Airbnb Is Laying Off a Quarter of Its Workforce (techcrunch.com) 89
Airbnb announced that it is laying off around a quarter of its workforce, citing revenue declines and a need to curtail costs. TechCrunch reports: In the note, written by Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky, the company said that 1,900 employees will be laid off, or 25.3% of its 7,500 workers. The layoffs will impact a number of internal product groups, including Transportation and Airbnb Studios, efforts that will be placed on hold, and its Hotels and Lux work, which will be "scale[d] back." The company declined to break down per-country totals for the layoffs in a phone call with TechCrunch, but its memo did note that its staffing cuts are "mapped to a more focused business." The former startup appears to be narrowing its efforts, targeting core operations and shedding more experimental and costly endeavours. According to Chesky's missive, Airbnb anticipates its 2020 revenue coming in under 50% of 2019's total; Airbnb saw around $4.8 billion in revenue last year, according to reports. The report adds: "Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the rest of the world."
7500 workers? (Score:3)
I don't see how they could have that many employees for that type of business anyway, but it seems like they are treating their layoffs fairly.
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I can't understand why all these multi-million/billion companys has no cash reserves to keep afloat for a couple of weeks etc.
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These layoffs are a result of declining business. They don't expect the business to pick back up in a couple of weeks. So, even if they have plenty of money in cash reserves, they sure don't want to spend it on the salaries of employees they intend to lay off anyway.
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They are also facing significant legal liability.
When Covid spread, Airbnb offered its users 100% refunds. That was very generous of them, but the problem is that they were not Airbnb's customers, and it was not Airbnb's money to give away.
Hosts set their own refund policies and Airbnb had no legal authority to step between hosts and guests. Many hosts had already offered guests options of rescheduling at a later date or accepting a partial refund, and many guests had accepted those terms before Airbnb se
Re: 7500 workers? (Score:2)
AirBnBs big problem is that they're getting a lot of competition from traditional providers. I was looking at an AirBnB for April back in Jan... I ended up finding the exact same flat on Booking.com for £50 less.
AirBnB stands to lose more in the long run by burning the good will of their customers, especially since most
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I can't understand why all these multi-million/billion companys has no cash reserves to keep afloat for a couple of weeks etc.
They have some cash, but they also need to prepare the business for the time that comes. It's likely that travel will take years to recover. Also, it's important to note that there is a big difference between a decrease in sales and "all travel stopped".
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It's almost like these companies have investors that demand their equity generate increasing value/dividends rather than cash reserves for a rainy day... oh wait, that's exactly how our capitalist systems are set up.
All companies should have anticipated that unpredictable situations like pandemics can occur, and they should have shored themselves up with on-hand cash or other easily accessible liquidity, or they should have gotten insurance contracts to cover them. Any company that has optimized their opera
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If we had joined them, we would be too. We had a CDC fuck up testing, an FDA also fuck up different testing. And Trump fuck up everything.
Having a population unwilling to do what is right for the common good doesn't help either. But those protesters infecting each other in the stupid states will be of little concern to the sensible states that get to reopen safely, and get their economies going again sooner.
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On one hand, I'm not surprised that there's a relatively short level of reserves, although I wonder how much "we are a hot new company immune from the business cycle" influences their thinking. There definitely have been severe downturns in the economy which have gone on for months which could tax reserves. On the other hand, there seems to be a reasonable argument that a business disruption so severe that it might call into question the viability of the firm, so why bother?
On the other hand, so many comp
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I don't see how they could have that many employees for that type of business anyway, but it seems like they are treating their layoffs fairly.
More than fairly. The separation deals appear to be remarkably generous. Good for them. I wish more companies were like that.
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Agreed, when I got laid off September 11th 2001 (they didn't wait till the end of the day...), all i got was a "yea this is going to be bad, fend for yourself"
Since then I've made it a point to not work where i'm a number in a random budget decision.
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Ok, now I have to know what industry you were in that you were immediately laid off the moment the towers collapsed. They organized a meeting and decided to enact layoffs within hours??
Re:7500 workers? (Score:4, Interesting)
I managed a data center at Tyson Square south DC for a mortgage underwriting company - pure cash flow business and they laid off nearly everyone that wasn't upper management or working on commission. They figured if they needed support they would call people up and pay them as they went.. i remember being at the bank and everyone stopping as it came on the news.. and ~4pm i got a phone call that i didn't have a job and by 5pm written instructions to mail everything in...
So yea,, financial industry.. one of the absolute most predatory of industry
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I don't see how they could have that many employees for that type of business anyway
Which type of business is that? A global business dealing in legal and community issues in every major and most minor cities around the world, wrangling an endless string of legal challenges dealing with an endless string of complaints and compliance problems?
I take it from your comment you think airbnb is some website and phone app run by a handful of programmers. I bet you their legal department alone is larger than a major law firm.
Re:Good (Score:5, Funny)
Listen, if your parents die of Coronavirus - whose basement do you think you'll be allowed to move into?
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The youngest person killed by the coronavirus was 5 years old.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
That depends. Are elephants doubling every five days?
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Not anymore! All those measure you described appear to be working!
Or give you death, yes. But individual immunity is not herd immun
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That's true, we need to start testing like crazy and do a LOT more contact tracing if we want to keep infections down while reopening the country.
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That's true, we need to start testing like crazy and do a LOT more contact tracing if we want to keep infections down while reopening the country.
Good luck testing 300 million people and contact tracing millions of infections.
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That's true, we should have started it all months ago!
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That's a good point, they are able to keep most of their people alive because they have socialized medicine. We should try to be more like Sweden!
Re:Good (Score:4, Informative)
Sweden is close to herd immunity.
Anywhere credible to back up you uninformed musings Lynnwood?
And their death rate per capita isn't much worse than the US - and considerably better than many other European nations that did lock down.
Sweden's per capita dead is currently 7th worst [worldometers.info] in the whole world. (Ignoring places with less than 1,000 cases to remove the tiny ones.)
Your claim that a handful of European countries are worse so Sweden is OK. Is just as silly as your claim that the rest of America is doing OK because New York is worse.
Sweden (283) is considerably worse than the nearby countries Norway (40) Finland (44) Denmark (87) Germany (83) Poland (19). As many deaths per capita as all those countries added together in fact.
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I'm not the one who brought up Sweden. That was LynnwoodRooster.
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Private insurance premiums and treatment are more expensive, but many citizens and expats prefer to pay in order to ensure that all of their medical needs are met and to avoid longer waits for the public service. About 1 in 10 people have private healthcare. Within the past couple of decades, the use of private healthcare has been increasing.
So if you want prompt service, you buy private. And more and more are starting to move that way. Perhaps the best result is a mixed model - like we have in the US.
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Perhaps the best result is a mixed model - like we have in the US.
We have a "mixed model" here? News to me. Best I can see is our mixed model consist of 1) Over 65 and on medicare. 2) Under 65 on private insurance. 3) Under 65 with no health insurance. That's a so-so system for 1 and 2, #3 just gets to go bankrupt if something serious happens. That doesn't really sound like the mixed model Sweden has.
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have a good possibility.
Ah..."possibility"...my favorite scientific method. Are you volunteering you and your loved ones to test out that guess? And are you suggesting that we ought to just let 80-90% of the country contract an illness so that we can develop the herd immunity needed to stop the spread? I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that plan.
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I never said that herd immunity does not work. However, the only ways to make it work are 1) get enough people sick to build immunity naturally or 2) vaccinate enough people. Given that we don't have a vaccine, the only way to build enough herd immunity is to get 90% of the people in the country sick. If I have to choose between staying home for a while vs "let's get everyone sick so we can maybe get herd immunity" I know which one I'm picking.
Perhaps, once we get some real actual numbers on survival rat
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Yet, the number of deaths in both cases is the same
I can't find numbers to back that claim.
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That depends. Are elephants doubling every five days?
You've never played Dwarf Fortress [lparchive.org] have you? :)
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Sweden tried this "scientifically proven" bullshit. They have far more dead than their neighbours.
If you don't care about the measures, just sign a paper that says that you will not use the health care system if you get infected and in the case you will infect someone you are going to pay for the damages.
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I live in a country that is doing quite well so far - we have as many active cases as 6 weeks ago and the epidemic will probably be over in two weeks or so. Apparently the alternative is working.
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Germany has been in the quarantine for longer than the USA.
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Re:Good (Score:4, Informative)
Per capita deaths [statista.com]. Sweden is better than a few other close-by countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, France.
Coronavirus statistics [worldometers.info]
Funny that you didn't compare Sweden (283) to countries that share a border Norway (40) and Finland (44).
Or even the close by countries of Denmark (87) Germany (83) Poland (19).
Have you seen a map of Europe?
Sweden has more cases per capita than all those countries added together. Clearly an outlier in its region.
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Per capita deaths [statista.com]. Sweden is better than a few other close-by countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, France.
That were shown to be clearly cherry-picked to misinform.
Coronavirus statistics [worldometers.info]
Funny that you didn't compare Sweden (283) to countries that share a border Norway (40) and Finland (44).
Or even the close by countries of Denmark (87) Germany (83) Poland (19).
Have you seen a map of Europe?
Sweden has more cases per capita than all those countries added together. Clearly an outlier in its region.
You reply after getting caught doesn't even make any sense in context.
Distract or run away. It's about all you got left after being proven to be completely disingenuous yet again.
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The risk is low because we're social distancing (Score:1)
Nobody is going to have house guests right now. Not that there were that many people using AirBnB that way. It's mostly illegal hotels. As somebody stuck in an apartment where my rent just went up $300/mo in one shot (and likely will go up at least $150 next year) I can't say I'm sad to see them g
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we've got 1 million cases out of 333 million with 65,000 dead
72,000 dead [worldometers.info] and growing by 1,700 - 2,200 per day.
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Shouldn't that be up to Trump and the government?
Or are you claiming anarchy will provide those medical services you are so outraged about.
Oh I forgot, its the governors, silly me.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Currently, with social distancing mostly in place in the US, 27% of the coronavirus cases with a known resolution resulted in death. (72044/270988). That should decrease over time as it seems people who aren't going to die take up to a month to clear it from their system, but it'll still be significantly worse than the .000125% you're implying.
It's almost like you're full of shit. Almost.
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Okay brilliant one: what is your plan? I’m getting really tired of people only being able to articulate a feeling and not a plan. If you’re so smart, what plan do you support that talks about how you can adjust to your 1/8000000 risk? From what I see, I don’t agree on those odds but talking about plan would at least be a constructive way to figure a way out or is that too hard?
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what is your plan?
Bitching is easier than thinking.
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Yes. Damage to your livelihood, without damaging your life, is worth less to me than even potential damage to my life from illness or death. Even the libertarians believe your ight to swing a fist stops at my nose.
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Why don't you go to work? Lots of minimum wage jobs that are hiring if you don't mind the risk of interfacing with the public with little protection. You're even likely wealthy enough that when you get sick, you can weather it out unlike so many others.
Around here grocery stores are begging for more workers, there's various delivery jobs too where if you work really hard, you might make close to a hundred bucks a day.
Then there are jobs at the meat packers.
I notice the right wingers are eager for certain pe
Sucks losing a job, but severance looks solid (Score:4, Insightful)
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Was AirBNB a COVID vector? (Score:5, Insightful)
Since it appears that NYC's first infections came from Europe, I seriously believe that AirBNB was an effective way of spreading the virus widely in NYC - lots of people in lots of different buildings, thus, really great dispersal in densely populated areas.
I only mention this as AirBNB is illegal in NYC, but AirBNB continues to facilitate such activity.
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Oh, certainly. Right now I'm staying in one because I'm having trouble finding a rental. We negotiated payment outside of Airbnb. So we're doing our part to not support Airbnb. This county has actually put a moratorium on short term Airbnb stays but Airbnb is not helping them with that in any way. They continue to book short term stays and collect payments.
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I seriously believe that AirBNB was an effective way of spreading the virus widely in NYC
Indeed, because tourists are well known for spending $2000 on flights but deciding not to go to a place because they don't want to spend a $100 hotel, just like they are equally known for hiding in that hotel / AirBnB and not going to any crowded places.
Sometimes its sufficient to invoke Occams Razor on an argument, but other times you just have to scratch your head and say "wait, did the GP really say something that stupid?"
I'm in Australia (Score:4, Insightful)
but I think I speak for a good portion of people world word, especially Canadians - when I say, fuck AirBNB
It's taking good homes off the market entirely. The whole world is full of rent seekers (especially here) - between landlords given HUGE tax relief in my country (no, not the owner occupier people who just want a home, the landlords SPECIFICALLY) and AirBNB - the cost to buy a home has never been higher.
All I can say, is Covid19 has some silver lining. Fuck people monetising the shit out of shelter.
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This isn't the fault of AirBnB - it' sthe fault of regressive governance. In Canada, the government has done a poor job of detecting when a home purchase isn't a primary residence. Since capital appreciation of primary residence isn't taxed, this has allowed many to significantly enrich themselves, especially during boom times. AirBnB was one method they could take advantage of since it was easier than long term rental.
COVID isn't going to make the AirBnB problem go away. This too will become a memory, a
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but I think I speak for a good portion of people world word, especially Canadians - when I say, fuck AirBnB
Yeah I agree. Except when I'm travelling at which point I disagree.
But you said it yourself "Australia". If you think the housing problems in Australia have anything to do with AirBnB you're absolutely delusional. Hell there were housing problems in Australia back when the Howard government was running the joint and when asked about AirBnB he famously said "What the fuck is an app?"
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Howard, you mean the sack of shit that made the CGT changes and immigration changes that fostered the shit mess we're in now?
He's the cause of the problem.
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He's the cause of the problem.
Yeah, that's what I said. Except for all that irrelevant shit you just posted you're absolutely right.
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