Airbnb delays hiring and suspends marketing amidst the Coronavirus crisis

In
its statement on Friday, Airbnb said that it plans on postponing its scheduled
hiring amidst the widespread Coronavirus crisis. The company also said that it
will temporarily halt its marketing campaign to adjust to the imminent economic
blow of the flu-like virus.

As
per Airbnb, its founders will not be receiving salaries in the next 6 months
while the rest of the executives will only be paid 50% of their salaries during
this time to cut costs and sustain the financial stature of the company.

Airbnb
Employees Are Unlikely To Receive Yearly Bonus

As
per the sources, Airbnb employees are also unlikely to receive their yearly
bonus. With an exemption of a few critical positions, delaying the hiring, the
source added, will affect almost all departments of the tourism company.

Before
the health crisis hit, Airbnb was expected to be the blockbuster
of tech IPOs in 2020. The company had already arranged a list of bankers to
lead its IPO. Airbnb was also estimated to live up to a private market
valuation of £24.89 billion from 2017. In 2018, the company had recorded around
£160 million in profit after which it sunk sharply in the first 9 months of
2019 reporting £258 million worth of loss.

The
Coronavirus pandemic has hit the global travel industry the hardest with widespread
restrictions that are pushing the tourism company into offering refunds to its
guests as they continue to cancel their bookings. The U.S Travel Association
forecasts a loss of 4.6 million jobs in 2020 in the travel industry. Such an
economic blow is also expected to reflect in Airbnb’s financial performance
this year.

Airbnb
To Offer Housing To 100,000 Healthcare Workers

According
to Johns Hopkins University, the number of infected has gone above 600,000
across the globe with the death count currently above 27,500. The United States
overtook other massively hit countries like Italy and China on Friday as the
confirmed Coronavirus cases in the U.S topped 100,000 marking currently the
highest in the world.  

In
separate news, Airbnb
also announced recently that it plans on subsidizing housing for as many as
100,000 healthcare workers that are responding to the COVID-19 crisis.