Earnings Call Transcript - ABNB Q4 2023

Operator, Operator

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Airbnb's Earnings Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter of 2023. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay from the Investor Relations section of Airbnb's website following this call. I will now hand the call over to Angela Yang, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Angela Yang, Director of Investor Relations

Good afternoon, and welcome to Airbnb's fourth quarter of 2023 earnings call. Thank you for joining us today. On the call today, we have Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO, Brian Chesky, and our Chief Financial Officer, Dave Stephenson. Earlier today, we issued a shareholder letter with our financial results and commentary for our fourth quarter of 2023. These items were also posted on the Investor Relations section of Airbnb's website. During the call, we'll make brief opening remarks and then spend the remainder of time on Q&A. Before I turn it over to Brian, I would like to remind everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements on this call that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. These factors are described under forward-looking statements in our shareholder letter and in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We urge you to consider these factors and remind you that we undertake no obligation to update the information contained on this call to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should be aware that these statements should be considered estimates only and are not a guarantee of future performance. Also, during this call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. We provide a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the shareholder letter posted to our Investor Relations website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results. With that, I will pass the call to Brian.

Brian Chesky, CEO

All right. Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining. I am excited to share our results with you. We wrapped 2023 with another strong quarter. We had 99 million Nights and Experiences Booked in Q4, marking our highest fourth quarter ever. Revenue of $2.2 billion grew 70% year-over-year. Net loss was $249 million. But when excluding nonrecurring tax items, adjusted net income was $489 million, representing an adjusted net income margin of 22%. For the full year, our free cash flow was $3.8 billion, our highest ever. Because of our strong cash flow and balance sheet, we repurchased $2.25 billion of our shares during 2023. And I'm excited to announce that today, our Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase authorization of up to $6 billion of our Class A common stock. Our strong results in 2023 were driven by our focus on 3 strategic priorities: making hosting mainstream, perfecting our core service, and expanding beyond the core. First, we're making hosting mainstream. We've been focused on making hosting just as popular as traveling on Airbnb. Our results show that our approach is working. In Q4, our host community grew to 5 million hosts around the globe. Active listings exceeded 7.7 million by the end of 2023, increasing 18% year-over-year. And we also saw sustained double-digit supply growth across all regions. All in all, in 2023, hosts earned more than $57 billion. This year, we are going to continue to raise awareness about hosting and improve the overall host experience. Second, we're perfecting our core service. Over the past 3 years, we've launched more than 430 new features and upgrades to our core service. We've made significant improvements to make Airbnb a more affordable and reliable option, and we are already seeing a positive impact. For example, post cancellations have decreased by 36% in Q4 of 2023, compared to the same period a year ago. And now two-thirds of our hosts offer a weekly or monthly discount. We will never stop perfecting our core service. In the year ahead, we'll remain focused on improving the quality and reliability of stays. Finally, we are expanding beyond the core. Airbnb is at an inflection point. We spent the last 3 years perfecting our core service, and we are now ready to embark on our next chapter. We're focused on unlocking more growth opportunities by investing in underpenetrated international markets, and we're seeing some great results. Following the success that we've seen in recent quarters in Germany, Brazil, and Korea, we're now rolling out our playbook in other countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. But this is only one piece of a much bigger strategy because we've always believed that Airbnb was destined to offer more than just a place to stay. And now is the time for us to expand beyond our core business and reinvent Airbnb. And there are a few reasons why. First, we want people to love our core service before offering them something new. With hundreds of improvements we've made over the past 3 years, the Airbnb service is now better than it's ever been. Second, we've been able to attract some of the best talent in the world, and we now have the capabilities to do so much more. Third, there is a new platform shift with AI, and it will allow us to do things we never could have imagined. While we've been using AI across our service for years, we believe we can become a leader in developing some of the most innovative and personalized AI interfaces in the world. In November, we accelerated our efforts with the acquisition of GamePlanner.AI, a stealth AI company led by the Co-Founder and original developer of Siri. With these critical pieces in place, we're now ready to expand beyond our core business. Now this will be a multiyear journey, and we will share more with you towards the end of this year. Looking back on Q4, we also saw a number of very positive business highlights. First, we surpassed 5 million hosts on the platform and saw meaningful supply growth across all regions. We added nearly 1.2 million listings in 2023, ending the year with over 7.7 million active listings. Q4 supply growth grew 18% year-over-year. This is a real highlight. We also continue to see strong demand on Airbnb, especially among first-time bookers, which is particularly encouraging. Nights and Experiences Booked grew 12% compared to a year ago, and following some volatility in October, Nights Booked actually accelerated throughout the remainder of the quarter. Q4 also marked the highest quarterly growth rate of the year for first-time bookers. Additionally, we also gained momentum in app downloads and app bookings. 55% of gross Nights Booked were on our app, which is up from 50% a year ago. Finally, we're driving affordability for guests. Throughout 2023, we introduced several features to make Airbnb even more affordable, from new pricing tools for hosts to increased pricing transparency for guests. Since launching these features, we've seen 1.4 million hosts use similar listings, which allows hosts to compare their price or listing to others in the area. Nearly 300,000 listings have removed or lowered their cleaning fee, and by year-end, nearly 40% of our active listings didn't charge a cleaning fee at all. Our work around affordability is paying off. In December, the average nightly price of a 1-bedroom listing on Airbnb was $114 a night, down 2% from the same period last year, while hotel prices rose 7% to $149 over the same period. Before I turn to Q&A, I want to share the latest on two executive updates we announced at the end of last year. To start, Dave Stephenson is now Airbnb's first Chief Business Officer. Over the past 5 years, Dave has done an incredible job as CFO, and our business is stronger than ever. One of the qualities that is so remarkable about Dave is that he's not just a world-class finance leader; he's also a world-class operator. Whenever I need someone to quickly drive a complicated series of operations together to clear an outcome that doesn't compromise our values, I turn to Dave. As we expand beyond our core, it will be paramount to have an executive dedicated to our long-term growth plans, and there is nobody better than Dave to do this. Dave will continue to drive growth across existing and new businesses, which includes driving international expansion, growing global host supply, and leading all business and corporate development activities at Airbnb. As Dave takes on this position, I am thrilled that Ellie Mertz will be our CFO. Ellie has been my right hand for 11 years, and many of you are already familiar with her impressive track record at Airbnb. She led our IPO during one of the most pivotal moments in our company's history. For the past several years, Ellie has overseen Strategic Finance and Analysis, Corporate Development, and Investor Relations. Under her leadership, our company grew from adolescent to adulthood with revenue growing over 100x. I am thrilled that she's stepping into this role. Dave has already started as Chief Business Officer, and Ellie will officially transition to CFO on March 1. On the next call, you will hear from Ellie. Before we go to questions, I'd just love to hand over to Dave to share a few thoughts. Dave?

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

Thanks, Brian. I'm really excited about my new role as Chief Business Officer. In this role, I'm focused on driving Airbnb's growth by concentrating on three specific areas. First, continuing to grow our high-quality supply of stays and experiences around the world; second, leading our global expansion efforts in underpenetrated countries; and third, developing and launching new businesses as we expand beyond the core. As Brian has said, this is a transformational year for Airbnb. I look forward to Ellie becoming our CFO next month. I couldn't think of a better person to lead us into the next phase of growth. And so with that, let's open up the call for Q&A.

Operator, Operator

Your first question comes from Ron Josey from Citi. Your line is open.

Ron Josey, Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking the question, Dave. Congrats on the role and Ellie to you as well. Brian, I wanted to ask a little bit more on just expanding beyond the core. I think you said now is the time to do it and stay tuned towards the end of the year. But then you also talked about being a leader in personalized AI. Can you just give us a little more insight on how you're thinking about AI given the acquisition of GamePlanner? And then as we think about these newer underpenetrated markets, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, talk to us about just lessons learned from, call it, Germany, Korea, Brazil that you can apply to these newer markets? Thank you.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

Yes, absolutely, Ron. Thanks for asking the question. So let me start with AI. To talk about AI, it would be good to zoom out and just lay out the landscape. One way to think about AI is let's use a real-world metaphor. I mentioned we're building a city. In that city, we have infrastructure like roads and bridges. Then, on top of those roads and bridges, we have applications like cars. So Airbnb is not an infrastructure company. Infrastructure would be a large language model or GPUs. So we're not going to be investing in infrastructure; we're not going to be building a large language model. We'll be relying on, obviously, OpenAI. Google makes a great model; Meta makes great models. So those are really infrastructure; they're developing infrastructure. But where we can excel is on the application layer. I believe that we can build one of the leading and most innovative AI interfaces ever created. If you were to open, say, ChatGPT or Google, though the models are very powerful, the interface is really not an AI interface. It's the same interface as the 2000s and 2010s. We feel that the models are probably underutilized. Take your phone and look at all the icons on your phone; most of those apps have not fundamentally changed since the advent of generative AI. What I think AI represents is the ultimate platform shift. We had the Internet; we had mobile. Airbnb really rose during the rise of mobile. A platform shift is also a shift in power; it's a shift to behavior. I think this is a zero-sum game, where Airbnb, we have a platform that was built for one vertical, short-term space. With AI, generative AI, and developing a leading AI interface that provides experiences that are personalized, we can go from a single vertical company to a cross-vertical company. Many of the largest tech companies aren't single verticals. We studied Amazon when they went from books to everything or Apple when they launched the App Store. These large technology companies are all horizontal platforms. With AI and the work we're doing around AI interfaces, that's what you should expect from us. We're not going to talk specifically about the products and services we'll be offering on this call, but you will see some very big announcements later this year. The acquisition of GamePlanner.AI was to accelerate the efforts we are already undertaking.

Ron Josey, Analyst

And then...

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

Sorry...

Ron Josey, Analyst

My question was...

Brian Chesky, CEO

Yeah, more on the underpenetrated markets. We just need to ensure that we have great supply in specific nights. Even the subtleties of local holidays and ensuring that we're there at all price points are important. Different countries have different expectations on what supply growth looks like, and we have to ensure we have the right product. Things we've done include installment payments in Brazil and Latin America, Naver Login in Korea, making sure that we show up locally in the ways they're expecting. The third is to make sure we have a full funnel marketing approach. In some of these countries, we're now big enough where we can have small teams that do targeted social marketing, PR, communications, use influencers, search engine marketing, and build that on top of brand marketing to ensure it all works together in one full-funnel approach. Approximately 90% of our traffic remains direct or unpaid because most Airbnb stays are unique to us. This continues to drive the flywheel, but having this full-funnel approach is very effective when we implement it on the ground in these countries.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Eric Sheridan, Analyst

Thanks so much for taking the question. I was curious how the building blocks of sort of the way you're thinking about the macro environment and the idiosyncratic growth the company is looking at for Q1, driven by elements of both supply and demand. And what do you see as sort of the exit dynamics from 2023? Thanks so much.

Brian Chesky, CEO

What we saw exiting 2023 was interesting. When we were on this call a quarter ago, we had seen some softness in demand in October, and we guided to that kind of expectation. What we saw was accelerating demand in November and December. Coming into the start of the year, we are seeing stable demand. You have to rewind the tapes and remind yourself that we were just exiting kind of Omicron, and there's a lot of pent-up demand in January of last year, which makes for some harder comps in Q1. But against those harder comps, we continue to see strong demand for travel. The experiences over things continue to be a big trend. We're excited about the growth we're continuing to see, particularly in North America and Europe, and even greater growth in Latin America and Asia Pacific. We're doubling down on making sure that we invest in these countries where we're underpenetrated, as that's going to continue to drive growth for us for the rest of the year.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Justin Patterson from KeyBanc. Your line is open.

Justin Patterson, Analyst

Hi. Thank you very much. There's been a lot of investor interest around the cross-currency fee. How should we think about that phasing in over the course of the year and the potential financial impact from that? Could you talk about just why you viewed now as the right time to pull that lever? So maybe this is a sign that you'll take pricing actions where there's a value disconnect more regularly than in the past? Thanks.

Brian Chesky, CEO

To be clear, when we announced this recently, we updated our terms of service. What it did is give us the ability to implement a cross-currency fee. The fee only applies when the currency the guest uses to pay differs from the currency that the host set for their listing. We don't anticipate this fee to affect the majority of our guests, as these cross-currency transactions are only approximately 20% of our gross booking value. It's different from our cross-border transactions, which are closer to 40%. We anticipate the majority of the fee changes to be closer to 1%. We're going to test and evaluate and just see what the results are. Why now? At this point, we understand that the size and complexity of our business ensures that we should be providing great value to our guests and our hosts. We're going to continue to be more nuanced in how we make those choices going forward.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Nowak from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Brian Nowak, Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. One big picture and one sort of accounting. So big picture one, you guys have made a lot of interesting changes to the U.S. around flexibility and new tools for hosts. Brian, can you just talk to us about areas of progress you've made on improving conversion or getting hosts to lower prices in the U.S.? What are the existing hurdles you have to overcome to get hosts to lower prices more in the U.S.? The second one, on Dave or Ellie. There are a lot of moving pieces around this 1Q guide. If we're thinking through gross bookings versus revenue, we're getting to room night growth in the mid to high single digits, is that right? Are there other moving pieces that we're missing around the room night growth calculation? Thanks.

Brian Chesky, CEO

You could think of probably like three really big buckets of work that are going to drive conversion at Airbnb. One is our work on affordability. The next is product optimization. The third is quality and reliability. In terms of affordability, we noticed there was quite a bit of feedback from our guests that Airbnb was getting more expensive. Last year, we rolled out a suite of tools for guests and hosts to make Airbnb more affordable, starting with total price display. This tool allows users to see the total price upfront, including taxes and cleaning fees. We've seen positive knock-on effects; 300,000 listings have now reduced or eliminated their cleaning fee, and 40% of listings do not even have a cleaning fee. We also encouraged more hosts to provide discounts for weekly or monthly stays. A significant percentage of our nights are month-long stays, and many hosts are now offering monthly or weekly discounts. We also launched a product called Compare Listings, which allows hosts to see what similar listings are charging in their neighborhood, resulting in competitive pricing. Our prices year-over-year for one-bedroom apartments globally are down 2%, whereas hotels are up 7%. The next aspect is product optimization. For example, we did $9.9 billion of revenue last year, so if we can increase our nights booked by 100 basis points, that's $100 million of high-margin revenue. Lastly, we launched Guest Favorites, which aims to provide a consistent and reliable experience that could attract hotel guests to Airbnb. Since we launched this product in November, we're seeing a shift toward bookings at Guest Favorites, contributing positively to customer service metrics. Overall, those are some of the ways we are focusing on conversion.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

In terms of the Q1 guide on room nights growth, you need to remember that we have a hard comp versus Q1 of '23. There was a lot of pent-up demand coming out of the holidays, and we found stronger growth in early January. The other thing about Q1 is that Easter moved from Q2 to Q1, which actually helps our revenue by 100 to 200 basis points in Q1 but drags on grooned nights because fewer nights will be booked during the holiday itself. Thus, revenue will be slightly improved from Q2 to Q1, but bookings will be slightly hurt in the opposite direction.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Doug Anmuth, Analyst

Thanks so much for taking the question. Ellie, can you just help us understand the commentary on EBITDA a little bit better for '24 or the incremental investments that could drag on the margins? Is that primarily about expanding beyond the core and tied to some of the new initiatives that Brian talked about that we'll learn about later this year? Or is that more around marketing or just something around the existing business? Thanks.

Ellie Mertz, CFO

Thanks, Doug. I was actually going to start next quarter, but thanks for pointing it to me. In the guidance language, we're basically giving ourselves a floor in terms of the EBITDA margin guidance. We'll hold or provide a minimum of 35%, which is slightly down from what we delivered in 2023. The intent here is really to ensure that we have flexibility over the course of the year to continue to invest in various growth opportunities as they appear. Those investments could be related to international expansion, high ROI marketing channels, and adding incremental product resources. We also want to ensure we have flexibility around potential platform extensions by the end of the year.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Justin Post from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Justin Post, Analyst

Great, thank you. Just want to ask about room nights. We all know there's a tough comp in Q1, but we're kind of over COVID now. Just thinking about where you are in the room night cycle going forward, what are the key drivers for nights? Is it growing supply and just getting that conversion level better? The big picture just saying it looks like a tough comp in Q1, but how do you think about the rest of the year and where nights can grow over the medium term? Thank you.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

We are starting to see overall demand normalize. Our nights growth and the nights on Airbnb continue to show strength relative to traditional hospitality and our competition. The key focus is on supply. There has been a lot of critique regarding our supply growth. I hope we continue to show strength with 7.7 million active listings, growing 18% year-over-year. The vast majority of these listings are unique to Airbnb. We're focusing on conversion and improving price competitiveness, while also finding areas where we are underpenetrated relative to the opportunities available. We think that demand growth will align with supply growth, creating substantial opportunities.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Kopelman from TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Kevin Kopelman, Analyst

Thanks so much. I had a follow-up on the margin question. Could you give any more color on your initial thinking for the year on growing headcount and how you're thinking about the marketing plan to support the growth initiatives that you talked about?

Brian Chesky, CEO

We grew headcount last year about 1%. We're planning to grow at maybe slightly more than that, possibly in the mid-single-digit range. Marketing costs will remain roughly the same as a percentage of revenue, and while we may see additional leverage from brand marketing efforts in our core markets, we will also expand to 20 countries around the world. Other investments for newer business areas will be considered. Should there be any additional marketing, it will not be a substantially larger percentage of revenue than it was last year.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Lee Horowitz from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Lee Horowitz, Analyst

Hi. Can you spend some time talking through the competitive dynamics and your expectations for the competitive set in the U.S. in 2024, particularly as some of your larger competitors look to lean into share gains? Are any of these investments aimed at holding share or any of this type of investment aimed at defending share against a more competitive environment? Thanks so much.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

We will continue to do what we do best, which is have unique supply that is outgrowing any of our competitors. By maintaining that unique supply, we can drive incremental nights and take share from both traditional hospitality and our competitors. Competitors are trying to gain share in North America, but we're not seeing success there. Much of the competition focuses on professional host supply, which is often undifferentiated and cross-listed. The unique supply we bring on remains a significant advantage.

Brian Chesky, CEO

We have a lot of competition for people's travel choices; our main competition are hotels. We are much smaller than the hotel industry. For every person who stays at Airbnb, nine people stay in hotels. The larger opportunities for us are to take market share from hotels. As Dave said, our brand is a significant international presence. We have a custom-built platform that provides advantages. We will focus on executing effectively, and if we do that, we will continue to take share.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jed Kelly from Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Jed Kelly, Analyst

Hey, great. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk about how we should think about demand and supply starting to converge? I know you've had great supply growth of 18%. Should we start to see room nights catch up to that demand? Can you update us on how you're thinking about the U.S. short-term rental market after last year's softness in core vacation rental destinations? Thanks.

Brian Chesky, CEO

I believe supply growth is a long-term indication of growth in Airbnb. It's been healthy since we started, and during the pandemic, we worked on restarting growth. Most of our growth is organic. In fact, 36% of new hosts are prior guests, the highest number ever. Our focus on mainstream hosting aims to inspire more people to become hosts. The more supply we have, the more pricing pressure we relieve. When supply is constrained, prices typically rise, which diminishes nights booked. The total addressable market for Airbnb encompasses nearly everyone who stays in hotels. If we can ensure we have the right supply at the right price, we can capture more demand.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

If you look at our nights growth compared to our nights on Airbnb, we continue to see strength relative to traditional hospitality and competition. The key focus is on supply. Our nights growth is showing strength with 7.7 million active listings growing 18% year-over-year, the majority being unique to our platform. We need to focus on supply growth, product optimization, and marketing to achieve success in underpenetrated areas.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Nick Jones from JMP Securities. Your line is open.

Nick Jones, Analyst

This is Nick Jones. You talk a lot about focus on international expansion and are rolling this playbook out to additional markets, including Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Should we expect this cadence to continue, with 3 or 4 countries being added at a time? How are you balancing this rollout with the new initiatives we're looking forward to hearing about later in 2024?

Brian Chesky, CEO

Yes, you'll continue to see us being judicious about putting small teams on the ground in each of these locations. We ensure the full funnel marketing approach is working well, along with product adjustments unique to those locations. We are working our way down the list of opportunities. None of these considerations are perishable; we will continue working down our prioritized list as capabilities increase.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

In Asia, we focused on Korea, but our penetration in countries like the U.S., Australia, Canada, and France is much higher than in other parts of the world. U.S. penetration is over an order of magnitude higher than Asia. There's no reason we cannot achieve higher penetration in major tourism markets globally. We've only started addressing the opportunities in Asia, and we are encouraged by our growth prospects.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of James Lee from Mizuho. Your line is open.

James Lee, Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Regarding booking windows, in 1Q last year, booking windows were extended as consumers attempted to lock in high prices. What are you seeing this quarter in terms of booking window by region?

Brian Chesky, CEO

Booking windows have been relatively stable, returning to more normal patterns globally. There is not much to report on this front as things are stabilizing.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Bernie McTernan from Needham & Company. Your line is open.

Bernie McTernan, Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking questions. Brian, regarding cross-vertical product initiatives, were you thinking of full OTA capabilities within travel, or was that more aligned with expanding beyond retail to all industries? Additionally, how do you plan to bring more first-time bookers to the platform? Is that only international, or are there other elements we should be aware of? Thank you.

Brian Chesky, CEO

Airbnb can go far beyond travel in the coming years, but we will start with our core. We aim to first focus on travel, and if we succeed, we can expand further. For first-time bookers, reliability is crucial. We must ensure that customers feel confident booking Airbnb. Products like AirCover help by making users comfortable with their decision. Reducing cancellations and establishing awareness through full-funnel marketing tactics are also effective. We're seeing strong downloads and organic trends across the business. Our traffic and top-of-funnel results are encouraging. We're having a successful advertising campaign focused on education rather than just sales. For instance, our campaign highlights that creating lasting memories during group family trips is typically better in Airbnb, which has led to significant traffic and awareness. This campaign is now running on television, and we are engaging with pop culture to stay relevant. If we can convert more of that traffic using our product capabilities, we believe that we can significantly enhance our performance.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of John Cantone from Jefferies. Your line is open.

John Cantone, Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Regarding EMEA, where have you seen the biggest moderation in incremental nights and experiences this year? Can you discuss why consumer adoption has lagged in some European markets versus others, and what key areas of investment you still need to make to help drive adoption rates higher?

Brian Chesky, CEO

We see strong growth in our established markets, including North America and Europe, but relatively stronger growth in Latin America and Asia. Any moderation is simply coming off higher growth. For example, we're encouraged by the rebound in China outbound travel, which we expect to exceed 2019 levels by the year's end. We're committed to our international expansion playbook, which could provide a tailwind for growth in these regions for the remaining year.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Gawrelski from Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Ken Gawrelski, Analyst

Thank you very much. I’m sure you'll tell us more later this year, but could you talk about how you think about either the build or partner strategy with respect to expanding beyond the core?

Brian Chesky, CEO

Most of our innovation and growth has developed organically, which is in our DNA. We built Airbnb with minimal capital, with a focus on building products and primarily utilizing organic growth. However, we recognize that we have the scale to leverage partnerships, as many brands have approached us to collaborate given our traffic strength and brand equity. While we are open to acquisitions, we will be very thoughtful and rigorous in evaluating them. Our preference will remain in building, then partnering, and lastly acquiring.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney from Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Mark Mahaney, Analyst

There's some discussion in your shareholder letter about take rates. They've been relatively consistent in the last couple of years. Is there any reason to think that this pattern won't change going forward or will change going forward? Is there a reason why take rates would actually increase? Secondly, regarding your expansion in Asia, I understand your momentum in Korea. However, given that many Internet companies have struggled in Asia and that China seems relatively off-limits, could you provide more context on your optimism in this region? I know there’s more to Asia than just China but wanted to address that point. Thank you.

Brian Chesky, CEO

There should be consistency in take rates; there’s no real reason they should go up on a time-adjusted basis. We haven't materially changed our pricing as a percentage of GBV when you account for timing. Q1 will see an increase in implied take rates due to timing, but this is not a fundamental change. Longer term, I'm enthusiastic about opportunities in revenue from our experiences and services, which can drive incremental revenue and margins. But in the short term, no significant changes are expected.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

When considering take rates, it's important to remember that we haven't changed our pricing significantly in the last couple of years. We're testing a cross-currency fee, but it shouldn’t be counted as a major expansion of fees this year. In Q1, the implied take rate revenue will be higher due to the timing of Easter, but that’s transitional with no long-term impact anticipated.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from Alex Brignall from Redburn Atlantic. Your line is open.

Alex Brignall, Analyst

Good evening. Thank you for taking the question. First one would just be on the Q1 guide. Just trying to grasp what you're implying on the take rate expansion, because there's one comment about Easter timing, which is 1% to 2% of revenue, but it seems like the comment of notably higher take rates would be more than just 1% to 2% extra revenue. If you could elaborate on that. Also, regarding the cross-currency fee, it sounds like it adds an additional lever you can utilize, which is great, but is there some anticipated friction when you implement it? Will consumers have a chance not to pay the fee? Where will it be displayed? Regarding your last comment, Dave, stating that the take rate won't expand, does that mean its contribution will be relatively immaterial? Thank you very much.

David Stephenson, Chief Business Officer

Yes, the reason we note particular expansion in Q1 is due to a double hit. Increased revenue in Q1 due to timing and decreased gross booking value that shifts from Q1 to Q2 both contribute to this. Yes, we'll be launching the cross-currency fee in April, which is a unique capability most other platforms lack or charge a substantial premium for. Thus, we will monitor its impact on demand closely while being mindful of any potential friction.

Operator, Operator

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Brian Chesky for some closing remarks.

Brian Chesky, CEO

All right. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Just to recap, revenue was another incredibly strong quarter. Revenue was $2.2 billion, 70% higher. Adjusted net income and adjusted EBITDA were both at Q4 records, and our trailing 12-month free cash flow was $2.8 billion. This represents a free cash flow margin of 39%. I'm really proud of what we've been able to accomplish this past year, and there's more to come. 2024 marks the beginning of a new chapter for Airbnb, and I look forward to sharing more throughout the year. Thank you all very much.

Operator, Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.