Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB.US) recently held its FY26Q1 earnings call. The company stated that it sees itself as building an ecosystem and identifies significant opportunities for expanding into numerous categories. The future focus should center on "Hosts" and "Guests," constructing a suite of services around them. Homes, hotels, services, and Experiences are just the beginning. Regarding hotel expansion, the core is continuous optimization and execution—ensuring the right hotels are in the right markets with the best prices, optimal presentation, and full features to enable discovery and booking.
For Q1, revenue was $2.7 billion, an 18% year-over-year increase, exceeding the high end of guidance by 2 percentage points. Gross Booking Value (GBV) reached $29 billion, up 19% year-over-year, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential acceleration.
In AI application, approximately 60% of code produced by engineers is AI-generated, estimated to be roughly double the industry average. The AI customer support assistant resolves over 40% of issues without human intervention (compared to about one-third in Q4), and the per-booking support cost decreased by approximately 10% year-over-year. More AI features will be showcased at the Summer Release on May 20th.
Airbnb also noted that for the Italian Winter Olympics, approximately 200,000 guests stayed via Airbnb, with supply and the host community growing about 30% and GBV increasing over threefold. Marketing campaigns generated around 1 billion impressions. Since its launch in October, the World Cup initiative has added over 100,000 new listings and is expected to become the largest event in Airbnb's history.
**Q&A**
**Q: What drove the 22% growth in app room night bookings? How is the team reorganizing for the AI era?** A: App room night growth is driven by multiple factors; there's no single silver bullet. Over the past 18 months, we've more actively encouraged mobile web users to download the app. Increasingly, users enable push notifications, pulling them back into the app, and email strategies have created many engagement hooks. Our App Store ranking has consistently climbed within the global top 50 each year. Regarding team organization in the AI era, it's still very early. My principle is that Airbnb must operate at the speed of AI. AI is an acceleration technology; its most core characteristic is speed. It requires everyone to be more hands-on, more agile, and more adaptable to change. I believe the pure "people manager" role will diminish—the kind of manager operating at 30,000 feet without deep detail involvement. Data is now fully democratized within the company; you don't need a data scientist to access it. We see many design and engineering managers starting to write code again or using tools like Claude Code. With 60% of code AI-written, significantly higher than peers, it's too early to conclude specific team structural changes.
**Q: Will the cost of the Delta partnership affect the take rate? Does this limit Airbnb from creating its own loyalty program or selling flights?** A: We are very excited about the Delta partnership. Economically, it's a revenue-sharing model and should not be expected to negatively impact this year's take rate. Conversely, the take rate will see a slight increase due to the migration to a single service fee and insurance programs. It's a high-ROI customer acquisition method. Regarding flights and loyalty programs, both are under consideration. On loyalty, I've always believed the best loyalty program is making people love your product so they return. It's remarkable that Airbnb is likely the only major travel brand globally without a loyalty program, yet has achieved such success. If we create one, it won't be a generic points program but a truly differentiated, uniquely Airbnb solution. Regarding flights, our vision is to enable people to travel and live anywhere; how they get there is part of that vision. There are no specific announcements yet, but it's certainly being considered.
**Q: What are the room night trends for hotels in test markets?** A: Hotels currently represent a small portion of the business (single-digit percentage of room nights), but over the past few quarters, growth rates for all top-line metrics have exceeded overall business growth by more than double, with rapid growth on both the supply and booking sides. We entered the hotel space for three reasons: First, to expand market coverage—Airbnb currently holds only about one-tenth of lodging market room nights; hotels can fill gaps in markets where Homes supply is limited due to regulations. Second, to meet the diverse needs of loyal guests—some trips (last-minute, one-night, solo business) are indeed more suitable for hotels. Third, as a customer acquisition funnel—55% of people who book a hotel on Airbnb return to book a Home; hotels are an excellent entry point to introduce global travelers who haven't tried Airbnb into our ecosystem. We've fundamentally upgraded hotel product display pages to ensure consumers see hotel-specific information. More hotel product and strategy updates will come on May 20th.
**Q: Is the hotel user experience a mixed display or a separate tab? What are the early learnings from AI search?** A: Regarding hotel display, it's currently mixed in cities like New York, and we're testing a carousel component to embed different inventory types into search results pages. There may be more tabs for navigation in the future. But the more important answer isn't tabs versus mixed; it's deep personalization—the post-AI era paradigm. Someone who only wants a hotel sees only hotels; someone who only wants a Home sees only Homes; someone open to both sees different recommendations based on trip type. 100% of our booking users have accounts and verified identities, so we understand their preferences and history. Regarding AI search, our strategy differs from competitors. Most start at the top of the funnel ("Where should I travel?"). We start at the bottom—customer support—because it's the hardest AI problem: no hallucinations, must be fast, multilingual, able to adjudicate disputes, protect private data, and make judgments based on nearly a hundred policies and millions of historical cases. We're doing well here, with over 40% self-service resolution; I'm confident it's the best AI self-service in travel. Then we move up the funnel—AI review summaries, filters, search ranking, and relevance matching, with more mid-funnel AI features to be shown on May 20th. Finally, top-funnel AI search is currently in testing. I believe no one has truly figured out AI in travel or e-commerce yet. ChatGPT launched third-party apps last year and shut down that project in March. The chatbot model has four fundamental problems in travel and e-commerce: too much text (e-commerce is image-driven, not text-driven), no direct manipulation (adjusting a price slider is easier than typing), inability to compare (Paris has 100,000 listings; comparing in a chat is disorienting), and single-user mode (85% of Airbnb bookings involve multiple guests; chat is single-user). So AI in travel is both a risk and an opportunity—if it's a risk for us, it's a risk for everyone.
**Q: What is the booking cadence for the World Cup? Will new listings remain after the event?** A: To date, cumulative bookings for the World Cup are projected to make it the largest event in Airbnb's history. What's particularly exciting is not just the scale but the breadth—16 cities across three countries, offering immense value for brand awareness, supply growth, and community policy opportunities. Based on past experience (including previous World Cups and the recent Olympics), many bookings occur as the event nears. As the tournament progresses, excitement builds, people know which teams are playing which matches, and many bookings are completed closer to the actual dates. We feel good about the current momentum. Regarding supply retention, taking the Paris Olympics as an example, we retained over half of the listings added for the event six months post-event. Frankly, we don't need all listings to stay, as these are peak moments for cities. But the pattern we see is that hosts join Airbnb for a major event, realize the benefits of hosting, and many choose to stay.
**Q: Where are the growth opportunities and challenges for core Homes supply? What role can AI play in supply acquisition?** A: The core lodging business can be divided into two main categories: API Host partners (primarily property management companies) and individual hosts with primary/vacation homes. For API partners, AI mainly helps us accelerate tool development. We've been slightly behind third parties here. One finding is that the more listings managed, the lower the ratings—guest satisfaction is higher with individual hosts than with property management companies. This is both good news (this inventory is more unique to Airbnb) and an opportunity—partners say they want to be better hosts but need better tools. Previously, we lacked resources for all API work; now with AI productivity boosts, we're accelerating this development. For individual hosts, AI can particularly help with discovery, acquisition, and listing creation. Currently, creating a listing requires manual entry of address, title, description, etc. In the future, imagine just saying "list my house," entering the address, AI scraping information from the web, you taking photos, and AI writing descriptions based on computer vision. Listing is hard for the average person; AI makes it easy. AI can also help us determine which neighborhoods need what type of inventory and what the customer acquisition subsidies should be for different communities.
**Q: How is user adoption and awareness of 'Reserve Now, Pay Later' evolving in new markets? How do cancellation rates and conversion lift differ from the US market?** A: Reviewing the timeline: launched in the US in Q3 last year with great results; Q4 began upstream marketing to boost awareness, driving incremental lift; Q1 expanded to most global regions. There are subtle differences in growth lift by region, but not material differences. In every market where RNPL launched, total bookings saw a significant lift. While cancellation rates for the program are indeed higher, we've tested thoroughly in all regions to ensure a positive net booking impact. US adoption is the highest, but other markets are not far behind.
**Q: What needs to be solved before hotels expand to more cities? How does Airbnb compete in the hotel space?** A: On the backend, we've gotten off to a great start, building a product suitable for hotel partners. The ongoing roadmap is ensuring we have the differentiated tools hotels need. The bigger opportunity is on the frontend—ensuring hotels are shown to the right guests at the right time. Airbnb's competitiveness in hotels: First, we aim to offer the lowest price guarantee and best display. If you search New York now, I believe our hotel display might already be the best among major travel sites—and this is just V1. Second, we already have billions of visits; we don't need anyone to come specifically to Airbnb to book hotels to build a multi-billion dollar hotel revenue business. Our conversion rates are significantly lower than Booking.com's; just converting the traffic already on our site has massive upside—they're already in our "store," telling us they're looking for a place to stay. If they don't find a Home, they'll go to another "store" to book a product we don't have, but if we have that product on another "shelf," many would book it. Hotels are also eager to join Airbnb. Boutique and independent hotels often pay higher commissions on OTAs; many independent hotels tell us they feel pressure to join a chain because they lack a membership or loyalty program and can't negotiate lower OTA commissions. Airbnb can be a very attractive channel for them.
**Q: Which regions and demographics are driving accelerated growth in first-time bookers? What drives growth in expansion markets?** A: First-time bookers come from two groups: first, expansion markets—these are relatively new markets with huge opportunities to acquire new guests; second, age groups—Gen Z customer growth is strong. Regarding expansion markets, the strategy is working. Brazil was one of our earliest focus expansion markets; after several years of marketing and product investment, it now sustains over 20% compound growth, moving from outside the top ten to consistently ranking third to fifth. This gives us confidence—the country-by-country approach of tailoring marketing messages and products helps us achieve better penetration beyond core markets. Specific actions: in Q1 alone, we launched 16 localized marketing campaigns to capture local cultural moments; product adjustments are also localized—for example, in Italy, we redesigned Home displays to suit the locally popular B&B type; in Germany, we specifically highlight cleanliness information because German guests are particularly focused on it. The goal is for opening Airbnb to feel like a localized and personalized experience.
**Q: What is the source of confidence for raising the full-year revenue growth and EBITDA margin outlook? Besides RNPL, what other payment innovation opportunities exist?** A: The revenue increase reflects three aspects: first, increased confidence in the full-year room night forecast; second, increased confidence in the persistence of a slight, sustained increase in ADR; third, monetization initiatives starting to take effect, with implied take rate slightly higher in the second half. On EBITDA, with top-line upside, we are actively reinvesting some of that upside to drive growth—high-ROI marketing channels, expansion markets, policy advocacy opportunities, and growth in internal AI usage costs. But with our years of capability in P&L management and efficiency improvements, we have the ability to absorb these investments while maintaining strong margins. On payment innovation, RNPL is actually still early—we're doing global rollout, launching on desktop, and currently have minimal upstream marketing display. Additionally, there's installment payments (working very well in Brazil), support for unique local payment methods, more flexible cancellation policies, etc. There's a full roadmap around payments and pricing, with opportunities to drive hundreds of millions in incremental revenue annually. RNPL is the largest single project, but there are dozens of different projects that can drive growth.
**Q: What is the biggest obstacle to hotel expansion? Is Airbnb considering ancillary revenue opportunities like flights, car rentals, groceries, AI agents?** A: Addressing the second question first—is this too big? Absolutely not. We think very expansively. Amazon is a great inspiration—the "category expansion" model from books to retail. We see massive opportunities for category expansion, some operated by us (like Photography), some third-party (like grocery delivery with Instacart—they've done it for over a decade; we don't need to relearn it). We position ourselves as building an ecosystem. Today, people see the home as the sun in the Airbnb solar system. The future should center on "Hosts" and "Guests," building a suite of services around them. Homes, hotels, services, Experiences are just the beginning. Each subsequent new category requires less work than the previous one—after solving for one service, the next is only 20% different, the next only 10% different. Each new category attracts different types of guests; someone might book an Experience or hotel first, then a Home. We envision providing everything a traveler needs, or everything needed to live somewhere for a year. Regarding obstacles to hotel expansion, there are no major ones; the core is continuous optimization and execution—ensuring the right hotels are in the right markets with the best prices, optimal presentation, and full features to enable discovery and booking. This takes some time, but we can move quickly. Hotels are eager to join Airbnb—boutique and independent hotels want another channel, especially those that don't want to join a chain but pay high commissions on OTAs.
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