Big 3 Online Travel CEOs Each Push Back Against Their Own Critics
Skift Take
Why isn't Airbnb profitable? Is Expedia Group losing market share? What about Booking.com losing ground in short-term rentals? In recent separate published interviews, the CEOs of each company pushed back against the criticism.
At Airbnb the Cash Is Flowing
In a CNN interview, reporter Richard Quest last month cited to Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky the numerous unprofitable companies years ago — and we should mention today — that spoke of a "path to profitability" in the face of losses and told Chesky "there has to be a better business case."
In the first quarter, Airbnb's narrowed its net loss to $19 million, and its market cap June 2 mid-day was $78.8 billion compared with rival Booking Holdings' $94 billion.
Chesky answered that Airbnb's free cash flow in the first quarter, which is typically a slow quarter, was $1.2 billion.
"We are lean, we have 6,000 employees," Chesky said. "We were very, very profitable from a free cash flow standpoint in Q1. We are feeling really good."
Indeed in 2021, which saw Airbnb notch a net loss of $352 milliion, the red ink was primarily due to interest expense and "other income" expense, mostly a remeasurement of financial instruments.
He added: "We are not pulling on the breaks. We are steppi
