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- Booking Holdings Is Almost as Big as Airbnb in Homes
Booking Holdings Is Almost as Big as Airbnb in Homes
Summary
Booking.com's homes business is approaching Airbnb's scale in room nights, signaling a shift in the STR landscape. The platform is highly profitable and institutionalized loyalty programs like Genius. As Airbnb expands beyond accommodation with services and a focus on lifestyle, hosts need to understand these evolving platform dynamics to maximize their revenue and visibility.
Key Insights
- •Booking.com's non-hotel volume is roughly 80-85% of Airbnb’s total nights.
- •Booking Holdings had an adjusted operating margin of ~37% in 2025.
Action Items
- ✓Evaluate your listings on Booking.com to ensure they are optimized to take advantage of the Genius program.Effort: mediumImpact: medium
- ✓Consider the impact of Booking.com's Genius loyalty program and Airbnb's emerging loyalty programs on your pricing and channel allocation strategies.Effort: lowImpact: medium
Tools & Resources
- →Booking.com Genius: The article mentions Booking.com's Genius loyalty system.(booking.com)
More from Growth & Marketing
Airbnb is offering a $750 incentive to attract new hosts to list their properties for the World Cup. This move aims to ensure sufficient accommodation for visitors during the event. This initiative highlights the importance of short-term rentals in accommodating large-scale events and provides a financial benefit for new hosts.

Marriott and Wyndham's adoption of agentic AI is putting pressure on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), potentially cutting them out of the picture. However, analysts believe these fears are overstated because most hotels are independents. Booking Holdings saw its share price drop 30% due to these concerns. Independent hosts should keep an eye on OTA strategies to stay competitive.
Airbnb is incentivizing new hosts with a $750 bonus ahead of the upcoming World Cup, likely to boost supply during the anticipated surge in demand. This initiative aims to increase the number of available listings. New hosts can capitalize on this program to maximize early revenue.
Curated by Learn STR by GoStudioM


