What Management Said

Read the full Q1 2026 transcript ↗

Last quarter, we talked about the path we've been on to rebuild our foundation, innovate faster, and accelerate growth. Revenue grew 18% year-over-year to $2.7 billion, which exceeded the high end of our guidance. Gross Booking Value grew 19% year-over-year, driven by strong demand and continued pricing strength. Nights and seats booked grew 9% after accounting for an approximate 100 basis point headwind from the conflict in the Middle East.

Nights booked on our app grew 22% year-over-year, and they now account for 63% of total nights booked, which is up from 58% a year ago. This is the highest growth rate since 2022, with these strong acceleration in Brazil, Japan, and India. Net nights for expansion markets grew at roughly twice the rate of our core markets. Finally, we're upgrading our pricing tools to make it easier for hosts to set prices based on demand and seasonality.

We also continued scaling experiences, early results show that it's becoming a demand flywheel. Early results are strong, especially in cities where supply of homes isn't meeting demand or where supply is constrained because of regulation. You can see why we're really excited about the year ahead, and our guidance reflects that. We're raising our guidance for 2026 and now expect year-over-year revenue growth to accelerate to low to mid-teens, and we anticipate our adjusted EBITDA margin to be at least 35%.

What went well
  • Revenue grew 18% year-over-year to $2.7 billion, exceeding the high end of guidance by two percentage points.
  • Gross Booking Value grew 19% year-over-year to $29 billion, marking four straight quarters of sequential acceleration on strong nights and ADR growth.
  • Adjusted EBITDA rose 24% year-over-year to $519 million, also exceeding guidance.
  • Nights booked on the app grew 22% and now make up 63% of total nights, up from 58% a year ago; first-time booker growth accelerated to 10%, the highest rate since 2022.
  • Generated $1.7 billion of free cash flow in Q1 ($4.5 billion trailing twelve months, a 36% margin), repurchased $1.1 billion of stock, and won investment-grade ratings ahead of a $2.5 billion debt offering.
What went wrong
  • Nights and seats booked grew only 9%, absorbing an approximate 100 basis point headwind from the conflict in the Middle East.
  • Nights growth decelerated in March due to conflict-related cancellations across EMEA and APAC.
  • Net income was just $160 million, hit by a one-time ~$70 million adjustment to deferred tax assets tied to changes in the U.S. corporate alternative minimum tax.
  • Reserve Now, Pay Later carries a very elevated level of cancellations, though management says the net booking impact is positive.
  • Reserve Now, Pay Later defers guest payments, lowering unearned fees and free cash flow in Q1 (both would have grown year-over-year absent its impact).

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
RevenueQ2 2026$3.54B-$3.6B, up 14%-16% YoY (incl. ~3% FX tailwind)
GBVQ2 2026up low double digits YoY
Nights and seats bookedQ2 2026decelerate slightly vs 9%, ~100bp Middle East headwind
Adjusted EBITDA and marginQ2 2026up year-over-year
Revenue growthFull year 2026raised; accelerate to low-to-mid-teens
Adjusted EBITDA marginFull year 2026at least 35%
Effective tax rateFull year 2026high teens

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Revenue +18% Positive impact of product updates and, to a lesser extent, FX; beat high end of outlook.
Gross Booking Value +19% Strong demand and continued pricing strength; growth in both nights and ADR.
Nights and seats booked +9% ~100bp headwind from Middle East conflict; ~10% absent the conflict.
ADR +9% (4% ex-FX) Noticeable strength in North America; RNPL mix shift to larger, higher-priced homes.
Adjusted EBITDA +24% Continued top-line momentum and cost efficiency; exceeded guidance.
Net income — $160M, reduced by a one-time ~$70M deferred tax asset adjustment from the U.S. corporate alternative minimum tax.

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
App share of total nights58% a year ago63% of total nights (app nights +22% YoY)—
AI customer-support self-solve rateabout a third in Q4over 40% of issues resolved without a human agent—
Single service fee adoption—over a quarter of active listings now subject to it—
Reserve Now, Pay Later penetration—roughly 20% of global GBV came from RNPL bookings—
AI-authored code—nearly 60% of engineers' code written by AI, about twice the industry average—
Cost per booking—down about 10% year-over-year in Q1—

Q&A Summary

What app changes are driving the 22% app-nights growth, and how are teams being restructured for AI?
More aggressive prompts to download the app, growing notification opt-ins, and rising App Store rank drive app usage, with no single silver bullet. On teams, it is too early to say, but Chesky expects fewer hands-off 'pure people managers' and more hands-on 'founder mode' leaders using democratized self-serve data.
Does the Delta partnership hurt take rate, and what are Airbnb's own loyalty and flights ambitions?
Delta is a rev-share program with no negative impact on take rate this year; take rate should see modest upside from the single fee structure and the insurance program. Both loyalty and flights are on the table, but any loyalty program would be differentiated rather than a standard points program, and there were no announcements.
How are room nights trending in hotel test markets?
Hotels are a single-digit percentage of nights today, but all top-line hotel metrics are growing more than double the overall business on both supply and bookings. The product display page was upgraded, and over 55% of guests who book a hotel come back to book a home, making hotels an onboarding ramp for new guests.
Will the hotel user experience be commingled with homes or in separate tabs, and what are the early AI search learnings?
Inventory is currently commingled (e.g., in New York) with carousel testing, and more tabs may come, but the real future is deep personalization since every booker has a verified account. Airbnb started AI at the bottom of the funnel with hard customer-service problems (now 40%+ self-solve), then moved mid-funnel with review summaries and matching, and is now testing top-of-funnel AI search.
What are the World Cup booking patterns and does event supply stay after the event?
The World Cup is slated to be Airbnb's largest event ever across 16 cities and three countries, with bookings expected to cluster close to the games as seen in past events. Over 100,000 listings have come on for the first time, and based on Paris, Airbnb retained more than half of event listings roughly six months later.
What are the opportunities and challenges in growing core alternative-accommodation supply, and how can AI help?
Chesky splits supply into fast-growing host API partners (property managers) needing better tools and primary/vacation homes. AI helps build those partner tools faster and can dramatically ease listing for regular people by scraping information, using computer vision on photos, and targeting which neighborhoods need supply.
How has Reserve Now, Pay Later adoption and awareness evolved as it expanded internationally?
After launching in the U.S. in Q3, merchandising it up-funnel in Q4, and rolling out to most of the rest of the world in Q1, every market shows a material lift to gross bookings that is net positive despite elevated cancellations. The U.S. has the highest adoption, but other markets are not far behind.
What underpins confidence in the raised revenue and EBITDA guidance, and what other payment innovations are possible?
The upward revision reflects greater confidence in nights booked, durability of higher ADRs, and monetization lifting take rate in the back half; upside is being reinvested in marketing, expansion markets, policy, and AI within the at-least-35% margin. Beyond RNPL there is a payments and pricing roadmap (installments, local payment methods, flexible cancellation) capable of delivering hundreds of millions in revenue per year.

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Q1 2026 call
Reported 2026-05-07 · figures from the Airbnb, Inc. Q1 2026 earnings call.

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