Airbnb broadens horizons and beats estimates

Airbnb, the holiday home rental company, narrowly beat estimates for third-quarter revenue, helped by strong growth in its Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets.
The San Francisco-based online marketplace, which has been investing heavily to bolster its presence globally, said the average growth rate of nights booked on an origin basis in expansion markets was double that of its core markets in the third quarter.
Nights and experiences booked increased 8 per cent to 122.8 million from a year earlier, led by growth of 19 per cent in Asia-Pacific and 15 per cent in Latin America.
The company posted a gross booking value of $20.1 billion and revenue of $3.73 billion, both up 10 per cent, in the latest three-month period compared with a year earlier. Analysts had expected quarterly revenue to come in at $3.72 billion.
Net income was $1.37 billion, less than the $1.39 billion analysts expected.
In the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue of between $2.39 billion and $2.44 billion, or a rise of 8 per cent to 10 per cent from a year earlier.
Airbnb said it was expecting nights booked in the current three months to be higher on a year-over-year basis.
Founded in 2008 as AirBedandBreakfast.com, the platform initially facilitated people renting out rooms to travellers, before expanding to allow whole properties the following year. It was floated on the Nasdaq exchange in New York in 2020 and has a stock market valuation of $93.2 billion.
However, Airbnb said the core profit margin in the fourth quarter was expected to decline due to higher marketing and product development expenses.
It also expected the average daily rate, or average cost per night, in the current quarter to increase modestly, compared with a year earlier. Global third-quarter rates came in at $164, up 1 per cent on the previous year.
In volatile late trading on Wall Street after the results, the shares initially rose by as much as 15 per cent before reversing the gains to trade down $4.87, or 3.3 per cent, at $142.50 after hours.