While Airbnb started in the midst of the Great Recession as a more affordable alternative to hotels, guests have increasingly shuddered at the cost to book rentals. Still, the company’s stock took a hit after it provided guidance on fourth quarter expectations that were below Wall Street’s hopes, anticipating a bumpy post-pandemic travel recovery and a strong dollar that would curtail prices of Airbnbs abroad. Rising Airbnb prices haven’t hurt guest demandĭespite rising inflation and an economic outlook that has Americans bemoaning the costs of food, gas and housing, Airbnb pulled in a record $1.2 billion in net income in its most recent quarter a 46% jump compared with the same quarter a year ago. In addition to those startup services, Airbnb introduced a comprehensive guest identity verification system for renters and reservation screening that blocks bookings it deems are high-risk for “disruptive parties and property damage,” and increased the damage protection for hosts to up to $3 million from $1 million. The company’s also hooking up new hosts with an experienced guest for their first booking, and it’s shoring up the company-host support service. One of the best and easiest and most straightforward ways to make extra money is take the biggest expense of your life-for most people, it’s their housing-and defray the cost by sharing it when you’re not using it.”Īirbnb announced Wednesday it’s connecting new hosts with a “Superhost” in their area for one-on-one guidance-a sort of Airbnb mentorship program. If that is the case, people more than ever are going to want to make extra money. “The economy will probably continue to slow down. “We want to get more everyday people to share the homes they live in, whether they’re there or not there,” Chesky tells Fortune over Zoom on Wednesday. with just one listing pulled in $3,900, the company reported-not a small sum considering today’s sky-high inflation. At the same time, he’s betting that a continued economic downturn will result in people turning to easy ways to earn a little extra scratch on the side.ĭuring the pandemic, the typical new host in the U.S. The company unveiled a laundry list of new offerings and updates intended to make it easier for people to host their homes and, cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky tells Fortune, improve the quality of listings.Ĭoming off Airbnb’s best single quarter in the history of the company, Chesky believes the post-pandemic leisure travel boom will continue.

Airbnb ceo