Skift Take

Will Airbnb continue on its magic carpet ride after it reports its first earnings as a public company? Does the Airbnb brand beat Booking Holdings' real-world businesses, including hotels, flights and metasearch? Or has the market already decided that question?

Series: Dennis' Online Travel Briefing

Dennis' Online Travel Briefing

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.

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Online Travel This Week Talk to any travel industry wag about Airbnb's gargantuan — yes, record-setting — initial public offering and its current $110 billion valuation, and the conversation quickly turns to Airbnb's first earnings announcement as a public company this week, and what will happen then? Does Airbnb's market cap finally come down to a realistic level after Thursday night's earning's announcement, or will it soar anew? Ah, I won't make a prediction. It would be a foolhardy to do so without knowing what financials Airbnb will actually be reporting. I will leave that to the options players and hedge funds managers. FactSet reports that analysts expect a loss of $8.41 per share, and $739.4 million in revenue, according to MarketWatch. If fourth quarter revenue indeed comes in at that amount, it would mean about a 30 percent revenue decline for the year, which would be very po