Airbnb turns a profit, and not just from cleaning fees

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an overhead bin that’s full of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. This is your sign to book that v [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an overhead bin that’s full of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [This]( is your sign to book [that vacation](. - Climate change is [doing its thing](. - The future (CEO) [is female](. - [This]( crypto dream may be your nightmare. [Leaving on a Jet Plane]( Staying in an Airbnb has its pros and cons. It’s cozy. There’s usually free snacks. And sometimes you get to chat with the hosts, which can be more memorable than your actual travels. But there are also downsides to renting a stranger's house. You might be [secretly filmed]( through a power adapter. Maybe the hot tub doesn’t work (which, after reading [this horror story](, might be a good thing). Or the bedroom might have been used as [a pop-up brothel](. And on checkout day, there’s always a mad dash to complete [a never-ending checklist](. Wash the dishes! Strip the linens! Fold the blankets! Is that a water glass I see on the nightstand? Better put it in the dishwasher, or else you risk falling into the depths of Airbnb ratings hell. After all that cleaning … you still have to pay a cleaning fee. Vacation is relaxing, isn’t it? Source: Twitter Still, plenty of people are willing to take out the trash after their stay. Chris Bryant writes that [Airbnb’s business is booming](, having recorded its first [full year of profitability]( in 2022. Compared to 2019, revenue is up 75%, bookings are up by 20% … and employee headcount is down by 5%. That’s a level of financial finesse that would make any Big Tech exec drool: The pandemic dealt Airbnb — and the hospitality industry as a whole — a sad stack of cards. Nobody could travel, so the tech company fired 25% of its staff. But then the tides started to turn. Locals, eager to put lockdowns behind them, booked affordable [staycations]( in idyllic [nearby towns](. [Remote work]( took hold, which gave more flexibility to workers … including those employed by Airbnb, which adopted a “live-and-work-anywhere approach.” Today, CEO Brian Chesky runs Airbnb’s operation with half of the office space it had before the pandemic. And that’s not the only place where costs are being cut: “When your company name has become [a verb](, you don’t have to pay search engines as much,” Chris writes. Airbnbs aren’t the only thing travelers are booking. Andrea Felsted says [airlines, hotels and tour operators]( are seeing similar demand that should stay sticky through the summer, despite sky-high prices. Evidence of revenge spending can also be witnessed in department stores, which Leticia Miranda says are seeing [an uptick in sales](. Many vacationers are hitting up discount racks for bikinis, flip-flops and sun hats to wear on their jet set adventure. The knock-on effects can even be seen in the jet fuel market, which Javier Blas believes is the “[final piece in the oil demand recovery puzzle](.” People are willing to get [trolled by Ryanair]( in [record amounts](. Planes are packed (RIP overhead bin space, it was nice knowing you), even though there are more commercial flights than in 2019. Our itch to travel is clearly very strong. No amount of cleaning fees or dirty hot tubs is going to change that. [This Is Why I’m Hot]( It might be February, but temperatures in New York could easily fool you into thinking it’s April: Source: Twitter Today, the city hit [the lower 60s](, contributing to what many consider an [unseasonably warm]( winter. But this chart from Mark Gongloff offers a dose of reality that’s colder than the iced coffee you ordered this morning: [Freakishly warm weather is]([now the norm]( — not the exception. It’s not just Manhattan. Around [the world](, cities are beating climate change records on a routine basis. Spain is [naming heat waves](. Antarctica is dealing with “[doomsday glaciers](.” And Canada can’t even get its massive [hockey rink]( up-and-running. If we can’t quit our addiction to fossil fuels, everyone will be feeling the heat, from [flamingos]( to farmers. Adam Minter argues the warming planet should be the primary focus in [Congress’s new farm bill](. “Weather disruptions reduced food productivity worldwide by 12.5% since 1961,” he writes, noting that California was forced to abandon [1.3 million acres]( of unusable farmland last year alone. Without federal assistance, farmers will be forced to watch their plots of land famish under an onslaught of [droughts, downpours and derechos](. While a mid-February frolick through [Central Park]( might feel uncanny today, it’s just a taste of the weather weirdness to come. Telltale Charts Dianne Feinstein isn’t the only octogenarian [retiring]( these days. [A big shift in CEO succession]( is shaking up the board room. In 2022, “while outgoing CEOs were older, suddenly incoming CEOs started to skew younger,” Beth Kowitt writes. Nearly 30% of the new cohort is under 50, and a fair amount are female. Despite 2022’s crypto meltdown, central banks are still toying with [the idea of developing digital currencies](, Marcus Ashworth writes. But do we really want to [give the government]( the spare key to our digital wallet? It’s a slippery slope that central banks would be wise to consider before finishing R&D. What’s on Our Bookshelf Justin Fox [spoke]( with Danish economist Bent Flyvbjerg about his new book [How Big Things Get Done](, which explores why so many projects — from high-speed rail systems to home renovations — end in disaster. Here’s Flyvbjerg’s top three books for readers who want to learn more about project management: - [Thinking, Fast and Slow]( by Daniel Kahneman. "The best book you can find about cognitive biases." - [The Black Swan]( by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. "Big projects have fat tails, which means they're really risky. And no one is better at understanding that risk than Taleb." - [Creativity, Inc.]( by Ed Catmull. "The former CEO of Pixar has thought longer and harder about how to deliver projects successfully than most people that I've ever come across." Further Reading Five years after the Parkland massacre, [Florida is taking a dangerous turn](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Toyota has [a warning]( for the automobile industry. — Anjani Trivedi Warren Buffett leaving $1 billion on the table is the definition of sketchy. [Here’s why he might have done it](. — Tim Culpan Economic development is hard to come by in poor nations. [Is poverty an inescapable destiny](?  — Eduardo Porter [Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation]( surprised everyone. Where does the Scottish National Party go from here? — Therese Raphael The Pentagon is ill-prepared to pop [the spy balloons of the future](. — James Stavridis A note to Narendra Modi: [Raiding the BBC]( is not something you do if you have a “free press.” — Bobby Ghosh ICYMI How to have [the best midlife crisis]( ever. Your boss might be [scanning your brain](. Glaxo knew about Zantac’s [cancer risks](. America could add [$19 trillion]( to its debt pile. [Ohio’s train derailment]( exposes the dark side of plastics. Kickers A [garlic-scented]( candle? [Don't knock it]( till you try it. [2,000 rhinos]( will be auctioned online. (h/t Mark Gilbert) All the kids are drinking [BORGs](. Area man is [sexually attracted]( to balloons. Area baby is [born with a tail](. Source: Twitter Notes:  Please send unwanted glitter and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? 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