Airbnb could plan to IPO by late 2020

Re:Airbnb could plan to IPO by late 2020 by pastor_elm on Friday June 29, 2018 @11:05AM (#17424925)

Last time I traveled, I found a bunch of the places I saw on Airbnb listed on other sites for cheaper. More alarming, there were significantly more negative reviews on these other sites (even on a site like Booking), than there were on Airbnb.

I'm sure Airbnb will continue to grow, but it seems awfully saturated to me already. I'm amazed at how many listings there are for my neighborhood (in NYC). All these hosts with a dozen locations that they barely maintain. Hard to find verify a host actually cares about a place they rent.

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Re:Airbnb could plan to IPO by late 2020 by nostromo on Friday June 29, 2018 @11:48AM (#17425176)

I've noticed Airbnb reviews tend to be very generous. I'm not sure why.

I recently stayed with a friend at an Airbnb in Amsterdam. The bedroom had noise and smoke from a neighboring bar until around 5am, making it very difficult to sleep, even with the windows closed.

I didn't book the Airbnb, but I checked the reviews afterwards. Several people mentioned these problems, but still gave the place 4 or even 5 stars.

I'm not sure what would warrant a 1 star review for these folks short of an absolute nightmare.

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Re:Airbnb could plan to IPO by late 2020 by jghn on Friday June 29, 2018 @11:58AM (#17425228)

At least for folks in the US, a five star rating system usually is:

1: absolute nightmare 2: N/A 3: N/A 4: It was pretty bad 5: Acceptable or better

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Re:Airbnb could plan to IPO by late 2020 by skinnymuch on Friday June 29, 2018 @04:31PM (#17427625)

Is that specifically for Airbnb? It isn’t the case for Amazon, app stores, TripAdvisor, or Yelp. among other places. Why would Airbnb be different?

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Re:Airbnb could plan to IPO by late 2020 by Mithorium on Tuesday July 03, 2018 @01:59PM (#17452337)

Late response, but I think it has to due with social pressure. You may meet the host in person, and feel bad about giving someone you know "personally" a bad rating. Additionally, they are also rating you as a guest, so it may be awkward if you gave a bad rating when they give you a good one, so people skew the ratings up.

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