• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
TechAirbnb

Airbnb’s Profits to Top $3 Billion by 2020

By
Leigh Gallagher
Leigh Gallagher
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Leigh Gallagher
Leigh Gallagher
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 15, 2017, 6:00 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Airbnb is projecting it will earn (before interest and taxes and depreciation) as much as $3.5 billion a year by 2020, according to sources close to the company. That’s more than the bottom lines of 85% of the companies in the Fortune 500. It would also be a 3,400% increase from what the company had in similar profits last year, based on numbers provided by those sources.

The bottom line growth would be a huge achievement for the home and apartment sharing company that just a few years ago was among a number of so-called Unicorns that seemed to have a lot of potential, but not much in the way of profits. It would also make Airbnb the first company to prove that the so-called sharing economy can be turned into sustainable success. That’s something that Uber, the sector’s other superstar, has yet to prove.

The numbers are according to a source familiar with the company’s internal estimates, and haven’t previously been made public, though Bloomberg previously reported the company turned its first profit in 2016.

Despite the projected bottom line growth, Airbnb’s internal numbers could still suggest some concerns for investors and growing pains along the way.

The numbers come from my new book just out about Airbnb, The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions…and Created Plenty of Controversy.

In researching the book, and in the five or so years I have known Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky, one of the more interesting things I learned about this company—in addition to all the ways it almost never got off the ground, the singular amount of opposition it has incited, and the speed with which its founders had to learn how to run a large company—involves its business model itself. When you deliver a product based on other peoples’ assets and service, what you get is a network effect on steroids. The more people who stay at Airbnbs or use the service to rent out their home, the more valuable the platform becomes. And the company’s fixed costs are incredibly low.

In Airbnb’s case, since the very act of using its product involves travel, which is by definition migrating from one market to another, it also lends itself to cheap and easy cross-pollination (a Parisian tries Airbnb while visiting New York, likes it, realizes she has a spare room herself, and hangs an Airbnb shingle upon returning to Paris). It’s not just that it doesn’t have to build the rooms itself, Airbnb also doesn’t have to have a physical presence—offices, employees, etc.—to “launch” new markets. (Although it certainly does open offices, and by now has dozens offices and thousands of employees overseas). The net effect is that, according to sources familiar with the company, Airbnb has spent just $300 million of the roughly $3 billion in capital it has raised since its inception. By comparison, although not an apples to apples one, Uber was reportedly on track to lose $3 billion in 2016 alone.

(Related Book Excerpt: How Airbnb Found a Mission and a Brand)

This is why, when it eventually goes public, investor appetite for its IPO could be huge. Of course, Chesky still isn’t saying when that will be, and if anything hints that it could be a good while longer yet.

All of this is what helped propel the company to profitability last year, as Bloomberg reported (and as defined by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). According to sources, that profit was somewhere north of $100 million on $1.7 billion in revenues last year.

That’s projected to grow. The company is said to be forecasting EBITDA of $450 million on $2.8 billion in revenue for 2017. By 2020, Airbnb’s revenue is projected to be as much as $8.5 billion. Based on our latest rankings, that would place Airbnb at No. 325 on the Fortune 500. That would put the company just below Avis, and not much farther than Expedia. It would also be seven spots higher than News Corp., which, like Avis, has been around for far longer than eight years.

Of course, these are just projections, and importantly, they are for three years from now. But the company is still growing fast, even as it enters its ninth year. Airbnb’s main metric for user growth the company uses is “guest arrivals,” which is the number of times a traveler checks into an Airbnb listing. (One person who takes 3 trips a year would be counted as three “arrivals,” and four travelers in a group on the same trip in the same listing would count as four “arrivals.”) Last year, the annual figure grew from 40 million in 2015 to close to 80 million, almost doubling and helping push the cumulative figure to close to 160 million since the company’s founding.

Amazingly, that growth is not nearly as fast it was in Airbnb’s early years, when growth rates topped 300 and 400 percent.

That slower growth, though, may matter less now. The company is broadening its sources of revenue with its expansion into its Trips platform, a new menu of “experiences” it launched with great fanfare last November, along with other capabilities like restaurant reservations, events, and meetups. CEO Brian Chesky has said that the company plans to add more travel services to this menu—things like ground transportation, grocery delivery, and something involving flights. As he tells me in the book, he expects that revenue from accommodations as we know them today will eventually represent less than half of Airbnb’s overall revenue.

But again, this is all expectations, and Chesky loves little more than talking about the potential of Airbnb in the future. It’s also all somewhat ironic given that in Airbnb’s very formative days, he felt briefly that the service should be free—”like, no money,” as he told me. His cofounders Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk helped convince him it could be a good business.

What’s more, the company has plenty of challenges, from legal battles to growing competition from a well-funded HomeAway to rare but headline-generating safety incidents.

But, as I report in the book, sources say that the company’s ten-year goal is to be the first online travel company with a market valuation of $100 billion. Marriott and Hilton’s market caps combined total $53 billion.

And if there’s one thing many have learned about this very disruptive company—especially the numerous investors who passed on investing in it in 2008 because its idea simply seemed way too risky and radical—it is not to underestimate it.

Update: An earlier version of this article said that Airbnb had lost less than $300 million since it was founded. In fact, the $300 million figure reflects how much money the company has spend of the total capital it has raised. The editors regret the error.

We’ve included affiliate links in this article. Click here to learn what those are.

About the Author
By Leigh Gallagher
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

rh
AIReid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman says SpaceX is ‘not an AI company’ and xAI is a ‘complete train wreck’—and there’s room for both OpenAI and Anthropic
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
2 hours ago
Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s first pitch to Elon Musk failed. Then he turned his ‘hobby’ into a $1.3 trillion success
SuccessBrainstorm Tech
Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s first pitch to Elon Musk failed. Then he turned his ‘hobby’ into a $1.3 trillion success
By Rachel VentrescaJune 24, 2026
4 hours ago
Amazon Prime Day isn’t a midsummer shopping event anymore. Here’s what changed in 2026
RetailAmazon
Amazon Prime Day isn’t a midsummer shopping event anymore. Here’s what changed in 2026
By Vidhi Choudhary and Retail BrewJune 23, 2026
13 hours ago
The hidden cost of your AI rollout: burning out the high performers running it
Workplace Cultureburnout
The hidden cost of your AI rollout: burning out the high performers running it
By Mikaela Cohen and HR BrewJune 23, 2026
14 hours ago
Quantum computing stocks surge after Trump signed executive orders backing the sector
Investingquantum computing
Quantum computing stocks surge after Trump signed executive orders backing the sector
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 23, 2026
14 hours ago
Alan Greenspan testifying before the Senate Banking Committee.
BankingFederal Reserve
The man who invented the Fed’s magic trick just died. His successor is about to try it again
By Eva RoytburgJune 23, 2026
16 hours ago

Most Popular

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
22 hours ago
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 23, 2026
22 hours ago
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
Investing
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
By Nick LichtenbergJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
3 days ago
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
Real Estate
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
By Sydney LakeJune 22, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.