Revenue increased 10% year-over-year, landing at the high end of our guidance. Adjusted EBITDA was over $2 billion, and this is our highest in any quarter ever. We are driving this growth by focusing on four key areas: making our service better, bringing Airbnb to more parts of the world, expanding what we offer, and integrating AI across our app. What I want to do is I want to share just a few highlights on each of these four growth levers.

In fact, we accelerated development by making 65 major improvements that we think will help further drive growth. This is, we think, going to be a huge user experience improvement and will keep people on our app and increase conversion. Not only do we think the demand is going to be there, the supply is there as well. I think that's especially true for younger generations who grew up on social media and are now surrounded by AI-generated content.

I'll start with a review of our Q3 financial results, and then I'll walk through our outlook for Q4. Gross booking value grew 14% year-over-year to $22.9 billion, driven by strong growth in both bookings and price. In Q3, nights growth across each of our major regions remained steady or accelerated sequentially. Asia-Pacific grew in the mid-teens, and both North America and EMEA were up in the mid-single digits.

What went well
  • Revenue grew 10% year-over-year to $4.1 billion, landing at the high end of guidance.
  • Adjusted EBITDA was $2.1 billion at a 50% margin, the highest in any quarter ever.
  • Gross booking value rose 14% year-over-year to $22.9 billion and nights and seats booked grew 9%, a two-point sequential acceleration from Q2 driven by U.S. strength and ADR.
  • Reserve Now, Pay Later drove the U.S. acceleration, with about 70% of guests offered it taking it up.
  • Services and experiences showed strong traction: over 110,000 host applications (nearly double the prior quarter) and almost half of experience bookers had no associated Airbnb stay.
  • International expansion gained momentum, with first-time bookers up over 20% in Japan and nearly 50% in India year-over-year.
What went wrong
  • Net income of $1.4 billion was hit by a one-time $213 million valuation allowance on corporate alternative minimum tax credits tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
  • EPS grew only 4% year-over-year to $2.21, well below revenue growth, weighed down by the tax charge.
  • Reserve Now, Pay Later produces increased cancellations, though management says the net impact is still a lift to bookings.
  • Services and experiences will take three to five years to become a material part of the business and are not yet contributing meaningful revenue.
  • Q4 faces tougher year-over-year comps, with nights and seats booked growth guided to decelerate to the mid-single-digit range.

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
RevenueQ4 2025$2.66B-$2.72B, up 7%-10% YoY, including a small FX tailwind after hedges
Gross booking value growthQ4 2025Low double digits YoY, on modest ADR increase plus continued nights growth
Nights and seats booked growthQ4 2025Mid-single-digit range YoY
Adjusted EBITDA marginFull year 2025Approximately 35%

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Revenue +10% Landed at the high end of guidance on continued booking and price strength.
Gross booking value +14% Strong growth in both bookings and price, led by U.S. strength and ADR.
Nights and seats booked +9% Two-point sequential acceleration from Q2, mainly U.S. strength and Reserve Now, Pay Later.
Adjusted EBITDA $2.1 billion at a 50% margin, the highest quarterly total ever.
EPS +4% $2.21; net income impacted by a one-time $213 million valuation allowance from the OBBBA.
Free cash flow $1.3 billion in Q3; $4.5 billion over the trailing 12 months, a 38% FCF margin.

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
AI integrationMore than a dozen AI workstreams; AI customer support cut the need for a human agent by 15% in the U.S. (expanding to 50+ languages next year) and AI-powered natural-language search is in testing to roll out in 2026.
HotelsLaunched a true hotels business via pilots in Los Angeles, New York City, and Madrid, targeting boutiques and independents to fill supply gaps rather than cannibalize homes.
Services and experiencesSince the May 13 launch, rated 4.3 of 5 stars; supply scaling with 110,000 host applications, roughly half of experience bookers new to stays, and Paris Originals 70% booked by locals; three to five years to become material.
International expansionMulti-year strategy; expansion markets grew average nights at double the core rate, with strong first-time booker gains in Japan and India and market-share leadership in Brazil/Latin America.
Core homes re-accelerationManagement argues the core is far from mature (about nine hotel stays for every home stay) and sees a path to re-accelerate via affordability, quality, supply growth, and pricing tools.

Q&A Summary

How much of the U.S. acceleration came from Reserve Now, Pay Later, and what about cancellations?
Offered only to U.S. domestic travelers on flexible/moderate cancellation listings; about 70% of those offered take it. Cancellations do rise, but the net effect is a clear lift to bookings after extensive pre-launch testing.
How long and how deep will international market expansion take?
Efforts began about two to three years ago with localized product and marketing; timelines vary by market. Brazil/Latin America is furthest along with meaningful share gains, while Japan started roughly a year ago and is earlier but progressing.
Is experiences/services contributing yet and helping retention?
About half of experience bookers and 10% of services bookers are new to Airbnb, bringing new and returning audiences. It will take three to five years to be material; retention needs about 12 months of data to judge, and the offerings also help market homes.
How will hotels scale, especially in markets you're shut out of?
Hotels are a promising, low-incremental-cost supplement since Airbnb already has demand (1.6 billion devices reached). Pilots in LA, NYC, and Madrid target boutiques and independents, filling supply gaps in constrained markets with little expected cannibalization.
Is there a long-term case for hotels beyond backfilling supply?
Yes; Airbnb aims to be a one-stop travel shop, and boutiques/independents want another channel. Over time, AI-driven personalization will match hotel-preferring guests with hotels and home-preferring guests with homes rather than pure backfill.
Should investors expect new billion-dollar products in 2026?
Airbnb now has three businesses (homes, services/experiences, hotels) and expects at least one new business per year. A more entrepreneurial pilot-city model lets it incubate up to a dozen businesses at once; Lux/high-ADR is a promising segment.
Early read on AI-powered search and milestones for experiences?
AI started with the hardest problem, customer service, and is now moving to a natural-language 'what' search box (phase 1) evolving into conversational multi-turn search (phase 2). Experiences follow a Paris/LA product-market-fit playbook across three traveler types before scaling city by city.
Why was Airbnb absent from ChatGPT's app integration launch?
The integration wasn't ready and Airbnb didn't want to appear as a commodity or data layer without personalization, accounts, and messaging. It is open to well-built custom chatbot integrations in the future given close ties with OpenAI.
What are the remaining pain points and can the core business re-accelerate?
No silver bullets; hundreds of improvements needed across payment flexibility, quality, pricing tools, and maps. Management believes the core can re-accelerate (roughly nine hotel stays per home stay) by improving affordability, quality, supply, and attached services.
What does the 2026 investment and margin plan look like?
2025 was a heavy first-year launch investment year (~$200 million incremental); 2026 keeps investing in services/experiences, hotels, and AI but without the same launch heaviness, aiming to maintain strong margins on core efficiencies. Full 2026 guidance comes in February.

More on Airbnb, Inc.

Reported 2025-11-06 · figures from the Airbnb, Inc. Q3 2025 earnings call.

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