The San Francisco-based short-term-stay company said
bookings surged in small and towns and rural areas, and improved even in urban
areas, which were hit hardest earlier in the pandemic.
Airbnb hosts were also able to raise prices. The average
daily rate in late 2021 was $154, a 20% jump from a year earlier and 36% higher
than the same quarter in 2019. The company cited strong demand for rentals in
North America and an ongoing shift toward customers booking entire homes and
vacation destinations where prices are usually higher.
The company predicted that bookings and prices will rise
again in the first quarter because of strong demand for travel. Together, the
company said, those trends will boost first-quarter revenue to between $1.41
billion and $1.48 billion, well above the $1.23 billion forecast in a FactSet
survey of analysts.
Airbnb shares rose 6% to close at $180.07 in regular
trading, then gained almost 4% after the closing bell.
Airbnb said the omicron variant of COVID-19 had less effect
on bookings and cancellations than last year’s delta variant. Virus cases are
still at high levels in the United States, but the San Francisco-based company
said summer bookings made by the end of January were running 25% ahead of the
same time in 2019, before the pandemic.
CEO Brian Chesky told analysts on a call that he is
confident cross-border travel and bookings in cities will pick up. He repeated
a longstanding theme of his: that the pandemic has freed some people to work
remotely, leading to an increase in long-term bookings on the site.
Airlines and many other travel-related companies were hurt
by the surge in COVID-19 cases that began in December, with the rise of
omicron. In January, U.S. air travel remained more than 20% below 2019.
Travel industry executives say, however, that they expect
business to bounce back once omicron fades.
Expedia Chairman and CEO Peter Kern said last week that
omicron was less severe and shorter than previous waves of the coronavirus, and
he predicted “a solid overall recovery in 2022, barring a change in the
trajectory of the virus.” Expedia sells hotel rooms and owns Airbnb rival Vrbo.
The closure of offices has helped Airbnb, as some
white-collar workers have opted to work from rental housing far from home. A
rising percentage of Airbnb bookings have been long — 28 days or more.
Similarweb, which tracks internet traffic, said last week
that Airbnb’s site gets more traffic and conversions — visitors who make a
purchase — than competitors including Vrbo. The firm shrugged off a drop in
site traffic in late 2021 as seasonal, and said customers’ tendency to stay
longer and view more pages “could signify growing brand loyalty” for Airbnb.
The fourth quarter marked Airbnb’s second straight
profitable quarter, and compared with a loss of $3.9 billion in late 2020.
Earnings equaled 8 cents per share. Revenue rose 78% over a
year ago — and 38% over the same quarter in 2019 — to $1.53 billion.
Analysts expected the company to earn 4 cents per share on
revenue of $1.46 billion, according to a FactSet survey.
For all of 2021, Airbnb still lost $352 million, compared
with a loss of $4.58 billion in 2020.
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