While business travel has been a victim of the coronavirus pandemic, Airbnb intends to capitalize on the new work-life balance that emerged during the transition to long-distance work.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told Jim Cramer of CNBC on Thursday that the rental company sees signs that consumers are using the work model from anywhere that companies adopt to get out of the house and find a change of scenery. .
“The lines between travel and life are starting to fade together,” he said in a “Crazy Money” interview.
Unlike just renting Airbnb sites for the holidays, more people use rent for living purposes, said Chesky, who took over the company he founded last year. The IPO, originally set for early 2020, was postponed until later in the year due to uncertainty surrounding the global pandemic. The tourism industry has been one of the hardest hit parts of the economy due to blockages around the world to contain Covid-19.
Now, remote employees have even more flexibility, choosing to take more three-day weekends or move into homes for longer periods than before, as long as the internet is available to connect to Zoom for the purpose of work, Chesky said.
“We think a lot of travel will be in smaller cities because people will get in cars and travel nearby,” he said.
“We are really adaptable and resistant to any kind of travel behavior. That’s what we learned last year,” he added.
The comments come after Airbnb released its first quarterly report as a public company. It missed analysts’ expectations on the bottom line, although it exceeded estimates on the top line.
Airbnb said it posted revenue of $ 859 million in the fourth quarter, compared to FactSet estimates of $ 747 million and a net loss of $ 3.89 billion. A large part of the losses were attributed to the taxes it was charged to make public at the end of last year.
On Thursday, Airbnb shares fell sharply, closing 9% lower at $ 182.06, along with other high-growth technology and stocks during a brutal day on Wall Street.
So far, the stock has increased by 24%.