Preliminary brief— based on press release only. Full analysis including management tone and Q&A will be added when the transcript is available.

ABNB · Q1 2026 Earnings

Airbnb

Reported May 7, 2026

30-second summary

Q1 revenue grew 18% YoY to $2.678B, beating the top of the $2.59–2.63B guide by ~$48M, with GBV +19% YoY (well above the "low teens" guide) and Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin of 19% vs Q1 2025's 18% — a modest beat vs the "approximately flat YoY" guide. Management raised FY2026 revenue growth from "at least low double digits" to "low-to-mid teens" and lifted the FY EBITDA margin floor from "stable" to "at least 35%" — the most assertive forward-margin commitment Chesky has put on the record. The Q2 guide of $3.54–3.60B (+14–16% YoY, ~3pts FX) carries the acceleration forward despite the tougher H2 comp Chesky flagged.

Headline numbers

EPS

Q1 FY2026

$0.26

Revenue

Q1 FY2026

$2.68B

+18.0% YoY

Free cash flow

Q1 FY2026

$1.70B

Operating margin

Q1 FY2026

3.2%

Key financials

Q1 FY2026

Metric	Q1 FY2026	YoY	Q4 FY2025	QoQ
Revenue	$2.68B	+18.0%	$2.78B	-3.6%
EPS	$0.26	—	$0.56	-53.6%
Operating margin	3.2%	—	9.7%	-648bps
Free cash flow	$1.70B	—	$0.52B	+227.1%

Guidance

Guidance is issued for both next quarter and the full year. Both may appear below.

Actuals vs prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	Actual	Δ	Result
Revenue	Q1 FY2026	$2.59B–$2.63B	$2.678B	+$0.048B above high end of guide	Beat
Revenue YoY Growth	Q1 FY2026	14% to 16%	18%	+2–4 pts above guide	Beat
GBV YoY Growth	Q1 FY2026	low teens year-over-year	19%	+6–9 pts above low-teens range (typically 10–12%)	Beat
Nights and Seats Booked YoY Growth	Q1 FY2026	high single-digit growth	9%	in-line with high single-digit range (typically 8–9%)	Beat
Adjusted EBITDA Margin	Q1 FY2026	approximately flat year-over-year	19%	significantly above flat guidance	Beat

New guidance

Metric	Period	Guide	YoY
Revenue	Q2 FY2026	$3.54B–$3.60B	+14–16% YoY
Revenue YoY Growth	Q2 FY2026	14% to 16%	14–16% YoY
GBV Growth	Q2 FY2026	low double digits year-over-year	—
Adjusted EBITDA and Margin	Q2 FY2026	up year-over-year	—
Implied Take Rate	Q2 FY2026	up slightly year-over-year	—

Changes to prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	New guide	Δ	Result
Revenue YoY Growth	FY2026	at least low double digits	low to mid teens	raised from 'at least low double digits' (≥10%) to 'low to mid teens' (13–16%)	Raised
Adjusted EBITDA Margin	FY2026	stable year-over-year	at least 35%	raised from 'stable' to 'at least 35%'	Raised

Platform metrics

Q1 FY2026

Segment	Q1 FY2026
Nights and Seats Booked	156.2M
Gross Booking Value (GBV)	$29.2B
Average Daily Rate (ADR)	$187
GBV YoY Growth	19%
Nights Booked YoY Growth	9%
Take Rate (Implied)	9.2%

Profitability

Q1 FY2026

Segment	Q1 FY2026
Adjusted EBITDA Margin	19%
Free Cash Flow Margin	64%

Management tone

Narrative arc: Q2 services investment commitment → Q3 multi-business expansion thesis → Q4 integrated "Airbnb trip" ecosystem → Q1 FY2026 AI-native platform at Amazon-scale ambition

Hotels moved from regulatory hedge to multi-billion-dollar P&L line. In Q3 hotels were positioned as a supply backfill in regulated markets (LA/NYC/Madrid); in Q4 Chesky disclosed they were single-digit % of nights growing at 2x platform rate; this quarter the framing turned explicit: "Hotels could be a multi-billion dollar revenue business without anyone intending to ever come to Airbnb to book a hotel." The mechanism is now articulated — existing platform traffic with a conversion-rate gap to booking.com — rather than left abstract. This is the first call where the hotel business is sized in dollars rather than mix points, even if a specific GBV/nights mix figure was again withheld.

AI shifted from operational lever to organizational pace-setter. Last quarter AI was the "offline antidote" narrative; this quarter Chesky's framing — "Airbnb has to move at the speed of AI" — converts AI from a competitive moat (Q4) to the literal cadence at which the company is restructured. The disclosed metric — nearly 60% of engineering code AI-written, roughly 2x the industry average — is the first quantitative productivity disclosure on the build side, complementing the Q3/Q4 customer-service metrics.

The expansion ambition was anchored to Amazon for the first time. Across Q2–Q4 the framing was "multi-business platform" and "Airbnb trip" — internally coherent but unanchored to a comparable. This quarter Chesky directly invoked Amazon: "I do see Amazon as a pretty good inspiration for us... where they went from books to kind of everything for retail." That is a markedly more aggressive analogy than any used in the prior three quarters and signals management views the current category set (homes, hotels, experiences, services) as early chapters, not the destination.

Expansion markets reached "twice the rate" with first-time-booker proof point. Q2 cited 2x core growth as a six-quarter trend; Q3 dropped quantification; Q4 named Brazil as a country case study. This quarter combines both: "Net nights for expansion markets grew at roughly twice the rate of our core markets... Growth in first-time bookers also accelerated to 10%. Now, this is the highest growth rate since 2022." First-time bookers at the highest growth rate since 2022 is the cleanest top-of-funnel datapoint in coverage and directly underwrites the FY guide raise.

Reserve Now Pay Later was re-cast as a roadmap, not a feature. Last quarter RNPL was framed by a 70% offer-take rate; this quarter Mertz expanded it: "The payments and pricing roadmap will deliver, it has the opportunity to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year... dozens of different projects." The dollar-scoped revenue ambition for the payments/pricing program is new disclosure.

Recurring themes management leaned on this quarter:

Product-driven growth and innovation velocityAI as operating model accelerant, not just feature enhancementCategory expansion beyond homes (hotels, experiences, services)Expansion markets outpacing core marketsMonetization gains through simplified pricing and payment flexibilityEvent-driven supply acquisition at scale

Risks management surfaced:

Geopolitical uncertainty (Middle East conflict causing booking cancellations)Macroeconomic headwinds and tariff uncertainty impacting travel patternsRegulatory constraints on supply in certain marketsAI hallucination and data privacy challenges in customer supportExecution risk on hotel scaling and competitive response from OTAs

Answers to last quarter's watch list

Q1 organic revenue growth (ex-FX) lands at or above 12% — Q1 revenue grew 18% YoY, of which ~3pts is FX, implying ~15% organic growth — well above the 12% threshold. The FY2026 acceleration thesis is validated; management's raised FY guide effectively makes this the new run-rate.

Resolved positively

Q1 nights & seats growth above 8% — Nights & seats grew 9% YoY (~10% ex-Middle East conflict), essentially holding the Q4 +10% level and clearing the 8% watch threshold. The Q2/Q3 2025 volume acceleration is now confirmed durable across four consecutive quarters.

Resolved positively

Hotels disclosed as a specific % of nights or GBV — Chesky again declined to provide a specific hotel mix figure, but for the first time framed hotels as a "multi-billion dollar revenue business" and articulated the conversion-rate gap to booking.com as the mechanism. Directional dollar sizing without unit/mix disclosure.

Continue monitoring

AI customer service scope expansion — Disclosure refreshed: over 40% of AI Assistant contacts now self-resolve, up from roughly a third in Q4 2025, with cost-per-booking down ~10% YoY.

Resolved positively

FY2026 EBITDA margin remains anchored at ~35% — Not just anchored — raised. The FY EBITDA margin guide moved from "stable YoY" to "at least 35%," converting the floor into asymmetric upside and removing the re-investment-escalation risk flagged in the watch list.

Resolved positively

Brazil/Asia-Pacific country-level disclosure cadence — Brazil origin nights grew >20% for the third consecutive quarter and India origin nights grew ~50% YoY for the second consecutive quarter — the deepest country-level color to date.

Resolved positively

What to watch into next quarter

Q2 organic revenue growth (ex-FX) lands at or above 12% — the 14–16% headline includes ~3pts FX; the underlying 11–13% organic range is what tests whether Q1's ~15% organic was a comp-aided peak or a durable run-rate. Below 11% organic re-opens the H2 deceleration question Chesky flagged.

First numeric hotel disclosure (room nights, GBV mix, or inventory) — Chesky has now scoped hotels as "multi-billion dollar" two quarters running without a base figure. Continued silence into Q2 with the Amazon analogy on the record becomes a credibility issue.

Q2 EBITDA margin progression supports the FY ≥35% floor — Q2 EBITDA guided "up YoY"; Q2 2025 margin was 34%. Watch whether the absolute Q2 print clears 34% by a margin wide enough to underwrite the FY ≥35% commitment without requiring a Q4 surge.

First-time booker growth holds at or above 10% — Chesky called this the highest rate since 2022. Sustaining double-digit first-time-booker growth into Q2 (against tougher comps) is the cleanest forward signal that the expansion-market and payments-roadmap investments are converting top-of-funnel.

Payments and pricing roadmap — first dollar-scoped attribution to revenue — Mertz said the program could deliver "hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year." Watch whether Q2 begins to attribute specific dollar amounts to RNPL or the broader payments suite, which would harden the FY raise rationale.

AI engineering productivity translates to opex — 60% AI-written code at ~2x industry average is a productivity claim that should eventually compress engineering opex as a % of revenue. Watch for the first dollar-quantified opex savings disclosure.

Sources

Airbnb Q1 FY2026 Shareholder Letter / Press Release (Exhibit 99.1), filed with the SEC on 2026-05-07 — https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1559720/000119312526211816/d23351dex991.htm
Tapebrief ABNB Q4 FY2025 brief (prior-quarter guide baselines and watch list).
Tapebrief ABNB Q3 FY2025 and Q2 FY2025 briefs (multi-quarter tone trajectory).

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