Airbnb posted a strong Q1 with Revenue hitting $2.7 billion, up 18% from last year. Gross booking value was $29 billion, up 19%. Nights and seats booked grew 9%, and adjusted EBITDA came in at $519 million, up 24%. The company expects the strength to continue and raised its full-year outlook for 2026.
But the numbers weren't the most interesting part of the earnings call. Brian Chesky kept pulling the conversation back to one date: May 20th. That's the day of Airbnb's 2026 Summer Release. He brought it up seven separate times. He mentioned it in his opening, his closing, and in answers about hotels, AI search, listing tools, and payments. Every time an analyst pushed for detail, he pointed forward and said wait two weeks, so we’re expecting big things from the upcoming Summer Release.
AI will decide who sees what
This was the biggest shift Chesky described. For context, every Airbnb guest has to make an account and verify their ID. That means Airbnb knows who the guest is, what they've booked before, and what they click on. The company plans to use all of that data to generate personalized search results tailored to each guest.
Chesky gave two quick examples: a solo business traveler booking one night last-minute will only see hotels, while a family booking a week in Tuscany will only see homes. "In the age of AI, we know about you, we know your intent, and we give you exactly what you're looking for," he said. He called the idea of tabs or mixed search results "a pre-AI paradigm."
For hosts, this changes how visibility works. Your spot in search is no longer just about price, reviews, or response rate. It’s becoming more about whether Airbnb's algorithm thinks the person searching even wants to book a home in the first place.
Hotels are growing about 2x the rest of the business
CFO Ellie Mertz said hotels are still a small share of total nights, but they’re growing at more than double the rate of the rest of the business. She also said that 55% of guests who book a hotel on Airbnb come back and book a home later.
Chesky's framing for why hotels make sense on the platform was simple. Guests are already on Airbnb looking for a place to stay. If they don't find a home that fits, they leave for another site. He used an analogy of a grocery store, saying “If they don't find a home, they're probably going to another store and booking a product we don't have. If we have that [hotel] product on another aisle, then a whole bunch of people are going to book.” He also said there will be more hotel updates on May 20th. See our earlier coverage of the hotels expansion.
Reserve Now, Pay Later is positive, but pushing cancellations up
RNPL is now live worldwide and drove about 20% of Q1 gross booking volume. Mertz said the net effect on bookings is positive everywhere they have tested it, but she added a line hosts should pay attention to: "Certainly, with the offering, there is a very elevated level of cancellations that come with the program." See our earlier piece on host risk and the worldwide rollout.
AI listing tools are coming
Chesky also teased AI tools for new hosts. His words: "you can just say, list my place, you put in your address, it can scrape information off the internet, you can take photos, it can even write your description based on computer visioning of the photo." He did not say if this ships May 20th, but he tied it to the release.
What to watch on May 20th
The Q1 results were strong, but most of the big host-facing changes weren’t ready to share. Airbnb is putting AI at the center of search, listing, and customer service. Hotels are growing fast and competing for the same spots as homes. Reserve Now, Pay Later is bringing in more bookings, but it’s also bringing in more cancellations. We’re expecting more details on these topics and possibly more on Airbnb’s Summer Release on May 20th. For more, read our Q4 recap and last year's Summer Release coverage.
.webp)
.jpg)
