Airbnb’s Total Booking Value Soars 30 Pct. YoY

Airbnb reported strong first quarter results, with $9.4 billion in total booking value, a 31 percent boost from the previous year.

Sources told The Wall Street Journal that the home rentals company booked 91 million nights on its platform in the quarter. In addition, Airbnb had about $3.5 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of March 31 and reported a 40 percent revenue growth rate in 2018 compared with the previous year.

The company said it is hoping these numbers attract investors as the company plans to go public. It has yet to decide, however, if it will go the traditional route to an IPO, or opt for a direct listing.

The results show that the company has spent little of the more than $4 billion it has raised in venture funding and debt. Airbnb’s last raise was in 2017, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and General Atlantic. At that time, the company was valued at $31 billion.

The platform recently unveiled its Luxe offering to bolster its luxury travel efforts, which includes more than 2,000 high-end homes. Accommodation prices run from $1,000 to almost $150,000 per night, with an average of roughly $2,000. It even provides guests with an around-the-clock concierge, called a “trip designer,” to help them plan their adventures.

While many of the Luxe listings are rural vacation homes, the platform also has some city listings, such as a Los Angeles French country-style mansion and a cottage in the vicinity of London’s Kensington Palace.

Earlier this month, Airbnb acquired corporate client-facing extended stay company Urbandoor, in a bid to expand its Airbnb for Work brand.

The “for work” side of the business was initially started as Airbnb for Business, and it makes up about 15 percent of all of the company’s bookings. It’s grown threefold from 2015 to 2016, and the same amount for the next two years. The company said that about 500,000 entities use it to plan corporate travel.