Earlier last week, Mrs Budget and I took part in probably one of the hottest IPO in the recent history – Airbnb. If you have not already heard, Airbnb went public at the price of $68 last Thursday. On the day of the trading, Airbnb traded up a whopping 120% before closing at $139.25, more than double its IPO price. In terms of valuation, Airbnb closed at a valuation of $100B, higher than those of the four world’s largest hotel chains combined (Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental). I think you can simply do a simple google search of airbnb versus hotels and get a good idea of the growth story behind airbnb and why investors are bullish on airbnb:

1. Airbnb’s model is way more scalable than hotels – they do not need to own the inventory
2. Beyond just providing accommodation, airbnb is also rapidly expanding their service offerings to include experiences
3. With a high user retention

...