Airbnb Inc Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Justin Post - BofA Global Research - Analyst : I wonder if you could expand a little bit on the letter on travel corridor changes. Are you seeing any differences in like total volumes of bookings from corridor changes like in Europe, and I know you already mentioned Canada, is that driving any change for you? And then do you think there's any market share impact in the US? Or do you think you're holding in your share is just that the whole kind of country is a little depressed?

Question: Richard Clarke - Bernstein - Analyst : Just wanted to delve a little bit into what is the behavior you're actually seeing from the US guest to slow down? Is it delayed booking windows? Is it higher cancellation rates, shorter trips, trading down? Some nature of what you're actually seeing? And I guess we've heard some of maybe a few travel companies that things got a little bit better towards the end of April. Are you seeing that? Is there any sort of light at the end of the tunnel there with regard to bookings picking up in the last few days or weeks? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 01, 2025 / 8:30PM, ABNB.OQ - Q1 2025 Airbnb Inc Earnings Call

Question: Mark Mahaney - Evercore ISI Institutional Equities - Analyst : I wanted to ask about what you think are the best chances for reaccelerating your units, your Nights and Experiences. And if we just leave aside experiences for now, like what in terms of the core accommodations unit growth, I think you're investing to get back to double-digit unit growth. And of the different things you're rolling out, co-hosting, is it really leading into the expansion markets? Is there something else? Maybe marketing? What are those -- do you -- are you counting on to be most impactful in order to get that recovery back to double-digit nights growth?

Question: Jed Kelly - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. - Analyst : Great. Just circling back on the US, I think I've asked this before, but just in some of these urban markets, do you think about leaning more into hotels? And then just on the full year guidance, you reiterated your margin guidance. But any reason given the macro uncertainty for not widening the margin range?

Question: John Colantuoni - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : I wanted to start with sort of momentum in the business with growth in 2024 peaking in December and strength continuing early 2025. I'm curious how growth has trended throughout the quarter and into April. Is growth sort of at a low point right now for the year? Or did it sort of dip a little bit earlier in the quarter, and it's since improved from there? And second question, just sort of looking specifically at the expansion market. Curious if you could just sort of characterize how growth has progressed there specifically this quarter compared to last quarter when you called it out as a key contributor to the strength that you saw.

Question: Lee Horowitz - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : Two, if I could. Last quarter, you guys talked about the ability to leverage marketing expense in some of your core markets, which gives you the ability to invest into growth markets. I guess as things perhaps slow a little bit, how do you think about perhaps leaning into that slowness to take some more share, to take advantage of a weaker market to pick up share, particularly relative to, say, some of your competitors that have talked to trying to be more aggressive as things slow. Do you still think you can leverage marketing in your core markets under those assumptions?

Question: Ron Josey - Citigroup Global Markets Inc. - Analyst : Two, please. I want to ask just on the new product launch on May 13 and experiences or something else. Talk to us a little bit more about the plans, integration plans across the site and how you think or whether any contribution from these new products are included in guidance? And then on the affordability or just the volatile headline, Ellie, that we've been talking about, would love your thoughts on just how Airbnb's affordability initiatives could drive greater bookings. We saw the summer travel data where I think US guests are prioritizing staycations and more prone to drive, maybe that's an opportunity for the team. Talk to us about that.

Question: Justin Patterson - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Great. Could you talk more about the behavior of the guests who are booking primarily in app versus those who are arriving through the web? Are you just seeing greater frequency rates, repeat rates so on and so forth?

Question: Ken Gawrelski - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst : I appreciate the question. Brian, a question for you on -- as you think about the ADRs and the opportunity, the balance, if you go back over the last couple of years, you've talked about making Airbnbs more affordable. And there's been various initiatives, including the rooms initiative to make Airbnbs more affordable. Do you expect maybe more flexibility in ADRs and room night prices on Airbnbs relative to hotels in a period of weaker consumer spending, especially in the US, maybe in urban areas? I'm just curious as how you think about the balance between potential ADR versus room nights in North America?

Question: Ken Gawrelski - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst : I'm sorry, let me rephrase. Do you -- as you think about the opportunity -- if you think about the balance between pricing ADRs, average daily room nights, relative to total room nights volume. Do you think that there is an opportunity to have more -- for your host to have more flexibility on ADRs and to see more affordability, drive better room nights and ultimately, greater share over the long term in a period where there's maybe more consumer weakness or some pressure on the consumer wallet?

Question: Kevin Kopelman - TD Cowen (Research) - Analyst : Another one on ADRs. Given FX, the guide seems to point to the softer ADRs for Q2, how much of that is geo mix versus softening within the key regions or other factors? And what are you assuming for FX benefit in Q2?

Question: Tom White - D.A. Davidson & Co. (Research) - Analyst : Just one on the international expansion markets. I was hoping you guys could just update us on kind of how those markets are tracking in terms of profitability relative to your kind of core markets, both in terms of like absolute level? And also just curious about the kind of the pace at which they're tracking that way? And then if you could just share a little color on exactly what kind of investments you guys are finding are helping in those markets, are helping drive the acceleration in growth you talked about?

Question: Stephen Ju - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Great. So Brian and Ellie, I think we and the analyst community, sort of outspoken in, are always probably overly focused on the advertising and the monetization angle of product development and -- but can we talk about like in recenter where your priorities are? Because based on everything that you're talking about, whether it's experiences or the international expansion, the co-hosting, Brian, your prior analogy, with the lateral things to sell, like Amazon, it does sound like we should be thinking more about transaction growth versus things that you are doing to capture a greater portion of the unit economics. So can you kind of recenter us in terms of like what do you think the primary drivers of gross bookings will be? And revenue will be?

Question: Conor Cunningham - Melius Research LLC - Analyst : So airlines and hotels spend a ton of time talking about the resiliency of loyalty programs during downturns. And I know you guys don't want to copy them, but can you just give us some updated thoughts on a subscription model or a loyalty program? It just seems much more likely that, that thing is -- that, that type of opportunity is on the table after you move into experiences or something else along that line. So if you could just talk about that, that would be helpful.

Question: Alex Brignall - Redburn Atlantic - Analyst : At the Q4 results when you talked about the margin target. You said that FX was a headwind because of the transaction exposure that you have, more of your costs are in dollars. That's obviously -- and I think -- I'm not 100%, I think you said that margins certainly wouldn't have gone down as much, maybe not even down if FX wasn't going against the beat. Tell me I'm wrong, if I am, on that. Obviously, FX has gone entirely the other way now, and it would be a tailwind to your numbers. So I would have imagined that all else equal, which of course is not, that the margin target for the full year would have seen a tailwind from the fact that FX will benefit your US dollar cost base relative to your revenues. Could you just talk about why that's not happening?