Skift Take

In Skift's top travel stories this week, we covered the Airbnb IPO from every angle. There were other stories, too, including Google launching new tools for destinations and hotels, a road warrior who's flown three dozen times since September, a property manager picking up Stay Alfred scraps.

Throughout the week we are posting original stories night and day covering news and travel trends, including on the impact of coronavirus. Every weekend we will offer you a chance to read the most essential stories again in case you missed them earlier.

Can Airbnb Sustain a $100 Billion Valuation? New Skift Research: Thursday was a historic day for Airbnb and the travel industry at large. Airbnb is a excellent business, but is it a $100 billion business?

Airbnb Share Price More Than Doubles in First Day of Historic Public Debut: Kudos to Airbnb for a dramatic comeback in its initial public offering. But the valuation, propelled by euphoric investors in a hot IPO market, was divorced from reality.

What Airbnb’s Journey From Start to IPO Has Meant to Skift, and Me: Skift since its own launch was the first media outlet to ask hard questions of Airbnb, and it has been amazing to document that journey of the company from start till its IPO day and beyond. My thoughts in an audio essay.

Airbnb Will Not Lose Its Soul Despite IPO and Success, Promises Longtime Advisor Every company goes through growing pains, but Airbnb can’t forget what initially drew so many travelers away from hotels and into the short-term rental sector.

Google Debuts New Traveler Demand Tools for Hotels and Destinations Starting in Asia: Google’s new tourism-oriented tools, two of which are open to non-customers, may be useful to small enterprises, and could help Google win new business.

Mask On, Wheels Up: Meet the Intrepid Biz Traveler Who’s Taken 42 Trips Since Pandemic’s Start: While many businesses are sticking to holding meetings via video conferencing during the pandemic, Abdol Moabery thinks the key is meeting the clients in-person and being socially responsible while traveling. A lot of executives feel the same way but haven’t actually acted on it, just yet.

Expedia CEO Shrugs Off Google’s New Data Tools as Competitive Threat: Given Google’s global market clout, none of its product introductions and activities should be dismissed. But Expedia’s CEO Peter Kern got feisty and made a good point that Expedia has transaction data, which can be more useful for hotels and tourism boards, than mere search data. Unless Google ups its booking game, and then all bets are off.

BridgeStreet Files for Bankruptcy and Sells European Business to National Corporate Housing: It’s a bitter irony that the pandemic has driven a push to remote work and created an immense opportunity for traditional providers of serviced apartments precisely at the moment that they have stumbled in their execution.

3 Ways Salesforce’s Purchase of Slack Will Shake Up Corporate Travel: The $27 billion software deal creates a new melting pot of users for travel tech platforms to tap in to. The race is on.

Selina Raises $50 Million for Its Latin American Hotels: Travel Startup Funding This Week: This week, travel startups Selina, Battleface, Tuyuan, and Roomy Hotels announced receiving more than $68 million in investment. Airbnb isn’t the only startup having a good week.

China Bans the Tripadvisor App Controlled by the Country’s Own Trip.com Group: China’s move to ban the Tripadvisor-branded app is somewhat of a head scratcher since the app is actually controlled by China’s Trip.com Group. Will other U.S.-branded apps, such as Airbnb’s be impacted?

Frontdesk Sprints Ahead by Taking On Short-Term Rental Castoffs From Stay Alfred: Stay Alfred’s collapse opened up for Frontdesk an opportunity to rise in rental property management with a less-risky model. More interestingly, Frontdesk’s new software offering for multifamily communities takes advantage of an opportunity left on the table by Expedia Group, which botched the execution of its Pillow and ApartmentJet acquisitions.

Outdoor Travel Execs Come Clean on Digital Challenges: Whether your company is offering customers short-term rentals in big cities or, in the case of outdoor travel firms, trying to get users out into the world to enjoy nature, digital tech can be key to achieving important goals.

British Airways Says Pandemic Isn’t Deterring Agency Support for Booking Tickets With New Tech Method: When the pandemic hit, some industry leaders forecast airlines and travel agencies would set aside their plans to reshape how tickets are distributed and sold. But a top executive at British Airways has some evidence to the contrary.

The Case for Short-Term Rentals Leading the Return of Travelers to Cities: Yes, there’s the call of the wild, but don’t discount the call of concrete in 2021.

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The Daily Newsletter

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Tags: airbnb, google, ipo, roundups, salesforce, selina, top stories, tripadvisor

Photo credit: (From top and counter-clockwise) Airbnb co-founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nate Blecharczyk participated virtually in the Nasdaq bell opening ceremony on December 10, 2020. Airbnb

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