Airbnb’s IPO filing shows it turned profit
Though Airbnb may be in the challenging position of preparing to go public amid a slump in revenue, CNBC reports that, relative to the rest of the travel industry, the company is thriving. In its IPO prospectus Monday, Airbnb said that third-quarter revenue dropped 18% to US$1.3 billion. While other parts of the travel industry are still in shambles, Airbnb is bouncing back. Even with the third-quarter revenue decline, the period was Airbnb’s second-biggest ever, behind only the the same quarter from 2019. And because the company slashed its sales and marketing costs by 74%, Airbnb turned a profit in the quarter of US$219 million.
U.S. travel spending to finish year down 45%
Travel spending in the U.S. is expected to finish the year 45% down from 2019 levels, and will still not have returned to its pre-pandemic strength by 2024, according to the latest figures released by the U.S. Travel Association. The new 2020 projected travel spending figure of US$617 billion is slightly worse than U.S. Travel’s previous forecast released in July (US$622 billion) — and is a large drop from the US$1.13 trillion spent on travel in the U.S. overall in 2019. The nosedive reflects a decline of 34% in domestic leisure travel spending and even sharper drop-offs in the lucrative domestic business (55%) and international inbound (77%) markets.