Airbnb beats on Q1 revenue, increases guidance for current quarter
Shares of Airbnb whipsawed in after-hours trading Thursday after the company beat Wall Street estimates on revenue and raised guidance for the year, but missed on earnings per share, citing “macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.”
Airbnb reported:
Q1 revenue of $2.7 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $2.6 billion).
Adjusted EBITDA of $519 million (estimate: $483.2 million).
Adjusted diluted EPS of $0.26 (estimate: $0.29).
Q2 revenue sales guidance of $3.54 billion to $3.60 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 14% to 16% (estimate: $3.4 billion).
Investors were watching for initial impacts of the Iran war, gas prices, jet fuel costs, and cost-of-living increases on the company’s finances and projections.
Despite the difficult terrain, the company said that it’s confident going forward. For 2026, Airbnb raised its guidance, stating that it expects year-over-year revenue growth to accelerate to low to mid-teens and an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 35%.
“The upward revision to our revenue outlook reflects meaningful progress across our growth initiatives and improvements to monetization through a simplified fee structure and our insurance programs, which are expected to lift our full-year take rate. We remain optimistic about our continued momentum, even as we face tougher comparisons in the back half of this year against the rollout of Reserve Now, Pay Later in 2025 and current headwinds from the Middle East conflict.”
Perhaps Wall Street is less certain about customers’ willingness to splurge on vacations given the state of things. According to the company, in Q1, roughly 20% of global booking value came from Reserve Now, Pay Later bookings.
