Airbnb 3Q26: No stopping this red wave

Airbnb's red wave continued: the pace of growth has doubled over the last year, alongside rising margins. That looks sustainable: ex-RNPL, the Q4 guide (LDD nights growth) is in line with Q3 on a two-year stack, despite some likely geopolitical headwinds. Then, the really big ideas are arguably still to come, including, inter alia, an AI agent in 1H27, loyalty, dynamic pricing, sponsored listings, Airbnb Living and expansion into every vertical in travel. These should sustain or even accelerate momentum into 2027 and beyond. With the Q4 guide showing acceleration on top of acceleration, the argument that RNPL/NYC hotels were the only easy opportunities has surely weakened, and the acceleration looks increasingly structural. Valuation in absolute terms still looks reasonable: it discounts only LDD revenue growth going forward and is 24x our revised up 2028 EPS for over 20% EPS growth. Relative to other online travel companies, it is twice the multiple for twice the growth, with higher c