Airbnb (ABNB) stock fell as much as 6% on Thursday following the publication of a short report which argued that, among other problems, the company's top hosts have begun competing directly with Airbnb on new platforms.

"Airbnb's top professional hosts are building out their own booking platforms and offering cheaper deals to cut out Airbnb, growing their own email lists and distribution, and offering loyalty discounts to book off of Airbnb," wrote Edwin Dorsey, publisher of The Bear Cave newsletter.

"In short, Airbnb's future will look a lot different than its past as the company will now need to compete against its best and largest hosts," Dorsey added.

Airbnb shares were down about 4% in afternoon trade on Thursday.

Yahoo Finance reached out to Airbnb for comment but had not received a reply by publish time.

The San Francisco-based business surged during the pandemic, reaching record revenue and bookings. Last year, however CEO Brian Chesky announced policy changes in response to criticism over high fees and unrealistic host demands.

Changes that have tipped the balance of power on the platform towards larger, professional hosts. Hosts that are also working towards undercutting Airbnb's platform, in Dorsey's view.

Dorsey argues the Airbnb community has shifted towards professionally managed properties with significant advantages over individual hosts, including better search rankings with "superhost" status, better photos and copywriting, and a reliable check-in process.

"Professional property managers represent 1% of all vacation rental hosts, but manage 23% of available listings which generate 35% of total revenue," according to an April 2022 blog post from AirDNA, a vacation rental data company cited by Dorsey.

Property managers are also gearing up to directly compete against the company, listing on Airbnb as well as their own sites.

Dorsey cites pushes from vacation rental operators including Stay Heirloom, Empty Spaces, and The Natchez that seek to entice travelers to cut Airbnb out of their own booking process.

"Owning the customer relationship allows professional hosts to avoid Airbnb’s ~17% platform fee, control any refund/dispute process, communicate directly and seamlessly with customers, market aggressively for repeat business, and not be at the whims of Airbnb's algorithm," Dorsey writes.

Airbnb's stock is down about 32% over the last twelve months, but up about 31% so far this year.

The company also recently conducted a small number of layoffs that hit 30% of its recruiting staff.

Ines is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre.

Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn.

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