In regards to the delayed payment situation in Australia:
airbnb rely on the ‘network effect’ to gain hosts (to build and create a platform), with the hosts being the ones that take the risk, have the capital investment and do all the heavy lifting. If 23,000 hosts shut down airbnb in Australia, airbnb will have no product, no value proposition, no ability to generate revenue and their brand equity will diminish.
So why has airbnb not valued their greatest asset (hosts with properties), having treated their hosts with no respect, patronised them and kept them in the dark for extended periods about delayed payments, without transparency about what has gone wrong, what is being done to work out the problem and when it will be rectified. Airbnb’s competitors should be pleased at how poorly airbnb have behaved and new the opportunity created for themselves to achieve a greater 'network effect' in gaining a large number of hosts to their platform! What if this went viral and hosts across the global switched or even added new platforms to supplement their marketing strategy for their own venture of hosting out their asset.