Specialist
Former senior executive at AirSorted
Agenda
- Outlook on vacation rental booking volume recovery and discounting
- Comparison of Airbnb, Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) and Booking’s (NASDAQ: BKNG) vacation rental platforms
- Listing management industry growth trends and market dynamics
- Property owner indebtedness trends and ability for supply base to sustain losses
- Airbnb’s support measures offered to property owners
Questions
1.
Can we start with your updated assessment of the short-term vacation rental industry? How bad do you think things are, and how should we conceptualise a return to relative normality?
2.
What mix did you experience between rural and urban listings at Airsorted?
3.
Pre-coronavirus, listings growth was on a bit of a tear on Airbnb’s platform, and to a lesser extent Booking’s and Expedia’s Vrbo. That follows demand to an extent, but what magnitude of an impact are you noting on the listings side due to the current environment, and the sluggishness of an anticipated recovery?
4.
Focusing on that professional category, when will these individuals or companies be deciding whether to stick with the platform vs pursue a mid- or even long-term residential let for that piece of property?
5.
How do you foresee these supply-demand dynamics netting out in the rates that hosts are able to achieve for this inventory for some of these properties?
6.
How gradual a market recovery do you expect as people become more confident in Q4 or into 2021?
7.
Do you envisage a scenario in which Airbnb and Booking deploy a strategy to keep hosts on the platform and have that inventory ready to capture a potential demand upswing?
8.
What share of inventory do you think has been captured by professional HMCs [host management companies], given they have been growing rapidly to date?
9.
As HMCs scale up and acquire more inventory in key markets, can they leverage their position to extract concessions from the platforms via lower rates, akin to hoteliers on the hotel side?
10.
From a multi-listing perspective, how does a Booking Holdings booking differ from an Airbnb booking, particularly in typical lead times and average duration of stay? I find Booking ones tend to be slightly longer.
11.
Can we outline the typical host profile, especially on the professional side, and clarify their ability to sustain losses in the medium term if demand does not return? Presumably, these are mortgaged properties, they will have to be paying those back somehow to the bank, especially when repayment holidays end. What risk are you noting in that supply base?
12.
One assumes that – while there will be a mix – these companies will not be maintaining vast cash buffers. Do you have a sense of what is typical for these types of professional landlords to maintain, to weather short- term or potentially mid-term impacts such as we are currently experiencing?
13.
Do you foresee further deal-making or acquisitions in the market for HMCs? We mentioned Airsorted’s acquisition of Hostmaker’s assets.
14.
What discounts to historic deals might we anticipate in the current context? How do you think those types of multiples are trending?
15.
Under what scenarios do you envisage Airbnb stepping in to backstop some of these players, or indeed as a lender of last resort? Clearly, it will be reluctant to do that, but could you foresee it becoming a necessity?
16.
It’s interesting that the whole acquisition piece has been outsourced to these HMCs to Airbnb’s benefit. Do you foresee meaningful structural changes to the vacation rentals market as it moves past coronavirus?
17.
Can we conclude with your key takeaways and overall assessment of the vacation rentals industry?
