Airbnb Revenue Nearly Quadrupled in Second Quarter

Airbnb Inc.’s second-quarter revenue nearly quadrupled, rebounding from the lows of the pandemic and exceeding pre-pandemic levels, as domestic travel lifted the home-sharing company’s fortunes.

The company is projecting record revenue for the current quarter that ends in September despite the impact of the new Covid-19 Delta variant on bookings and cancellations. The June-September quarter is typically the most lucrative for Airbnb because of seasonal factors like summer vacations. Its previous revenue record was $1.65 billion in that quarter in 2019. Analysts were projecting third-quarter revenue of $1.96 billion before the company’s latest guidance.

Airbnb cautioned, however, that it didn’t know whether people would be as willing to travel in the fall as the summer. “Vaccination progress, containment of new variants, and travel restrictions outside the U.S. will all continue to be key factors,” in determining growth for the rest of the year, the company said Thursday. Its shares fell almost 5% in after-hours trading.

Revenue for the three months ended June climbed to $1.3 billion compared with $335 million in the same period last year, when world-wide Covid-19 lockdowns decimated Airbnb’s business. That beat the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet and came in 10% higher than the same quarter in 2019, before the pandemic.

Airbnb’s net loss narrowed to $68 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $576 million in the year-earlier period. Analysts had expected a loss of $254 million.