Airbnb expects a continued travel rebound this year, as it banks on new services

By Bill Peters

Vacation-rental platform also moves deeper into an industry it once sought to disrupt - hotels

Airbnb reported quarterly results on Thursday.

Airbnb said it sees stronger travel demand in the months ahead, but the vacation-rental platform's fourth-quarter results were mixed, and it expects its preferred margin metric to be roughly the same as it invests in the business.

The results and forecast out late Thursday arrived as travel demand at Airbnb (ABNB) rebounds from a slow start to last year, when people waited longer to book vacations amid uncertainty around President Donald Trump's inauguration and a sweeping new tariff regime unveiled by the U.S. in the spring.

Airbnb reported $2.78 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter, a 12% year-over-year gain and above expectations for $2.72 billion. The company earned 56 cents a share, below estimates for 67 cents a share.

Nights booked rose 10%. Gross booking value, or the dollar value of everything booked on the platform, was up 16% year over year to $20.4 billion.

After falling 3% Thursday to close at a three-month low, shares of Airbnb (ABNB) were jumping 5.2% in Friday's premarket.

For the first quarter, Airbnb expects revenue of $2.59 billion to $2.63 billion, above expectations, and it expects revenue growth of "at least low double digits" for the year ahead. However, it said it expects roughly flat adjusted Ebitda margin for the first quarter, with those margins remaining "stable" for the year. Ebitda, which stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, is a widely used measure of underlying profitability.

Airbnb's stock has dropped 17.5% over the past 12 months. The company has tried to add new services to its core lodging business, such as hairstyling appointments and events hosted by celebrities.

The company plans to roll out more of those features this year but is still tinkering with the service to align those offerings with travelers' interests. Airbnb has also tried to expand abroad, rolled out reserve-now-pay-later options and offered new cancellation policies it says are more flexible.

Airbnb also faces competition from hotels and has been dealing with restrictions on property rentals in some locations. The company last year said it would offer more of its services through hotels, the industry it once sought to disrupt.

The company, in its earnings release, said it was "capturing trips where a hotel may be the better choice," and said it had started a pilot under which it has worked with independent hotels in areas that are "supply constrained due to excess demand or regulation," such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Madrid.

"We believe bringing more hotels onto the platform can increase our total addressable market, convert more existing guest demand, and drive repeat bookings across both hotels and homes," the company said.

Airbnb's stock has lost 17.8% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 11.7%.

-Bill Peters

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