Following years of speculation and anticipation, Airbnb has submitted the necessary documents for its initial public offering (IPO), which is scheduled to take place in December and generate up to $3bn for the global home-sharing platform.  

The filings also laid bare the scale of the financial impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on Airbnb, as the platform reported a net loss of $697m on revenue of $2.5bn in the nine-month period ending on 30 September. That compared to a net loss of $323m on revenue of $3.7bn from the same period a year ago.

Airbnb’s offering will be led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and the company’s shares are set to trade under the symbol ABNB. While an exact valuation cannot yet be accurately calculated until the full terms and details are revealed in another filing due to sudden market fluctuations, recent reports have suggested that Airbnb is set for an IPO valuation of approximately $30bn. This would place the company at a similar mark to the $31bn valuation it achieved at the last funding round in 2017, but also significantly up on the $18bn it was valued at in April 2020.