Airbnb Files For IPO

Airbnb, the popular vacation rental app, has submitted a draft registration statement for an initial public offering, according to a press release.

The submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t yet have details on the number of shares to be offered or the price range, according to the release.

The IPO, much publicized and anticipated before the pandemic, will likely take place once the SEC completes its review process, which is subject to various conditions of the market and other factors, the release stated.

Airbnb has said it still wants to go public by the end of the year, in spite of its 40 percent decrease in valuation in three years, PYMNTS reported. Airbnb was valued at $31 billion in 2017, but only at $18 billion this year.

The proposed IPO is expected to be managed by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Brian Chesky, CEO of the company, told employees last month that it would be opportune to make the IPO soon, saying the company is down but not out with the pandemic going on, PYMNTS reported.

The company took a hit at the hands of the pandemic in April, laying off 25 percent, or 1,900 employees, of its 7,500-person workforce in 12 countries. Chesky called it “the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime,” PYMNTS reported.

But the IPO could signal a resurgence for the vacation startup.

The company has seen a renewed interest in rural homes, now seen as a lucrative way to escape the pandemic while also not risking one’s health by going to crowded areas. Bookings for rural areas earned hosts $200 million in total for June, a 25 percent increase from the same time in 2019, PYMNTS reported. The company said over $9 out of every $10 was for a rental outside the more populated U.S. cities.