Airbnb’s Road to an IPO: Everything You Could Possibly Need to Know


Skift Take

We all know Airbnb will go public someday — it's just a question of when. When will it finally be ready — and what does the company need to do before it does?

[caption id="attachment_241353" align="alignright" width="300"] It’s our fifth birthday this week. Click on the logo for more big stories.[/caption] When will Airbnb do its initial public offering? That's the question on the minds of many Airbnb investors and industry watchers. The San Francisco-based company, which got its start in 2008 when its founders were scrambling to pay their rents by advertising air mattresses in their living room, is now worth an estimated $31 billion. That's only $7 billion less than the market cap of Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company. It's also one of the few wildly successful Silicon Valley tech unicorns that has yet to go public. Earlier this year, Airbnb reported a profit for the first time in its company history. In other words, the company seems ripe for an IPO. In March, CEO Brian Chesky confirmed that, yes, the company is on a path to an IPO. But when that will happen has yet to be determined. "We don't have a