Airbnb’s (ABNB) fourth-quarter revenue surpassed Wall Street’s estimates on the back of strong travel demand, while the vacation rental company said late Tuesday it expects its top line in the first quarter to benefit from the timing of Easter.
Revenue increased 17% year over year to $2.22 billion during the three months ended Dec. 31, above the Capital IQ-polled consensus for $2.16 billion. Nights and experiences booked grew 12% to 98.8 million, exceeding the view on Visible Alpha indicating 98.1 million.
“Following the volatility that impacted our business in October, we saw an acceleration of nights booked growth throughout the rest of the quarter,” the company said in a shareholder letter.
Gross booking value, which includes host earnings, service fees, cleaning fees, and taxes, jumped 15% annually to $15.5 billion.
The company swung to a per-share loss of $0.55 in the fourth quarter from earnings of $0.48 per share a year earlier. The results included non-recurring tax withholding expenses and lodging tax reserves of approximately $1 billion, Airbnb said. The GAAP consensus on Capital IQ was for EPS of $0.55.
Airbnb forecast first-quarter revenue to grow between 12% and 14% year over year, reaching $2.03 billion to $2.07 billion, compared with the Capital IQ-polled consensus for $2.03 billion. It said the revenue outlook will benefit due to the timing of the Easter holiday, at the expense of year-over-year growth in the second quarter. Easter is on March 31.
The growth rate of nights booked in the ongoing three-month period is seen moderating sequentially while the annual comparison will be impacted due to strong growth in the first quarter of 2023, the company said.
Airbnb expects to deliver adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization growth on a nominal basis, for both the first quarter and the full year. It forecast adjusted EBITDA margin expansion year over year primarily due to the timing of expenses.