A ‘reinvention’ of home-rental travel business Airbnb has been flagged as the company ended 2023 with a strong quarter.
Revenue for the three months to December rose by 17% year-on-year to $2.2 billion driven by “solid growth” in bookings up 12% to a record 98.8 million – with the annual total up 14% to 448 million in 2023.
It made a quarterly net loss of $349 million compared with a profit of $319 million in the same period a year ago.
The loss included lodging tax reserves and non-recurring tax-withholding expenses of about $1 billion, according to the company.
However, annual profits almost reached $5 billion, more than double the $1.9 billion figure achieved in 2022 as bookings rose 14% to 448.2 million.
The number of Airbnb hosts surpassed five million in the final quarter of 2023 with active property listings of more than 7.7 million – up 18% year-on-year.
Airbnb hosts earned more than $57 billion last year and the company pledged to “continue raising awareness around hosting and improving the overall host experience”.
The business was described as being at “an inflection point”.
A statement said: “We spent the past three years perfecting our core service, and now we’re ready to embark on our next chapter.
“To unlock more opportunities for growth, we’re investing in under-penetrated international markets, and we’re seeing great results.
“We also believe that now is the time for us to expand beyond our core business and reinvent Airbnb.
“While this will be a gradual, multi-year journey, we’re excited to share more about this later in 2024.”
The company added: “The overall lodging market is massive, and we’ve only scratched the surface. While we’re in over 200 countries and regions, the levels of penetration across each vary significantly.
“The majority of these markets are highly under-penetrated and we believe they offer huge growth opportunities.”
Co-founder and chief executive Brian Cheskysaid: “2023 was another incredible year for Airbnb. Our host community surpassed five million for the first time, we delivered nearly 200 new upgrades to our core service, and we ended the year with our highest-ever number of global active listings.”