Airbnb Q2 2024 financial results

We issued our second quarter 2024 financial results. You can read the details here. Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky said: 

“We had another strong quarter at Airbnb, closing out Q2 with more than one billion dollars in free cash flow and over 8 million listings globally. I’m proud of our results and the quality that our platform continues to deliver for hosts and guests around the world.”

Overview of Q2 results

Q2 marked another strong quarter for Airbnb. Revenue increased 11 percent year-over-year to $2.75 billion. Net income was $555 million, representing a net income margin of 20 percent. Adjusted EBITDA of $894 million increased 9 percent year-over-year and represented an Adjusted EBITDA Margin of 33 percent. We generated $1.0 billion of FCF during Q2 and $4.3 billion of FCF over the trailing twelve months—our highest ever. 

During the quarter, we made significant progress across each of our 2024 strategic priorities:  

• Making hosting mainstream: Last year, we shared our commitment to making hosting just as popular as traveling on Airbnb. We’ve been focused on raising awareness around the benefits of hosting and providing better tools for hosts. In Q2 2024, we surpassed 8 million active listings, driven by continued growth across all regions and market types. But we’re not just growing supply; we’re committed to ensuring it’s high quality. As part of this commitment, since we launched our updated hosting quality system in April 2023, we’ve removed over 200,000 listings that failed to meet our guests’ expectations to ensure we consistently deliver high-quality stays. 
• Perfecting the core service: We remain focused on making Airbnb more reliable, affordable, and an overall better service for hosts and guests. In recent years, we’ve rolled out hundreds of new features and upgrades to our platform. We’ve introduced major reliability initiatives like Guest Favorites, which make it easier for guests to find great listings, and since its launch, we’ve seen over 150 million nights booked at Guest Favorite listings. We’ve also made dozens of smaller changes that have led to improved usability and booking conversion. 
• Expanding beyond the core: We continue to drive growth by investing in under-penetrated markets. In Q2, growth of gross nights booked on an origin basis in our expansion markets significantly outperformed our core markets on average. We’re leveraging our global expansion playbook, which includes a more localized product and marketing approach, and will continue investing in less mature markets throughout 2024 and beyond. We’re also expanding Airbnb’s brand positioning beyond travel accommodations with the global roll out of Airbnb Icons, a new category of extraordinary experiences that we launched in May. This will be critical as we expand our offerings in the coming years.

Q2 2024 financial results

Here’s a snapshot of our Q2 2024 results: 

• Q2 revenue was $2.75 billion, up 11% year-over-year. Revenue increased to $2.75 billion in Q2 2024 from $2.5 billion in Q2 2023, primarily driven by solid growth in Nights and Experiences Booked and a modest increase in Average Daily Rate (“ADR”). 

• Q2 net income was $555 million, representing a 20% net income margin. Net income decreased to $555 million in Q2 2024 from $650 million in Q2 2023 primarily due to an increase in income taxes resulting from the release of a valuation allowance on certain of our deferred tax assets in 2023 and the utilization of some of those assets in 2024. In Q2 2024, we delivered a net income margin of 20%, down from 26% in Q2 2023.

• Q2 Adjusted EBITDA was $894 million, up 9% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $894 million in Q2 2024 from $819 million in Q2 2023, which demonstrates the continued strength of our business and discipline in managing our cost structure. Adjusted EBITDA Margin was 33% in Q2 2024, which was stable with Q2 2023¹. 

• Q2 Free Cash Flow was $1.0 billion, up 16% year-over-year. In Q2 2024, net cash provided by operating activities was $1.1 billion compared to $909 million in Q2 2023. The increase in year-over-year cash flow was driven by continued strong business performance. Our TTM FCF was $4.3 billion, representing a FCF Margin of 41%².     

• Q2 share repurchases of $749 million. Our strong cash flow enabled us to repurchase $749 million of our Class A common stock in Q2 2024. Share repurchases for the trailing twelve months totaled $2.75 billion and helped us to reduce our fully diluted share count from 686 million at the end of Q2 2023 to 673 million at the end of Q2 2024. We have a remaining authorization to purchase up to $5.25 billion of our Class A common stock as of June 30, 2024. 

Business highlights

Our strong quarter was driven by a number of positive business highlights: 

• Guests are increasingly booking on the Airbnb app. In Q2 2024, Nights and Experiences Booked increased 9% year-over-year, representing stable growth from Q1. With the growing reliance on smartphones for travel planning and booking, we optimized our mobile website to promote Airbnb app downloads. We believe our approach is working. In Q2 2024, we saw a 25% year-over-year increase in app downloads globally, with even stronger growth in the US. In addition, nights booked on our app during Q2 2024 increased 19% year-over-year and now comprises 55% of total nights booked, up from 50% in the prior-year period. In addition to our success with mobile downloads and bookings, we’re seeing continued growth of first-time bookers on our platform, with the highest level of growth seen in the youngest age demographic.

• Guests are choosing Airbnb for special events. The week of July 4th represented our single highest week of revenue ever in North America, and we’re continuing to see more guests choose Airbnb for major holidays and events. In Europe, major sporting events are driving notable bookings growth. In anticipation of the Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024, nights booked in the Paris region for the dates of the event through Q2 were more than double what they were the same time a year ago. To help meet this increased demand, we focused on supply growth and saw active listings increase 37% year-over-year in the Paris region as of Q2 2024. Over the course of the Olympics, more than 400,000 guests are staying on Airbnb in the Paris region. And during the recent Euro Cup in Germany, cities hosting matches saw on average a more than 20% year-over-year increase in nights booked compared to the prior-year period, with certain cities seeing more than 50% growth. 

• Supply quality is improving on Airbnb. We’ve made huge strides with supply growth, but remain just as focused on supply quality. As we improve quality, we believe more people will try Airbnb, unlocking even more growth. We have two major initiatives underway to help us do this. First, we’re removing low-quality supply, including the removal of over 200,000 listings since we launched our updated hosting quality system in April 2023, which takes a more targeted and holistic approach to better evaluate listings. Second, we’re making it easier for guests to find the best places to stay. We launched Guest Favorites as well as top listing highlights, which show percentile ranking for the top 1%, 5%, and 10% of eligible homes. These new features make it easy for guests to find the highest-quality homes on Airbnb and over 150 million nights have already been booked at our Guest Favorite listings since launch. In Q2, we also saw active listings managed by Superhosts, some of our most high-quality hosts, increase 26% year-over-year.