Airbnb joins the long list of companies laying off employees as a cost cutting measure created by novel coronavirus. The company ahs decided to let go off 25% of the workforce and the emails have already been sent out to the employees by CEO. It will affect about 19,000 Airbnb staff across the world. Brian Chesky, CEO Airbnb mentioned in the mail that the last working day for these employees will be May 11, 2020.
The email went on explaining how the pandemic has hard hit the travel industry costing Airbnb a lifetime of loss. The projections reflect that company will make less than half of what they made in 2019. Airbnb was expected to be on the blockbuster stock listing of the year. It has also raised $2 billion in capital and has cut costs to survive.
San-Francisco based Airbnb will be withdrawing itself from transportation and go back to the basic hotels and luxury travel. The company has already been seeing an increase in the expenditure in 2019 and was about to go into public offering but the current situation has made it dicey. Chesky further wrote in mail that their aim was about belonging and connection and this situation has brought them back to square one.