@Beckey0 Good to hear, and I agree. I think many of the true authentic local hosts are appalled by the company's major gear shift into the hotel and property conglomerate market, to the detriment of the very hosts the company is now trying to hang its hat on purely for the IPO purposes because the marketing / PR sounds so warm 'n fuzzy but in fact has zero resemblance to the truth.
One of the major issues is the way the company is marketing itself to investors, saying 90% of its listings are individual hosts, when in fact, we all know this is complete bs. Many of the major cities are choked with the property conglomerates like Sonder et al, and these large scale operators with remote co-host property managers produce very poor quality outcomes for guests. Authentic local hosts on the other hand, produce consistently high quality outcomes specifically because they are present and hands-on. But the number of these are more in the vicinity of 20% of listings, not the 90% the company portrays.
And then we can add that many of those 20% authentic local hosts are in fact multiple listed on other platforms and not exclusive to ABNB at all. But there is no breakdown or mention of this in the prospectus.
ABNB does also have multiple regulation issues as head winds, particularly in the large cities from whence it derives much of its revenue. Many local govt's are seeking to limit the number of bnb's specifically because their proliferation has done exactly what you describe regarding your sons. The regulatory issues will have a significant impact on the "scalability" of the business both medium and long term.
Not looking to be a harbinger of doom, but do just want people to do the homework. It's not called "due diligence" for nothing. Many just buy into the hype without bothering to look at the details, and that can be a costly learning experience.