I am doing a semi-deep dive on Airbnb and it's taking up quite a bit of my time. It seems like a newer business model (established in 2008), however, they already have very strong competitors.

I'm going to be researching Airbnb, $BKNG Booking, and $EXPE Expedia Group as somewhat similar comparisons.

Quick question to my CS followers, who is Airbnb better for in the long run? Is Airbnb a win for the hosts who are either doing a "house hack" or receiving passive income? Is Airbnb a win for the guests who are going on vacation or working remotely?

What if you live in a neighborhood with a ton of Airbnb rentals? Would you even know? Would it be annoying?

What about first-time home purchasers who are priced out of the market due to the shortage of housing supply? Is that a symptom of Airbnb or an entirely separate issue?

Finally, the most optimistic point of view is, could Airbnb be a win-win for everyone? A win for the host making passive income, a win for the guest needing somewhere to stay, and a win for a first-time house purchaser who could rent out a bedroom in order to afford their new home?

I would love to hear everyone's opinions on this. I should have a more detailed analysis soon.

P.S. if you are wondering why I didn't mention one financial metric in this post, it's because investing isn't about P/E, Free Cash Flow, Current Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, or whatever financial metric you want to use. It's not about doing a discounted cash flow analysis to pretend you can predict a company's cash flow in the next 5 years.

Investing is about finding outstanding companies, buying shares through good times and bad, and holding for the long-term. Simple as that. Don't overcomplicate it.