Airbnb’s fastest-growing group of first-time bookers is Gen Z.
As the travel company builds an AI agent to help those guests plan a holiday, it is working from a striking finding about what travellers actually enjoy.
Eight in ten guests using Aribnb actually like spending time researching a trip. That's according to a Skift and McKinsey study cited by Airbnb in its third-quarter letter to shareholders letter.
For Airbnb, part of the appeal of a holiday begins when friends start looking at places to stay.
So that gives investors reasons to pay attention.
New users, new markets, new opportunities
Demand for travel is bringing younger customers onto the platform, while AI is already lowering the cost of serving each booking.
Then there are the opportunities is to earn more per trip, by helping guests plan and book everything from the accommodation that a group chooses,to the car they hire, or the boat trip embarked upon an a given afternoon.
The number of people booking through Airbnb for the first time rose 13% year on year, the fastest growth since early 2022, with Gen Z leading the increase.
Demand also picked up in all five of Airbnb’s core markets, including the US and UK. Guests booked 155 million nights and seats in the quarter, up 16%.
Stock soars on Q3 financials
In New York, Airbnb stock jumped $18.62 or 11% per share, reaching $188.75 in after-hours exchanges following the release of its third-quarter financial results.
Airbnb's quarterly investor communications highlighted higher volumes and a moderate rise in average daily rates took gross booking value to $27.7 billion, up 21%.
Revenue rose 19% to $4.87 billion, its fastest growth in more than three years and ahead of the $4.75 billion analysts expected. Net income rose 38% to $1.9 billion. Diluted earnings of $3.16 a share beat the $2.84 estimate.
Shares jumped 10% in extended trading on Thursday after Airbnb lifted its 2026 revenue growth forecast to the high teens from at least the mid-teens and authorised up to $12 billion in additional share buybacks.
Why choosing the trip matters
“Travel is aspirational, and discovering where to go and where to stay is part of the experience,” Airbnb told shareholders. Its own booking data gives that observation some weight.
More than 75% of guests use maps to decide where to stay, over 90% browse several listing photos and 70% read reviews. With an average of three guests per booking, there is often more than one person to win over.
Airbnb is giving those travellers more ways to draw on people they know. Its Travel Map lets guests see places friends have stayed and activities they recommend. In Paris, new neighbourhood pages bring together advice from hosts and guests alongside experiences offered by locals.
Airbnb said bookings rose during the Paris rollout and plans to extend the pages to 1,500 neighbourhoods by year-end.
There is a commercial reason to follow guests beyond the front door. Airbnb now offers ski gear and boat rentals in selected destinations, and says some guests hire cars for longer than they book their accommodation.
The clearest evidence that one purchase can lead to another comes from hotels. Of guests whose first Airbnb booking was a hotel between October 2024 and September 2025, about 35% returned to book a home within a year.
Where AI earns its keep
The clearest financial return from AI so far is in customer support. Airbnb said roughly 40% of all support issues were resolved without a human agent in the third quarter, up from a third in the second. Support cost per booking fell more than 17% year on year, a decline Airbnb attributed largely to improvements in its AI assistant.
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The assistant works in more than 50 languages, and the company is extending it to US phone support.
AI is also changing how quickly Airbnb can develop products. The company released more than 50 products and features in the quarter, nearly 70% more than a year earlier, and credited AI with helping its teams move faster.
Guests can now describe a trip in their own words, ask for family-friendly features or compare shortlisted homes side by side. Hosts can get suggested nightly rates based on local demand and availability, along with tailored recommendations on how to improve earnings.
Airbnb’s bigger bet is that travellers will choose a specialist agent with access to the reservation itself. A group deciding between two homes could see maps, photos and calendars assembled around its question.
Once the group books, Airbnb already handles the payment and has the ability to change the reservation, arrange a refund or help find another place to stay.
That reach into the trip is what management believes gives it an advantage over a general-purpose assistant.
For investors, the distinction is timing. Younger guests are arriving and support costs are falling today. Winning more of their holiday spending is the proposition Airbnb still has to prove.
Airbnb plans to begin rolling out its travel agent to guests in the first half of 2027.
