Airbnb expects bookings to rebound to pre-pandemic levels for the first time in the current quarter, as concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant have “quickly dissipated” and travellers become more comfortable getting away.
“Guests are confidently booking for the summer travel season early in the year,” chief executive Brian Chesky wrote in a letter to investors on Tuesday, saying bookings for the peak travel months were 25 per cent higher than at the same point in 2019.
“In the US and Europe in particular, we are seeing lead time for bookings made in Q1 2022 return to pre-pandemic levels,” he said. Airbnb shares rose about 6 per cent in after-hours trading.
Latin America also had strong growth, though the Asia-Pacific region was still lagging behind, he said.
Airbnb’s optimistic outlook about the travel recovery follows similar sentiment from American Express, which last month said it had noted travel bookings in January rose 44 per cent compared with the same period in 2019. The credit card company predicted future Covid-19 variants would have “very little impact” on goods and services spending.
Likewise, Airbnb said Omicron did not cause significant disruption compared to cancellations during the peak of the Delta variant.
In its final quarter of 2021, higher prices were the driving force behind revenue and profits, which came in higher than expected — although nightly bookings had not quite yet reached pre-pandemic levels, according to figures published on Tuesday.
In the October-December period, the number of “nights and experiences” booked — which includes Airbnb’s much smaller events and tour guide business — increased 59 per cent compared with 2020, but still 3 per cent below the same level in the 2019 quarter.
The average nightly fee of $153.61 was more than a third higher than before the pandemic, boosting total gross bookings value by 91 per cent year-on-year, and 32 per cent against 2019.
Revenue of $1.5bn increased 78 per cent year-on-year, and 38 per cent against 2019. Airbnb projected revenue of between $1.41bn-$1.48bn for the current quarter.
Revenue and gross bookings were in line with Wall Street’s expectations, according to data provided by FactSet.
Sharp cost-cutting on product development and marketing, and a lower amount of stock-based compensation payments stemming from its recent IPO, helped Airbnb achieve a $55mn net profit for the quarter, comfortably ahead of the $33mn consensus estimate. At $333mn, its adjusted ebitda earnings were its strongest ever, the company said.
However, listings are still growing slowly. Airbnb said it had “more than” 6mn active listings on its platform, up from 5.6mn at the time it went public more than a year ago — despite a large marketing campaign and stepped-up efforts to improve the onboarding process.
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