Airbnb will continue expanding its hotel offerings in the coming year, reporting early momentum in the segment.
Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz said that as of the fourth quarter, hotels made up a single-digit percentage of total nights booked. However, she also noted that hotel night bookings are growing at nearly double the rate of the overall platform average.
“It will take some time for that business to scale down some meaningful contribution to growth. But the current momentum is quite strong,” Mertz said during the company's Q4 and full-year earnings call. “[We] will be expanding the hotel supply over the course of the year and intend to exit [2026] with hotels being a meaningfully larger percent of the overall business going forward.”
In the fourth quarter, Airbnb confirmed pilots with boutique and independent hotels in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Madrid—all cities that are under short-term rental restrictions.
“We’re seeing promising results, and plan to expand to other key markets later this year,” Airbnb said in its shareholder letter. “We believe bringing more hotels onto the platform can increase our total addressable market, convert more existing guest demand and drive repeat bookings across both hotels and homes.”
Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, announced that the company was adding hotels as a property type on its app last September.
“We think that as we add more offerings, as we add more categories, it strengthens all the other businesses,” Chesky said.
The company’s more aggressive move toward hotels has been clocked by industry stakeholders on LinkedIn.
“Airbnb is quietly coming back to hotels. And this time feels different,” Louis-Hippolyte Bouchayer, head of lodging strategy and supplier management for SAP Concur and VP of distribution for Club Quarters Hotels, wrote ahead of the earnings call.
He called out the recent appointments of Jesse Stein as head of hotels for the company and Lou Zameryka as global head of hotel enterprise and connectivity partnerships.
“The signals are clear. Airbnb is rebuilding a dedicated hotels effort, bringing in experienced leaders,” Bouchayer wrote. “The platform is clearly rethinking how hotels will appear and evolve within its ecosystem.”
Ongoing AI efforts
Like the rest of the travel industry, Airbnb is also prioritizing artificial intelligence (AI).
“We're building an AI-native experience where the app doesn't just search for you,” Chesky said on the call with analysts. “It knows you. It will help guests plan their entire trip, help hosts better run their businesses and help the company operate more efficiently at scale.”
By layering AI over the entire Airbnb experience, the company is building something it believes can’t be replicated, Chesky said.
“A chatbot can give you a list of homes, but it can't give you the unique ones you find on Airbnb. A chatbot doesn't have 200 million verified identities or our 500 million proprietary reviews, and it can't message the host, which 90% of our guests do,” he said. “It can't provide global payment processing, customer support or insurance.”
The directional shift contributed to Airbnb’s decision to bring in CTO Ahmad Al-Dahle last month, Chesky said, referencing Al-Dahle’s AI experience at Apple and Meta.
“He's an expert at pairing massive technical skill with world class design, which is exactly how we're going to transform the Airbnb experience,” Chesky said.
Airbnb said in its shareholder letter that it is taking an iterative approach to implementation.
A few AI features have already been rolled out on a test basis, including AI-powered search. Early tests are allowing guests to use more natural language and to ask questions about listing and location. Eventually, that feature will allow for “more comprehensive and intuitive” search through a user’s trip, Airbnb said.
Financial earnings
Coming off of stability and growth in Q3, Airbnb reported revenue of $2.8 billion in Q4, up 12% year over year. The increase was driven by growth in nights stayed and a “moderate” increase in average daily rate.
Net income for Q4 was $341 million compared to a net income of $461 during the same period in 2024. The lower net income stemmed from an offset by planned investments in policy initiatives and new growth, plus $90 million in non-income tax matters, according to Airbnb.
Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $786 million compared to $765 million in Q4 2024. Sales and marketing expenses totaled $695 million in Q4 2025 compared to $547 million in Q4 2024. Nights and seats booked were 121.9 million in Q4, up 10% from the year prior.
For the full year 2025, Airbnb reported $12.2 billion in revenue, up 10% year over year. Net income was $2.5 billion for the full year 2025, compared to $2.6 billion in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $4.3 billion, up from $4 billion in 2024. Sales and marketing costs also increased for the full year 2025, up from $2.1 billion to $2.6 billion. Nights and seats booked totaled 533 million, up 8% year over year.