2020 Archives

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.

United Airlines plans to stay ahead of the pack with a new effort to go "100 percent green." But it's unclear whether the decision to invest in something called direct carbon sequestration plants is any better than the industry norm of buying offsets for the nearly billion tons of greenhouse gases planes pump into the atmosphere every year.

Horizonless highways and RVs certainly have a lot of appeal in the current climate, but longer term they'll be competing against aggressive hotel and flight discounting.

Since Skift's own launch it 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…

It's hard to be reflective when so many levers are being pulled to prepare for one of the most anticipated IPOs in recent years, but Nathan Blecharczyk shares his thoughts, from the company's scrappy beginnings to wrestling with the burdens of success to Wall Street's watchful eye.

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.

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.

The Covid crisis seems to have softened some of the hostilities between cities and short-term rental players. The idea of the two sides working together was once anathema, but certainly seems possible as long as their thinking keeps evolving.

Yes, there's the call of the wild, but don't discount the call of concrete in 2021.

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.