November 2020
November 2020 was the month Airbnb opened its books. Its IPO filing on 16 November showed a net loss of $696.9 million for the first nine months of 2020 and set aside shares for hosts. Voters in Portland, Maine, narrowly rejected a ban on unhosted short-term rentals, a result a hand recount confirmed on 20 November. In England, national restrictions closed holiday accommodation from 5 November, and Airbnb told investors that new lockdowns in Europe were cutting bookings again.
A look back, written in October 2026 from sources published in November 2020. Stay Gazette opened in July 2026.
Crackdown · 3 November 2020Portland, Maine Voters Reject a Ban on Unhosted Short-Term RentalsA referendum initiative to end short-term rentals in homes the owner did not live in lost on 3 November 2020, and a hand recount confirmed the result on 20 November by 19,772 votes to 19,499. The rest of the same campaign's slate, including rent control, passed.By Marcus Dane · Filed 11 October 2026 · 6 min read
The Money · 16 November 2020Airbnb Files for Its IPO and Sets Aside Shares for HostsAirbnb's registration statement of 16 November 2020 showed a net loss of $696.9 million for the nine months to 30 September 2020 and a host endowment funded with 9.2 million shares. It also told investors that hosts would not be paid in full for the cancellations the company had refunded.By Dana Whitfield · Filed 11 October 2026 · 7 min read
Pictures on this page. 1. Photo: Portland (Maine) City Hall at dusk by Ashuttleworth, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized). 2. Photo: Downtown San Francisco 04 2015 1745 by Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
What else was reported in November 2020
- 3 November 2020National restrictions took effect in England on 5 November 2020 under regulations made on 3 November that ordered holiday accommodation businesses, including holiday apartments, homes and cottages, to cease trading, with exceptions such as guests who needed accommodation for their work. UK Government (legislation.gov.uk)
- 4 November 2020Expedia Group reported on 4 November 2020 that third-quarter gross bookings fell 68% and revenue fell 58% from a year earlier, and said lodging bookings benefited from year-over-year growth at Vrbo. Expedia Group (press release filed with the SEC)
- 6 November 2020Airbnb said on 6 November 2020 that it had removed or suspended more than 800 UK listings in a crackdown on party houses and had blocked more than 13,500 UK reservation attempts in one month under pilot limits on some local bookings by guests under 25. Airbnb Newsroom
- 12 November 2020Lyric, the apartment-rental startup whose $160 million funding round Airbnb had led, moved from leasing buildings to selling software as it was announced that Mint House would take over its last location, 132 units at 70 Pine Street in New York City. ShortTermRentalz
- 18 November 2020Booking.com asked its alternative accommodation partners to commit to a minimum cleanliness score of six out of ten in guest reviews, with properties that fell short to be put on a warning list, and offered them cleaning checklists from the quality-assurance firm Properly. ShortTermRentalz
- 25 November 2020Airbnb, Expedia Group and the city of Honolulu said on 24 November 2020 that the companies would give the city information to help enforce its vacation rental laws: hosts would have to supply a tax map key number and a Transient Accommodations Tax number, and listings without them were to be removed. Associated Press (published by West Hawaii Today)