Airbnb's Shakes Up Finance Chief

One of my favorite things about living so close to New York City is ironically how easy it is to escape to somewhere else. Dozens of exciting destinations are just a short drive away from the Big Apple—meaning I'm always planning my next fun weekend away. There are no travel experiences quite as stress-free as the ones where all I need to do is pack up my car, drive, and arrive. That's what I was looking for when I planned my most recent NYC getaway: somewhere that was easy to get to and somewhere I could truly unwind for a few days.

Australia’s Federal Court has ordered Airbnb to pay about $10 million ($15 million Australian) in penalties after violating consumer protection laws through misleading pricing, said the country’s competition watchdog on Wednesday.

The Summer Olympics are returning to Paris exactly a century after it last hosted the event. A country where fine wine and haute cuisine prevail means Paris doesn’t have a reputation for being particularly affordable. To make the Games more accessible, some events around the Seine will have free viewing zones – including the opening ceremony. But we’re still living in a material world and you’ll need to pay the rental on your humble flat. With nightly rates circling $150 or less, these are the most budget-friendly Airbnbs for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The past year has seen a flurry of cabins crop up near the shores of Broken Bow Lake in southeast Oklahoma. Cloaked in pine and pawpaw trees, this rural region likely has a higher permanent population of black bears and bald eagles than people. Fishing, hiking, and boating have maintained steady tourism but the recent boom in new chalets has put the teensy hamlet of Hochatown on the map, literally. Airbnb is credited with creating this vacation bubble in the aftermath of the pandemic as travelers in OK and TX seek countryside getaways closer to home.

Airbnb settled a tax dispute with Italy for around $620 million (576 million euros), the company said Wednesday.

Airbnb’s departing Global Head of Hosting Catherine Powell will receive her current base salary and her outstanding equity awards will continue to vest as she stays on in an advisory role through June 30, 2024.

Airbnb launched its Host Clubs in 2016, in part to help with local campaigns against regulatory clampdowns. Now, it is seeking to expand these clubs.

Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer David Goulden said this week that the flagship Booking.com brand launched its short-term rental business as a supplement to hotels “15-plus years” ago, which is roughly around the time Airbnb got going in San Francisco.

As has been his habit about product changes, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tweeted about updates the company is making to this year’s summer release announced in May.

If you’ve read the various hot takes on the state of the housing market as indexed by Airbnb revenue, here are a few concerns you can put to rest. What will happen to the housing market in a recession is anybody’s guess, but speaking purely of Airbnb as a stock, the company has a few things going for it.

Airbnb recently reminded hosts that it plans to shutter its email alias feature September 30. The feature enables hosts and guests to email and share documents, such as PDFs of property guides, passports and other IDs from their regular emails accounts without having to log into Airbnb.

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who left his full-time role at the company a year ago, has sold more than $1.37 billion worth of his Class A shares since that time, including more than $1 billion so far in 2023, according to regulatory filings, Bloomberg reported. Gebbia still chairs the non-profit Airbnb.org, but more importantly, he retains the bulk — but not all — of his Class B shares, which now give him 19.8% of Airbnb’s voting power. Together with his two other co-founders, CEO Brian Chesky (30.6%) and Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk (26.9%), they control 77.3% of Airbnb’s voting power.