Two-sided marketplaceHost service fee 15.5%Payments floatExperiences + services
Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) runs a two-sided marketplace where hosts list homes, experiences and services and guests book them, without owning any of the places: it charges service fees on each booking, holds the guest's money until check-in, and recognizes the fee as revenue at check-in. FY2025 (year ended Dec 31, 2025) revenue was $12.2B (+10%) on $91.3B of Gross Booking Value (+12%) and 533.0M Nights and Seats Booked (+8%), so revenue was about 13.4% of Gross Booking Value (INFERENCE). Operating income was $2.5B and net income $2.5B ($2,511M, -5%), helped by $705M of interest income on its cash and on guest funds, and free cash flow was $4.6B. Hosts have been moving to a single 15.5% host-paid fee, guests can use Reserve Now, Pay Later, and in H1 2026 revenue grew 17% to $6.3B, with $2.1B of stock bought back.
Click any of the 9 blocks below for a plain-language story of how that part of the model works for Airbnb — and how it connects to the others.
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