Airbnb shows resilience amid Covid hammering

● Airbnb reported quarterly revenue that blitzed analysts’ estimates, benefiting as travellers chose holiday rentals during a season marred by rising Covid-19 cases.

The company did not give a financial forecast and was cautious about 2021, keeping a lid on share gains in extended trading.

Releasing its financial results for the first time as a public company on Thursday, Airbnb showed sales of $859m (about R12.9bn) in the final three months of 2020, a decline of only 22% from a year earlier.

Analysts had been projecting $739.7m, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Nights and experiences booked, a metric that represents the total number of guest stays and tourist activities booked on the platform, dropped 39% from a year earlier to 46.3-million, the San Francisco-based company said. Gross booking value fell 31%.

The pandemic continues to hammer the travel industry after a surge in cases led to new lockdowns and restrictions and the vaccine rollout has faced hurdles globally.

Airbnb was among the hardest-hit companies of the pandemic and almost shelved its initial public offering (IPO) as travel shut down a year ago. By April, room bookings and experiences had plunged 72%. Airbnb rolled out a blanket refund policy and doled out more than $1bn in cancellation fees.

But Airbnb has fared better than its rivals as travellers have taken advantage of workfrom-home opportunities, road-tripping to nearby mountain villages or beach towns, often booking longer stays than usual.

Airbnb ended 2020 with a record-setting IPO. Its stock is up 165% since then, valuing the company at more than $100bn.

The IPO and its associated stock compensation, as well as the effects of the pandemic, led to steep losses in the fourth quarter. Airbnb reported a net loss of $3.9bn compared with a loss of $351.5m a year earlier. Analysts had projected a loss of $3.2bn.

“We have been encouraged by our continued resilience and recovery, and are optimistic about the upcoming travel rebound,” the company said. But it said it has “limited visibility for growth” in 2021 “given the difficulty in determining the pace of vaccine rollouts and the related impact on willingness to travel”.

CEO Brian Chesky has said he is hopeful vaccine distribution will lead to a post-pandemic travel boom that will continue to favour Airbnb over traditional hotels.

“We do believe the travel rebound is coming and we think it’s going to be a very big rebound,” said Chesky. The return in travel will likely be driven by longer stays as “now, in a world of Zoom, people can work from home and they’re realising they can work from any home”, he said.

Airbnb is expecting to see a regional travel rebound this year. It spent $630m on sales and marketing in the fourth quarter, a 44% increase from the same period a year earlier.

In January, it released a report predicting travel trends for 2021, saying people will focus on rural destinations rather than crowded tourist hotspots.