Airbnb, Inc. Revenue & Financials

The most interesting number in Airbnb's financials isn't revenue. It's the gap between net income and free cash flow. In FY2025, net income was $2.5 billion. Free cash flow was higher. Why? Because Airbnb collects money from guests at the moment of booking but doesn't pay hosts until after check-in. On 533 million nights booked, that timing difference creates a permanent float — essentially an interest-free loan from guests that grows as the business grows. It's the same structural advantage that insurance companies exploit, applied to travel. The revenue trajectory tells a recovery-then-growth story: $4.8 billion in 2019, a pandemic crash to $3.4 billion in 2020, then a steep climb — $6.0B, $8.4B, $9.9B, $11.1B, $12.2B — through FY2025. That's a 29% compound annual growth rate from the trough, though the year-over-year growth rate is decelerating (10% in FY2025 vs. 18% in FY2023). The company is transitioning from recovery mode to mature-platform growth. Gross booking value hit $91.3 billion in FY2025. The take rate — revenue as a percentage of GBV — has held steady at 13-14%, which is healthy. It means Airbnb isn't growing by extracting more from each transaction; it's growing by processing more transactions. Market cap hovers around $80 billion, implying roughly 6-7x forward revenue — a premium to Booking Holdings but a discount to pure software companies. The market is pricing Airbnb as what it is: a mature platform business with moderate growth, excellent margins, and regulatory risk that caps the multiple.