Airbnb’s Founders Lost $3.2 Billion in One Day Due to Weakened Demand

Interest in Airbnb has dropped in recent months—and now so have the founder’s fortunes.

The company’s three co-creators—Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia—lost a total of $3.2 billion on Wednesday after weakened demand was reported in the United States, according to Bloomberg. That’s a 12 percent drop in their net worth, as stocks in the company fell 13 percent, the most since November 2022.

The decline hit all three founders slightly differently: Chesky, the CEO, saw his fortune plummet $1.3 billion, to a total of $9.2 billion. Blecharczyk, the chief strategy officer, lost $1 billion, with his net worth coming in at $7.7 billion. Gebbia, who left the company in 2022, earned $7.2 billion after the downturn. (From January 2022 to June of this year, Gebbia has sold more than $2 billion in Airbnb shares.)

Airbnb’s most recent financial report depicted a pessimistic forecast for the third straight quarter, Bloomberg reported. While bookings jumped 8.7 percent in the second quarter of the year, to 125.1 million, that’s far less than the 11 percent increase analysts had expected—especially when you consider that the time period includes the summer travel season.

The poor outlook for Airbnb comes despite the company’s attempt to attract users with several new programs. In May, the service launched its Icons series, which includes one-of-a-kind stays at such locations as the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy, and the Minneapolis home featured in the 1984 film Purple Rain. That same month, it announced that it was teaming up with ChargePoint to offer EV charging stations at listings throughout the US, making trips easier for those with electric vehicles.

Even still, Airbnb has faced some headwinds both nationally and internationally. Along with slower demand in America, the company came up against tax-evasion charges in Italy last year. A judge there ordered the seizure of a whopping $836 million from Airbnb, saying that the platform had failed to collect taxes from landlords on some $4 billion of rental income from 2017 to 2021.

While that may have been a hit to the company’s pocketbook, Airbnb’s three founders are feeling an even bigger financial punch after Wednesday’s news.

Authors

• Tori Latham

  Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

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