The Most Important Story in Online Travel in 2021
Skift Take
Airbnb's performance in 2021, after emerging as a public company at the tail end of the previous year, was the most important story in online travel.
This wasn't primarily about stock performance, which as of this writing has Airbnb's share price up 21 percent year to date at around $169 per share. Expedia Group's share price jumped even higher than Airbnb's in terms of percentage increase at 39 percent while the Nasdaq composite rose some 19 percent. Airbnb's market cap eclipsed that of Booking Holdings, $107 billion versus $97 billion on December 22, for instance.
It's tough to compare erstwhile peers such as Airbnb, Expedia Group, Booking Holdings and Trip.com Group because they are so different from one another. Airbnb plays primarily in the short-term rental arena while the others engage in that and just about everything else in travel.
But Airbnb's performance, particularly in the third quarter
