Airbnb Is Different Now
I don&#x27;t get Airbnb&#x27;s business. By now, it&#x27;s a mature company.<p>But if you compare it&#x27;s business with Booking, you&#x27;ll see that Booking is much cheaper not only as a guest, but also as an investor, having wider revenues + net income as well.<p>It&#x27;s long gone the times since Airbnb was cheaper than a hotel, I remember back in the days, it would be roughly 50% cheaper. Nowadays, it&#x27;s about the same price as a hotel.<p>For some occasions, like when you want to rent a home for 4 or more, it might make sense, but I fail to see how it&#x27;s going to stay competitive in the long run.<p>Maybe now they are targeting a different customer than me, that likes to travel on a budget.  As a consumer, I like the booking has competition and hotel prices have come down since the Airbnb explosive growth.<p>Booking also sell flights (on priceline) and is a much wider business, not to forget, that lots of hosts sell on both platforms.<p>To me, Airbnb looks like a doomed business. Sure, right now it&#x27;s margins are okay, they&#x27;ve got a good brand, but that&#x27;s pretty much all they&#x27;ve got.<p>I don&#x27;t get why don&#x27;t they explore other markets, or the &quot;air&quot; part in the name.