Travel's Back, And It's In A Hurry: Booking And Airbnb's Strong Q2 Performance Signals Unwavering Demand

Travel juggernauts Booking Holdings Inc BKNG and Airbnb Inc ABNB are showing industry-defying resilience amid the lingering impact of the pandemic, with recent earnings prints confirming a strong demand for travel and no signs of a slowdown.

The Earnings Beat: Booking Holdings, a multinational travel company known for platforms including Booking.com, Kayak, and Priceline, posted its second-quarter results on Thursday. They reported earnings of $37.62 per share, eclipsing the expected $28.80, on revenues of $5.46 billion, a 27.2% year-over-year growth.

Airbnb, the popular home-sharing service, also beat projections, with Q2 revenue coming in at $2.5 billion, an 18% YoY increase, beating the $2.2 billion consensus. EPS came in at 98 cents, ahead of the predicted 71 cents. They also saw a 13% year over year uptick in gross booking value, at $19.1 billion.

Airbnb anticipates Q3 revenues between $3.3 billion and $3.4 billion, which would represent a 14% to 18% YoY increase. Booking, meanwhile, isn't showing any signs of slowing growth.

Airbnb’s lodging prices have skyrocketed, with average daily rates leaping a staggering 42% since 2019 to reach $166 at the close of June, according to Bloomberg.

Travelers, however, shrugged off these soaring prices. Airbnb saw a robust 115.1 million nights and experiences booked in the second quarter, an 11% climb from already lofty levels last year, marking Airbnb’s highest second-quarter ever.

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The CEO’s Take: Booking Holdings’ CEO, Glenn Fogel, attributed the company's performance to strong leisure travel demand, noting that the trend significantly boosted the company’s gross bookings in Q2. He expressed optimism for future growth, telling CNBC on Friday that Booking wasn’t seeing any signs of a slowdown.

Fogel suggested that Booking’s global presence played a part in their impressive results, as it is seeing strong performance in Asia, which saw a 40% year-over-year growth in Q2.

“We’re just so happy to see Asia finally getting out of Covid… People have not traveled for three years, and they saved a lot of money, and they want to spend it. So I’m looking forward to a lot more travel,” Fogel said in the interview.

A Strong Outlook: Q2 performance of the two industry giants paints a rather different picture than the market rhetoric pointing to signs of a consumer slowdown in spending. With both companies beating earnings expectations and demonstrating a bullish outlook, the message is clear: The travel market is thriving and displaying no indications of deceleration.

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