Airbnb, Inc.
Airbnb, Inc. operates a global marketplace that connects hosts offering homes, experiences, and services with guests looking for places to stay and things to do. Founded in 2007, the company has grown from a single home-sharing idea into a platform with over 5 million hosts and more than 2.5 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Its core business is not owning real estate, but enabling supply and demand through software, trust-and-safety tools, payments, and brand marketing. In 2025, Airbnb expanded beyond stays with Airbnb Services and redesigned Experiences, extending the platform into a broader travel and local-services marketplace.
Fiscal year 2025 · change from previous year
Development 2020–2025
Business
Share of revenueListings and booking tools for homes, apartments, and other short-term accommodations.
Bookable activities and local experiences hosted through the platform.
Newly launched service offerings that let guests book local services through Airbnb.
AirCover, customer support, trust-and-safety, and platform protection features.
Payment processing, funds handling, and related transaction infrastructure.
Customers
Airbnb serves two-sided marketplace customers: hosts who list inventory and guests who book it. Hosts include individual homeowners, professional hosts, and property managers who use the platform to reach global demand and benefit from booking, pricing, protection, and support tools. Guests include leisure travelers, families, and increasingly users seeking experiences and local services rather than only hotel-style lodging. The company also indirectly serves communities and local governments because its business depends on regulatory acceptance, tax compliance, and local trust.
Individuals and property managers list homes, experiences, and services to access Airbnb demand, pricing tools, and host protections.
Travelers book accommodations, experiences, and services because Airbnb offers unique inventory, convenience, and all-in pricing.
Operators with multiple listings use Airbnb to fill inventory, diversify demand, and reduce dependence on direct bookings.
Guests seeking activities, local guides, beauty, fitness, food, and other services use the platform for trip extension and local discovery.
Strategy
Airbnb’s strategy is to improve the core service, expand into more geographies, and broaden the platform beyond stays. Management has emphasized hundreds of product upgrades across pricing, quality, customer support, and trust-and-safety to improve conversion and retention on both sides of the marketplace. The company is also using a more localized go-to-market approach in less mature markets to raise awareness and consideration where the brand is less established. A major strategic step in 2025 was the launch of Airbnb Services and redesigned Experiences, which extends the platform into adjacent travel and local-services categories and supports longer-term growth.
Better pricing, quality, support, and trust features help convert guests and retain hosts in a competitive marketplace.
Localized product and marketing efforts can unlock demand in less mature markets and diversify revenue away from mature regions.
Services and redesigned Experiences broaden the addressable market and increase booking frequency per guest.
Geography
Q1/2026Airbnb operates globally, with business activity in over 220 countries and regions and a host base spread across almost every major travel market. In 2025, North America accounted for 42% of revenue, EMEA for 39%, Latin America for 10%, and Asia Pacific for 9%, showing a broad but still regionally concentrated revenue mix. The company’s geographic mix matters because booking patterns, average daily rates, and nights per booking vary by region, affecting growth and monetization. Airbnb also localizes product updates and marketing in less mature markets to improve awareness and conversion, while regulatory and tax regimes differ materially across countries.
Share of the revenue the company reports by geography.
Risks
Airbnb’s business is exposed to two-sided marketplace dynamics: if host supply or guest demand weakens, revenue can fall quickly because the company does not control the underlying inventory. The company also faces intense competition from OTAs, hotel chains, property managers, search engines, and direct booking channels, which can pressure pricing, traffic acquisition, and conversion. Regulatory and tax risk is material because Airbnb Payments is regulated in multiple jurisdictions and the company has faced significant lodging-tax and withholding-tax disputes, including in Italy. Cybersecurity, platform reliability, and payment-funds handling are also important risks because the business depends on secure transactions, trust, and uninterrupted access to the platform.
- Regulatory and tax enforcementImpact: HighLikelihood: High
Short-term rental, withholding-tax, and lodging-tax rules can increase costs, restrict operations, or create liabilities.
Exposure - Weakening host supply or guest demandImpact: HighLikelihood: Medium
Revenue depends on active listings and bookings; softer travel demand or reduced host participation directly lowers marketplace activity.
Exposure: Global marketplace
- Competitive disintermediationImpact: HighLikelihood: Medium
OTAs, hotel chains, property managers, and search engines can divert traffic and bookings away from Airbnb.
Exposure: Guest acquisition and booking conversion
- Cybersecurity and platform outagesImpact: HighLikelihood: Medium
The marketplace depends on secure, reliable systems for bookings, payments, and trust-and-safety functions.
Exposure: Global IT systems and third-party providers
- Payments compliance and funds handlingImpact: MediumLikelihood: Low
Airbnb Payments is subject to money-transmitter and payment-institution rules that raise compliance and operational risk.
Exposure
Accounting
Judgemental itemsAirbnb estimates liabilities where it may be jointly liable with hosts or where tax applicability is uncertain, which can create material charges and settlements.
Impact: General and administrative expense and contingent liabilities
Funds held on behalf of customers and payment-service regulation require careful classification and compliance judgments.
Impact: Balance sheet presentation, compliance costs, and operational controls
Global revenue is exposed to exchange-rate movements, so reported growth can differ from underlying business performance.
Impact: Revenue comparability and regional trend analysis
Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow exclude items that are economically meaningful, so investors should reconcile them to GAAP results.
Impact: Perceived profitability and cash generation
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Last updated: 24/09/2026