1. Founder mode can’t last forever, and 18 years on is close enough to forever to do until forever shows up.

2. To the degree the market is efficient the peak IPO era price must have been dumb money.

3. AirBnB is an attractive alternative to hotels for a limited set of use cases and users and what it sells is a fungible commodity (no differentiation on location, service, convenience, or price with VRBO, etc.).

4. Market regulation. Citizens have used democratic processes to limit short term rentals and beyond that, pre-existing lodging regulations regarding safety and sanitation and nuisance have been applied.

5. The supply of hosts is limited by cost-of-doing-business.