By Doyinsola Oladipo and Aishwarya Jain
(Reuters) -Vacation home rental company Airbnb narrowly beat estimates for third-quarter revenue on Thursday, although profit fell short as it spent heavily on marketing to boost its presence in international markets.
Shares of the San Francisco-based company fell 4% in volatile after-hours trading as its revenue was also weighed down by lower bookings at the beginning of the quarter.
Sales and marketing expenses jumped 27.5% in the quarter to $514 million due to investments in its under-penetrated markets like Brazil and Japan, the company said.
The increased investment helped double the average growth rate of nights booked on an origin basis in its expansion markets in the third quarter, compared with its core markets.
Nights and experiences booked increased 8% to 122.8 million from a year earlier, led by growth of 19% in Asia-Pacific and 15% in Latin America.
The company posted a third-quarter gross booking value of $20.1 billion and revenue of $3.73 billion, both up 10%, compared with a year earlier. Analysts expected quarterly revenue to come in at $3.72 billion.
In the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue of between $2.39 billion and $2.44 billion, or a rise of 8% to 10% from a year earlier.
“We are anticipating that nights booked will accelerate in the fourth quarter relative to the third,” the company said on an earnings call, adding that it also expects tougher year-over-year comparisons.
Airbnb also expects the average daily rate (ADR), or average cost per night, in the current quarter to increase modestly, compared with a year earlier. Global third-quarter rates came in at $164, up 1% from the prior year.
It reported a profit of $2.13 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, narrowly missing Street estimates of $2.14 per share.
The company’s implied take rate was flat at 18.6%, as the revenue generated by the additional service fee amount for cross-currency bookings was offset by investments in customer service.
