Speaking during the company’s first-quarter earnings call, CEO Brian Chesky described how artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling a more individualized approach to travel discovery.
“I think a post-AI paradigm that we’re moving towards … is deep personalization, understanding every user, every member,” Chesky said. “In the age of AI, we know about you, we know your intent and we give you exactly what you are looking for,” he said.
The approach will increasingly shape how Airbnb presents homes, hotels and other offerings.
Chesky said users searching for a one-night business trip may be shown hotels, while travelers planning a weeklong family vacation to Tuscany are more likely to see homes.
“There are people that only want to book hotels. They should only see a hotel. There are people that only want to book homes. They should only see homes,” Chesky said.
AI, personalization and traveler intent
Airbnb is in “exploration” mode for AI-powered search, which Chesky tied to the company's broader push toward personalization.
Chesky said Airbnb is experimenting with different ways to use AI in relation to search while moving away from what he described as a “pre-AI paradigm” centered around static navigation and search experiences.
“I don't think anyone's figured out AI for travel or e-commerce yet,” he said.
Airbnb has been using AI to improve search ranking while summarizing reviews and other listing information to help travelers find more relevant listings, Chesky said.
While many companies targeted initial AI applications at the top of the funnel, Airbnb started at the bottom of the funnel with customer service, where “the stakes are high,” he said.
That effort has paid off, yielding a 40% self-solve rate for travelers who use the AI assistant.
The company expects to roll out additional mid-funnel AI features soon and is continuing to test different ways to implement AI at the top of the funnel. Airbnb in January named former Meta executive Ahmad Al-Dahle as CTO, as it expands its AI initiatives.
“I believe that over the next year, you're going to see a lot of innovation around AI search, AI-native interfaces, and I think not only can we solve this for home sharing, I think we can solve it for all parts of travel and maybe even parts of living,” Chesky said.
Localization and flexible payments
Airbnb also discussed customization at the market level as it continues to invest in expansion markets including Brazil, India and Japan.
Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz said the company has been tailoring both marketing and product features by country, including emphasizing cleanliness for German travelers, merchandising bed-and-breakfast inventory differently in Italy and supporting installment payments in Brazil.
“We're trying to do that increasingly at the country level, so that when you open Airbnb, it feels like it's local and relevant for you,” Mertz said.
Flexible payments emerged as one of the company’s clearest near-term growth drivers.
Airbnb expanded its Reserve Now, Pay Later offering to additional markets during the quarter.
Chesky said roughly 20% of global gross booking value (GBV) came from Reserve Now, Pay Later bookings in Q1. He added that the feature is contributing to longer booking windows and demand for larger and higher-priced homes.
“This increased flexibility is changing how guests book,” Chesky said.
Mertz said Reserve Now, Pay Later, updates to cancellation policies and simplified fee structures collectively contributed about three points of nights-booked growth and four points of GBV growth in the quarter.
Hotels and the guest ecosystem
Hotels, services and experiences were also framed as part of a broader ecosystem strategy centered around the guest rather than the home.
“Today people think of the home as the sun of the solar system of Airbnb,” Chesky said. “I think in the future it will be a member, a guest, and what we really want to see is a constellation of services, of ancillary offerings.”
Airbnb said hotel bookings continue to grow faster than the broader platform as the company expands its boutique and independent hotel pilots into additional markets.
Mertz said hotels remain a single-digit percentage of nights booked, but “all the top line metrics for hotels are growing more than double that of the entire business.”
The company also pointed to crossover behavior among its offerings as evidence of the broader ecosystem strategy taking shape. Chesky said about 55% of guests who book a hotel on Airbnb later return to book a home.
Experiences and services are also functioning as acquisition funnels for the broader platform. Almost a quarter of new guests who book an experience subsequently book a stay or service, he said.
Financial results
Airbnb reported first-quarter revenue of $2.7 billion, up 18% year over year, or 15% excluding foreign exchange effects. The increase was driven by growth in nights stayed and higher average daily rate (ADR).
Gross booking value totaled $29.2 billion, up 19% from the same period in 2025, or 13% excluding foreign exchange effects. Nights and seats booked increased 9% year over year to 156.2 million, while ADR was $187, up 9% compared to Q1 2025.
Net income for Q1 was $160 million, compared to $154 million in Q1 2025. Airbnb said higher revenue and operating expense efficiencies, including customer support, were partially offset by sales and marketing expenses, according to Airbnb.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $519 million, compared to $417 million in Q1 2025. Sales and marketing expenses totaled $751 million, up from $563 million in the year-ago quarter and representing 28% of revenue.
The results come in advance of Airbnb’s summer release, slated for May 20. The annual product launch event has become a key platform for unveiling new initiatives. In 2025 Airbnb relaunched Experiences, added services and introduced a redesigned mobile app. In 2024, it launched Icons, featuring curated experiences tied to celebrities and pop culture.
Tags: Brian Chesky Airbnb hotels Ellie Mertz Alternative Accommodation artificial intelligence (AI)