London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Airbnb predicts 'significant' travel rebound

Airbnb predicts 'significant' travel rebound

Online booking platform Airbnb has said it is preparing for a "significant" travel rebound as the world emerges from coronavirus lockdowns.

However the company said it was still "too early" to predict how the business would fare this year.

The company's revenue dropped 30% last year to $3.4bn (£2.4bn), as Covid-19 restrictions kept many from travelling.

That was better than many other travel companies, as people took to their cars for longer stays in private homes.

The firm said it has already seen a smaller decline in travel this year than in the last three months of 2020, when revenue was down 22% year-on-year at $859m. That was better than many analysts had expected,given the resurgence of Covid cases and fresh lockdown restrictions in many areas.

"Travel is coming back and we are laser-focused on preparing for the travel rebound," its chief executive Brian Chesky said.

Mr Chesky said he expected new travel preferences to emerge from the pandemic that will benefit his company.

He said the firm is optimistic that staying in private homes will appeal to people travelling to see family and friends. Remote working patterns will also allow people to take more frequent weekend trips - or even spend several months away from home, he suggested.

"We've seen a number of new use cases," he said. "We don't think we're ever going to go back to travel in 2019. It's going to change and it's going to be different."

However, Airbnb also warned that it still had "limited visibility for growth trends in 2021 given the difficulty in determining the pace of vaccine rollouts and the related impact on willingness to travel".

"We are not providing an outlook for the rest of 2021 at this time," it said in its first financial update for investors since its public listing in December.

Airbnb, which is active in more than 220 countries, said people around the world are travelling more domestically during the pandemic - but not enough to make up for the loss of business from international tourism.

Airbnb was founded by Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia when they were in their 20s

Its business in Europe, which is fuelled by cross-border travel, was the hardest hit region in 2020, especially the UK, Germany and Italy. North America was the most stable.

Overall the firm lost $4.6bn last year, including $3.9bn in the last three months of the year, when it was hit with high costs connected with its stock market debut.

A recent survey conducted for the company in the US found that more than half of about 1,000 respondents had already booked or were planning to travel this year.

On a call with analysts, the firm faced some questions about its relationships with hosts, which has been strained this year partly due to financial losses suffered after cancellations.

But Angelo Zino, an equity analyst at CFRA, said he expected revenue to come "roaring back" as vaccines become widely distributed in the US and Europe by the summer, "reflecting the enormous amount of pent-up demand in the ecosystem".

"We believe Airbnb's business model and growth opportunities are highly attractive and struggle to find a better way to play the travel space," he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
×