Airbnb to make a quarter of its global workforce
redundant
Staff losing jobs receive email within hours of
co-founder outlining plans in blogpost
Patrick
Collinson
Wed 6 May
2020 13.58 BSTLast modified on Wed 6 May 2020 20.00 BST
Airbnb has
set out plans to make 1,900 staff redundant, about a quarter of its global
workforce, as it forecast revenues in 2020 would be half the $4.8bn (£3.9bn)
generated in 2019.
Brian
Chesky, its chief executive and co-founder, described coronavirus as “the most
harrowing crisis of our lifetime”. He told staff: “We don’t know exactly when
travel will return. When travel does return, it will look different.”
Airbnb has
employees in 24 countries. Its headquarters are in San Francisco and its
European head office is in Dublin, where it employs about 500 people. Some of
the deepest job cuts are likely to be in newer areas of the business such as
Airbnb “Luxe”, which offers what it describes as upmarket homes and dedicated
trip designers.
“People
will want options that are closer to home, safer, and more affordable,” said
Chesky.
Airbnb said
there were signs of of a mild recovery in some locations, adding that was
growing evidence of travellers in Europeans booking properties in their own
countries this summer rather than abroad.
The
accommodation platform told the Financial Times that domestic bookings in
Denmark were at about 90% of April 2019 levels, while in the Netherlands it was
approaching 80%.
Airbnb
joins airlines and travel operators cutting staff numbers during the
coronavirus pandemic. Last week, British Airways announced 12,000 staff would
be made redundant, and on Tuesday Virgin Atlantic said it would cut 3,000 jobs
and mothball its Gatwick operations.
The
collapse in Airbnb’s revenue has thwarted its plans to float on the stock
market this year. The projected $40bn-plus flotation would also have earned
many of its staff large payouts, as early entrants into the company were partly
remunerated in stock options.
This year,
Airbnb shored up its finances with $2bn in new loans and funding, which
according to reports suggested a valuation of about $18bn, much below earlier
expectations.
Airbnb
started life as AirBed & Breakfast in 2008 after Chesky and another
co-founder, Joe Gebbia, let out their apartment in San Francisco. The platform
has about 150 million users and 7m property listings across the world.
In a
blogpost detailing the job cuts, Chesky told staff: “I have a deep feeling of
love for all of you.” Within hours, those being made redundant received an
email invitation for a departure meeting, with US and Canadian tstaff told they
would leave by next Monday.
But for
some campaigners fighting soaring rents in cities with large number of Airbnb
hosts, the company’s crisis has a silver living. For example, the number of
longer-term rental properties in central Dublin coming on to the market has
increased by 71%, as landlords abandoned short-term lets through Airbnb.
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