Airbnb Announces Plunge in Q1 Financial Results

On Tuesday, Airbnb released its first-quarter financial data, offering slightly weaker-than-anticipated guidance but still beating estimates.

Its stock price went up by 1.13% to $127.07 per share on May 09. However, it is expected to go down by -11.86% to $112.00 apiece in the upcoming session.

The company’s earnings per share dropped to $0.18, missing analysts’ $0.20 forecasts. Therefore, it is lower than the previous $0.48 data.

Moreover, the revenue of Airbnb slid to $1.80 billion, surpassing the $1.79 billion estimates. Meanwhile, the reading is still weaker than the former $1.90 billion figures.

Furthermore, its average daily rates remained flat compared to the $168.00 in the first quarter. Airbnb mentioned that active listings jumped by 18.00% year-over-year.

In addition, its gross booking value was $20.40 billion in Q1. It reported 121.1 million nights and experiences booked that quarter, marking a 19.00% increase YoY.

Based on its shareholder letter, the firm said it had a solid start to the year. Also, it anticipates another robust summer travel season. 

On the other hand, the second quarter might be challenging since they overlapped stacked 2022 demand. This was caused by the COVID Omicron variant.

According to Airbnb, it plans on including artificial intelligence features like GPT-4 into its platform. It added that customers can look forward to significant changes.

Bookings Estimated to Lower for Airbnb

On May 09, the vacation rental booking company Airbnb said it expects fewer bookings and weaker average daily rates.

Travel companies in the US, which gained support from higher prices and hybrid work, are lowering their 2023 outlook. This came after pre-pandemic travel patterns returned as customers sought more affordable accommodations.

Besides, according to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, North American people are very price sensitive.

However, the company said to remain competitive since they are equipping hosts with new tools in normalizing pricing. Moreover, it would start marketing campaigns earlier in the year to attract price-conscious travelers before the peak of the summer season.

Meanwhile, Airbnb said earlier this year that average daily rates would still be weighed down. This is due to vacationers turning to lower-cost urban rentals.