Airbnb
Inside the Numbers
In Q3, Airbnb reported earnings per share of $1.22, while analysts were expecting the company to post a loss. This was a nice sequential improvement from last quarter's loss of $0.11 per share. Revenue also came in strong at $2.24 billion vs. expectations of $2.05 billion. This was a 67% increase.
Nights and experiences booked was 79.7 million in Q3, a slight drop from Q2 due to the delta variant and below expectations of 80.8 million. This was a 29% increase from last year. However, Q4 should result in a sharp increase in this measure. It was a 10% increase from 2019 levels as well.
Despite the slight drop, Q3 marked a record for Airbnb's revenue and net income despite some travel categories remaining well below pre-pandemic levels. For Q4, Airbnb expects revenue between $1.39 billion and $1.48 billion. It also stated that the recovery in travel remains quite strong and it looks like Airbnb is benefitting from pent-up demand for travel.
Gross booking value, which measures the total value of the bookings made on the platform also reached another record at $11.9 billion, a 48% increase but fell short of expectations of $12.3 billion. Average daily rates dropped to $149 from roughly $161 in the last quarter likely due to the delta variant-induced drop in demand. It was still a 15% increase from last year's Q3.
Stock Price Outlook
Many travel stocks topped early in the year but are now starting to move back higher. There have been many false moments in thinking the pandemic was truly over but this could really be it given the vaccinations and prior infections bringing us close to herd immunity. Airbnb seems one of the best-positioned stocks to take advantage of the recovery in travel.
