Airbnb bets on strong summer travel to drive revenue growth
(Reuters) -Vacation rental firm Airbnb Inc projected second-quarter revenue above market estimates on Tuesday, betting on pent-up demand to drive a strong summer travel season after COVID-19 curbs were eased globally.
The San Francisco-based firm expects revenue between $2.03 billion and $2.13 billion, compared with the average analyst expectation of $1.96 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Shares of the company rose more than 3% in extended trading.
The rise of hybrid working has in recent months encouraged people to book longer and more frequent stays in destinations away from cities, giving a boost to rental providers.
Airbnb, which made a slew of changes to its service last year to take advantage of the post-pandemic travel rebound, said it posted the strongest growth for gross nights booked in non-urban areas in first three months of 2022.
"In Q1, long-term stays of 28 days or more remained our fastest-growing category by trip length compared to 2019," the company said in a statement.
Gross booked nights in urban destinations also posted strong growth and rose above pre-pandemic levels thanks to the return of international travel, while nights and experiences bookings - a key metric of the platform's performance - exceeded 100 million for the first time.
That along with a 37% surge in average daily rates over 2019 levels drove Airbnb's revenue 70% higher from a year earlier.
Online travel websites Expedia Group Inc and Trivago NV also posted higher quarterly revenues on Monday as demand returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Airbnb reported a net loss of 3 cents per share, compared with analysts' estimates of a 29 cents per share loss.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
