhaps — that can skew the aggregates. When the company went back to re-run its data with a different cohort of users, the difference between 2019 and 2020 largely disappeared.
By the numbers: Airbnb is still at or above its 2019 sales, per Edison Trends, and is roughly even with Marriott. But Marriott has a lot of upside since it's still 45% below its 2019 levels.
The bottom line: Airbnb has executed an astonishing bounce back from existential crisis to a $106 billion valuation. But a backlash might be brewing.
Subscribe here to my weekly finance newsletter, Axios Capital.
