Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) is giving investors a fresh reason to pay attention. Revenue growth is accelerating, profits are climbing, and management is raising expectations for the year. Meanwhile, the company is expanding beyond vacation rentals, with hotels, artificial intelligence, and new partnerships playing bigger roles in its plans.
“Airbnb is back in growth mode,” CEO Brian Chesky told investors.
The third-quarter numbers support that confidence. Revenue increased 19% from a year earlier to $4.9 billion, marking Airbnb’s fastest revenue growth in more than three years. Adjusted EBITDA, a profit measure that excludes interest, taxes, depreciation, and certain other expenses, rose 22% to $2.5 billion.
Travelers are Booking More Through Airbnb
Gross booking value, the total dollar value of bookings on its platform, climbed 21% to nearly $28 billion. Nights and Seats booked increased 16%. Those figures suggest Airbnb is benefiting from more than higher prices. More booking activity is helping drive the business forward.
However, some growth came from Reserve Now, Pay Later, which lets its eligible guest book without paying immediately. According to CFO Ellie Mertz, the feature contributed about three percentage points to booking growth. Excluding that contribution, growth was roughly 13%.
Net income reached $1.9 billion, although a $135 million reduction in the company’s income-tax provision helped that result. Investors should recognize that benefit when assessing the underlying improvement in profitability.
AI Is Already Changing the Business
Airbnb’s AI strategy goes beyond promising travelers a smarter search box.
Chesky said the company released more than 50 products and features during the quarter, nearly 70% more than a year earlier, with AI helping employees work faster. Customer support provides another example. The company’s AI assistant now operates in more than 50 languages, and approximately 40% of support issues were resolved without a human agent during the quarter.
The potential financial benefit is straightforward: if Airbnb can handle more bookings without support expenses rising at the same pace, more revenue can flow through to profit. Still, AI does not explain every improvement in quarterly margins. Mertz said shifting some marketing spending into the fourth quarter also helped.
The next step is more ambitious. Airbnb plans to begin rolling out its travel AI agent to guests during the first half of 2027.
The challenge will be making that agent useful enough to give travelers a reason to choose it over general-purpose AI tools. Better trip planning could strengthen customer loyalty, but Airbnb still needs to demonstrate that it produces more completed bookings.
Hotels Could Bring Airbnb More Customers
Hotels are becoming a larger part of Airbnb’s growth strategy. Chesky said hotel bookings are growing substantially faster than the core business. He also expressed confidence that hotels could eventually generate billions of dollars in annual revenue. Travelers do not need the same accommodation for every trip. Someone who books a house for a family vacation might prefer a hotel for a short business visit.
Offering both gives that customer another reason to stay with Airbnb.
Partnerships could broaden its reach, too. An exclusive agreement with American Express will bring more than one million Airbnb listings to Amex Travel, putting those properties in front of another pool of potential guests.
Higher Expectations and a Bigger Buyback
Management now expects full-year revenue growth in the high teens, up from its previous forecast of at least mid-teens growth. It also raised its expected adjusted EBITDA margin to approximately 36%. For the fourth quarter, the company forecasts revenue of $3.22 billion to $3.28 billion, representing growth of 16% to 18%.
Airbnb produced $1.4 billion in third-quarter free cash flow and repurchased $700 million of stock. Its board also approved an additional $12 billion buyback authorization, supplementing $2.7 billion remaining under the existing program. An authorization allows purchases; it does not guarantee an immediate buyback.
Airbnb has given investors encouraging evidence that its investments are paying off. The next test is turning that progress into lasting growth. Watch completed stays, cancellation trends, and whether hotels and AI help attract repeat customers. Those measures will reveal more about ABNB’s future than the number of new features it releases.
