VC: we only want to invest in companies that can become profitable
**1 year later**
VC: great progress, can we invest?
Company: we're profitable, so we don't need your money now
VC: no, not like that
Soon, people weren’t just traveling on Airbnb, they were living on Airbnb.
In 2021, around 20% of our nights booked were for stays of a month or longer, and nearly 50% for a week or longer
My wife and I paid off our $500k mortgage in 2 years by doing the following:
- Worked 9-5, saved aggressively
- Cut our avocado toast and boozy brunches
- Sold a startup for $10m in cash
It’s that simple
A couple paid off their $234,000 mortgage in 5 years and are on track to be millionaires in their 30s. Here are the savings and investment strategies they use. http://businessinsider.com/pay-off-debt-strategies-advice-mortgage-student-loans-investing-savings-2022-1…
Austrade has now processed final payments for the 2019-20 grant year, and has determined that no second and final payments will be made, due to insufficient funds.
This experience has really tarnished a company I once admired.
COVID has obviously hurt their business and this is a policy mechanism to reduce losses, but you're going to lose customers like us head over first with experiences like this one.
I'm pissed, naturally - that $3,000 could've been spent on the team, instead we got policy robbed without consequences.
I could initiate a reversal but up to this point we've used AirBNB for every team retreat, I don't want to risk being banned.
to still get their Service Fee from the booking whilst their customers are losing 100% of their booking costs with 0 repercussions.
So naturally I left a review on the host warning others to make sure they read the cancellation policy.
This policy essentially allows them to wipe their hands of any responsibility and enforce the cancellation policy of the host - as lockdowns are no longer "unforeseen".
I'm sure most hosts are accommodating, but ours unfortunately wasn't. They refused us a refund.
I looked at rebooking for the following week but they had jacked the prices up ~3x, so I got in touch with AirBNB Support.
Support just cites their Extenuating Circumstances Policy:
We got snap locked down on the day of check-in - then the host went silent on us 🥲
Any cancellation policy would've been useless at this point so close to check-in.
We'd booked a nice place in Melbourne for a team hack weekend from the 27th - 30th May, which cost ~$3,000.
Melbourne was lockdown free for 7 odd months at this point so another coming up never crossed my mind.