Last quarter, Airbnb's revenue grew 17% to $3.61B. Net income reached $816 million. What boggles my mind is that 22% of that was earned interest on the $12.2B that AirBnB holds for its customers. It also ended the quarter holding $12.2 billion for customers.
Basically, when you pay a deposit for an AirBnB trip, the company will hold the money before sending it to the host. Technically, the company owes the money to the host BUT it can interest in the mean time. Doing this, they made $183 million of interest income. That is INSANE.
That blew my mind since I had largely assumed Airbnb waas mostly a travel marketplace/another stuck in limbo "super app". But, with interest rates kinda high this definetly draws my attention.
I do wonder how the "Buy Now, Pay Later" shebang could reduce that advantage. I am curious how they handle the rising demand for those services when this is clearly quite profitable for them!
[Airbnb Q2 2026 filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1559720/000155972026000027/abnb-20260630.htm)