Airbnb’s high rise

Home-rental leader’s stock doubles in debut

Airbnb’s stock price more than doubled Thursday in a blockbuster market debut that capped the vacationrental giant’s comeback from the coronavirus crisis.

The stock began trading at $146 on the Nasdaq, higher than its initial-public-offering price of $68 a share. It closed slightly lower than its opening price at $144.71.

The San Francisco-based company ended the day worth $100.7 billion — more than twice the roughly $47 billion valuation that was anticipated after it raised $3.5 billion from the IPO.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky was speechless Thursday morning when a TVinterviewer told him the firm’s share price was poised to more than double.

“I’m very humbled by it,” Chesky said on Bloomberg Television. “Today is a very special day for everyone, but the higher the stock price, the higher [the] expectations, the harder we’re going to be working, obviously.”

Airbnb had put its highly anticipated IPO on hold in the spring as the coronavirus spread around the world, leading to a drop in bookings on the platform amid lockdowns that scuttled travel plans.

But the 12-year-old company forged ahead and pulled out one of the year’s biggest offerings for a US company after cutting costs and turning around the business over the summer, helped by travelers who sought out rental homes for safe getaways after weeks of hunkering down at home.

Airbnb’s focus on leisure travel, combined with a business model light on assets, have put it in a stronger position than the hotel industry, said Rob Goldstein of CenterSquare Investment Management, an $11 billion real-estate investment firm that participated in the IPO.

“Airbnb has a global opportunity to capitalize on pent-up demand from leisure travelers anxious to take their holidays and vacations in a post-COVID vaccine world,” Goldstein said.

Airbnb was the latest in a string of big-name Silicon Valley companies to go public this year.