Airbnb is a popular online marketplace boasting 7 million listings worldwide, including 4,900 castles and 2,400 tree houses. Users can list a home or apartment for vacation or other short-term stays.
Many investors and analysts have been waiting for Airbnb to go public now that Uber UBER and Pinterest PINS IPO’d. However, market sentiment towards these unicorns has certainly soured—just look at the negative reaction to WeWork’s plans to IPO, and the subsequent fallout.
Airbnb did say it was profitable on an EBITDA basis in 2018 and has been cumulatively free cash flow positive since its launch. It was most recently valued at $31 billion, which is only about $12 billion less than Marriott’s (MAR) market cap. The company may also choose to go the direct listing route, following in the footsteps of Spotify SPOT and Slack WORK.
