Hi, I'm Dan Pramak, and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by the American Beverage Association.

Today is Tuesday, November 17th.

COVID cases are way up, social media attention to COVID is way down, and we're focused on Airbnb and the future of travel.

Hospitality giant Airbnb filed for its initial public offering yesterday, with plans

to list shares before year end.

Three big takeaways.

First, the company's business basically dried up in the early days of the pandemic, but

rebounded to a third quarter profit.

Key drivers to the turnaround were increased

stays at suburban and rural homes, plus longer stays at higher prices. Two, this location flexibility

sets Airbnb apart from many of its traditional hotel rivals who are stuck with big boxes

and crowded city neighborhoods,

not the sort of travel that most people want to do right now. Three, international or cross-border

bookings for Airbnb remain virtually non-existent. The big picture here is that Airbnb and the

entire U.S. travel sector is poised for a very tumultuous fourth quarter, which is usually

when it gets its most activity. Particularly given how many people appear prepared to eschew public

health warnings about Thanksgiving gatherings, that could mean a boost over the next couple

weeks, but a huge drop when we get massive COVID case and hospitalization spikes around

Christmas. Why it matters is that

the U.S. travel sector generated around $1.6 trillion in 2018, according to the World Travel and

Tourism Council, which represented nearly 8% of US GDP. And right now, it's unclear how much

of that will remain when we finally get past this pandemic.

...