Airbnb’s bookings improve, revenue recovers

Airbnb Inc. [ABNB] -3.21% reported more than $10 billion in bookings in the latest period while revenue recovered from the March 2020 quarter, when the pandemic devastated the travel industry.

But the company’s loss surged to more than $1 billion, driven by costs related to debt repayment and warrants.

The San Francisco company last year raced to raise money to weather the crisis, but the warrants it gave investors on those loans have significantly appreciated, leading to a $292 million noncash adjustment in the latest period.

Airbnb, whose stock started publicly trading in December, reported a net loss of $1.17 billion, compared with a $341 million loss a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected a $717 million loss.

The home-sharing company said the value of all services bought during the quarter, including cleaning fees and taxes, rose to $10.29 billion, from $6.77 billion last year. Revenue rose to $887 million from $842 million a year earlier and $839 million in the comparable 2019 period.

The first quarter is typically the lowest revenue quarter due to the seasonality of the business, the company said. Still, the revenue results were better than analysts expected and marked a significant improvement from the 22% decline in the December quarter.

Company officials have said they are seeing gradual business improvement as people appear more willing to book stays, as well as an uptick in local travel and long-term stays of at least 28 nights, softening the impact from cancellations and falling bookings as a result of the pandemic.

On Thursday, company officials said that while it was still too early to give financial projections for the full year, they pointed to improving trends in April from March in both nights and experiences booked and gross booking value.

The company said that travel to top cities remains depressed but noted an increase in family and group travel, especially outside of cities.

Active listings in nonurban areas rose nearly 30% in the March quarter from 2019, the company said.

Long-term stays, Airbnb said, accounted for nearly a quarter of nights booked, before cancellations or alterations, up from 14% in 2019.

Source: WSJ