It’s a cruel summer for Airbnb and Vrbo hosts, and meh listings are getting squeezed hard

Hi, I’m Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. Welcome back to Insider Today’s Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. 

On the agenda today:

• Two multibillion-dollar lawsuits could radically reshape how we buy and sell homes forever.
• In the age of remote work, employers are quiet quitting on employees.
• Decision-makers at family offices revealed what it’s really like managing billions for the ultra wealthy. 
• Silicon Valley is bracing for a startup “mass-extinction event.” 

But first: It’s shaping up to be a cruel summer for Airbnb and Vrbo hosts. Read on for more.

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Airbnb’s meh middle

A record-breaking number of Americans are expected to fly this weekend. Many of them will be traveling to stay with friends or family, but some, like me, will be heading to short-term rentals. I’ll be staying in an Airbnb in upstate New York with friends. 

Demand for short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo surged coming out of the pandemic and has continued to increase into this year. One analytics site forecast a 10% increase in nights booked on these platforms for the year. 

But with many more listings available, the increased supply has more than offset the pickup in demand. That’s left hosts having to hustle, dropping prices and worrying about whether last-minute guests will come through. 

The slowdown is particularly pronounced for hosts with properties in the “meh middle” of listings. 

While luxe rentals with hot tubs and firepits book months in advance and cheap and cheerful locations attract budget-conscious travelers, the properties in between are getting squeezed.

The Airbnb hosts getting squeezed

Real-estate reshape

The real-estate industry is facing an existential threat. Two class-action lawsuits say home sellers are getting bilked out of billions of dollars every year through a circuitous method of paying real-estate agents. 

If the plaintiffs succeed, the rules about how agents get paid could be rewritten. It could result in increased competition among agents, dramatically lower commissions, and as much as $30 billion a year in savings for consumers. 

Homebuying as we know it could change. 

Workforce ‘Uberization’

Workers aren’t the only ones quiet quitting. In the age of remote work, employers are doing it, too. After the pandemic showed that staff were capable of doing their jobs from home, some employers are now hunting for the cheapest remote workers possible. 

They’re stocking up on part-time employees, temps, independent contractors, and outsourced positions both at home and abroad. A professor at Stanford University described it as the “Uberization of the workforce.” In other words: fewer full-time jobs, more low-paying gigs.

How companies are gig-ifying the American workforce.

Also read:

• First there was quiet quitting. Now it’s become grumpy staying.

Family office secrets

Family offices manage billions for the likes of the Waltons and Bezoses — but how much do you know about their inner workings? Likely not much. 

Insider’s Ben Bergman did what few have managed: He spoke with six people running family offices and they pulled back the curtain to reveal what goes on behind the scenes. They discussed “managing personalities,” focusing on wealth preservation, and more. 

Read the full story. 

Also read:

• How rich American families are pumping money into AI despite fears of a bubble

‘Extinction event’

Startups are about to have a “Darwinian moment.” As venture capital dries up, founders are bracing for a “mass-extinction event” toward the end of this year. 

Already, many startups have spectacularly flamed out — and those left standing often have less than 12 months of runway in the tank. When their funding runs out, data points toward one scenario: a startup bloodbath. 

What’s in store for startups. 

Also read: 

• Startup studio Fractal created 130 companies in three years. Founders say the deal structure has led VCs to ‘blacklist’ them.

This week’s quote:

“Here employees take pay cuts as our company and leadership make record profits. It’s not right, no other way to look at it.”

• A leaked message from an internal Microsoft message board, posted by an angry employee after CEO Satya Nadella thanked the troops for a “landmark” fiscal year.

More of this week’s top reads:

• The Supreme Court’s rejection of Biden’s student-loan-forgiveness plan will make a looming economic slowdown even worse.
• OpenAI is reinventing tech compensation with flat salaries, no bonuses and no negotiation.
• A huge New York landlord says Fridays in the office are “dead forever.”
• Scammers are using AI-generated voices of people’s children to swindle them.
• Apple, TSMC, and Mazda are moving supply chains out of China. We break down how they’re doing it. 
• A $7 billion startup wanted to build patient-friendly healthcare. Its bet on buzzy weight-loss drugs is testing that vision.
• Experts say the sun’s activity could peak early, frying satellites and causing radio blackouts by the end of this year.
• What did Jeffrey Epstein’s bankers know, and what should they have known? 

Curated by Matt Turner. Edited by Hallam Bullock and Lisa Ryan. Get in touch: insidertoday@insider.com