Airbnb IPO confusion and disappointment

[William672]

As many have already posted, Airbnb did not clearly communicate leading up to their IPO. When a company is planning a once in a lifetime event for their company a single email sent to it's stakeholders, to be allowed to participate, hardly seems adequate. Add to that you needed to response within hours of receiving the invitation in order to participate. (Responding within 24 hours of the invitation was too late to participate).  Then, if you were able to fill out the application, providing that the link was not broken and you were not using a mobil device that automatically routed you through to the Airbnb app and not the application, you received a cryptic response stating, " thank you for your interest in the program it is at capacity". 

I recently read how one fortunate host was able to purchase 200 shares at $68 and then resold for $144 on the same day. A 15K profit. Imagine if the share amount was capped at 100 so that more hosts could have participated?  Airbnb's executives could and should have been more forward thinking in this once in a lifetime event so that as many as possible could have participated. 

[Helen3]

At least you were allowed to apply in the US. In the UK and other countries we weren't even allowed to do this. 

[Jasper50]

Airbnb is in major debt and the IPO is down 15%.  You dodged a bullet and I wouldn't recommend from an investing standpoint to touch this stock with a 10 ft pole.   

They held their shares for the hosts they wanted to give them too and shunned the backbone of their company, the 1-3 property hosters.  Probably not a good business plan if you ask me, angering the majority of your revenue earners.  Probably not a good company to invest your hard earned money in either.

[Sarah977]

"They held their shares for the hosts they wanted to give them too and shunned the backbone of their company, the 1-3 property hosters"

While I agree with your other assessments, the above isn't true- there were hosts who got in on this who are quite small time. One I know only has a small studio attached to her house that she lists and a private room that is currently closed to bookings due to COVID.  

It seemed to be more a matter of the tenure of hosts as far as to whom it was offered,  the host's quick responses to all the emails, and following the instructions exactly.