Airbnb stock jumps as company reenters ‘growth mode,’ plans to develop its own AI agent

Airbnb (ABNB) stock jumped nearly 10% on Friday after the peer-to-peer home rental company touted strong growth across its business and raised its full-year outlook amid robust global travel demand.

“Airbnb is back in growth mode,” CEO Brian Chesky said in a release to investors. “It’s rare for a marketplace of our size to reaccelerate growth, but that’s exactly what we’re doing. In Q3, we delivered our fastest revenue growth in more than three years, with acceleration across our business, including our most established markets.”

In the third quarter, Airbnb reported earnings per share of $3.16, surpassing Wall Street analyst estimates of $2.85 per share, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. Revenue grew 19% to $4.87 billion, also beating estimates of $4.74 billion.

“In North America, nights booked grew at their fastest pace in four years,” Chesky said. “We’re also seeing more guests return to Airbnb, and more people try it for the first time.”

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The company’s strong quarter led it to raise its guidance for the remainder of the year.

In the fourth quarter, Airbnb expects revenue to grow 16% to 19% to a range of $3.22 billion to $3.28 billion, exceeding the Street’s midpoint estimate of $3.16 billion.

For the full year, Airbnb forecasts revenue growth in the high teens and an increase in adjusted EBITDA margin to approximately 36%.

On the earnings call, Chesky outlined plans for Airbnb to build its own AI agent to help people book travel.

He laid out the advantages to this approach, noting that Airbnb understands its marketplace better than any general-purpose AI agent and can make changes to reservations more easily than an outside AI agent.

“Perhaps most importantly, we’re building a new interface specifically for travel,” Chesky said. “We don’t think the traditional chatbot is the right way to plan travel. It’s the wrong interface. So what we are doing is developing a custom-designed AI-native experience that responds to what guests are looking for … This is going to feel a little bit like generative UI in the sense that it’s going to offer up the right interface at the right time for your specific travel needs.”