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It seems somewhat surprising to me that Airbnb, which doesn't own a single property, is somehow worth more than the entire Hyatt chain, which owns more than 500 properties and employs 75,000 people. I guess I just don't understand how valuations work...


Hyatt's P/E is over 40 and I suspect its margins and growth potential aren't great.


A possible way to look at Airbnb is that they have 200k properties and 200k contractors that get paid a percentage of the revenue they generate.

They aren't in the hotel business, they're marketers and matchmakers.


Valuations are about profits, and sustaining those profits. Tech companies can scale quickly, use fewer employees, all with less liability.


I wonder: what does the average number of nightly bookings look like for both Hyatt and AirBnB?




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