Market share isn't a static number on a page. For a company like Airbnb, the trajectory of its position across short-term rentals, experiences, and adjacent travel segments tells you more about competitive momentum than any single data point. Understanding Airbnb market share means tracking where the company is gaining ground, where it's holding steady, and where rivals are closing the gap. That's where real insight lives for investors doing their homework on ABNB.
Key takeaways
- Airbnb dominates the alternative accommodations segment but faces meaningful competition from Booking Holdings and Vrbo (Expedia) in different geographies and property types.
- The company's share of the total addressable travel market is still relatively small, which represents both an opportunity and a risk depending on execution.
- Airbnb's competitive landscape shifts significantly by region, with stronger positioning in North America and Europe than in Asia-Pacific.
- Non-accommodation segments like Airbnb Experiences remain a small contributor to revenue but could become a differentiator over time.
- Monitoring Airbnb industry share trends over multiple quarters is more useful than fixating on a single period's numbers.
What does Airbnb market share actually measure?
Before digging into where Airbnb stands, it's worth clarifying what "market share" means in this context, because the answer changes depending on how you define the market. If you're comparing Airbnb only to other short-term rental platforms, the company holds a dominant position globally. But if you expand the frame to include all paid accommodations (hotels, resorts, hostels), Airbnb's slice shrinks considerably. And if you zoom out further to the total travel and tourism market, the company is a meaningful but still relatively modest player.
Total Addressable Market (TAM): The full revenue opportunity available for a product or service if it captured 100% of its target market. For Airbnb, TAM estimates vary widely depending on whether you include only short-term rentals, all accommodations, or the broader travel economy. How you define TAM directly shapes how you interpret market share figures.
This distinction matters for investors. A company with 15% of a narrow market has a different growth story than one with 3% of a massive market. Both can be bullish cases, but they imply different paths forward. When you see headlines about ABNB market position, always ask: share of what?
How does Airbnb's competitive landscape look in short-term rentals?
In the short-term rental category specifically, Airbnb is the largest platform by listings and brand recognition in most Western markets. The two closest competitors are Booking.com (owned by Booking Holdings) and Vrbo (owned by Expedia Group). Each competes differently.
Booking.com has aggressively expanded its alternative accommodation listings over the past several years. The platform historically focused on hotels, but it now lists millions of homes, apartments, and vacation rentals. Its strength is in Europe, where it often matches or exceeds Airbnb's inventory in key countries like France, Italy, and Spain. Booking.com also benefits from a massive existing user base that originally came for hotel bookings.
Vrbo takes a different approach. It focuses on whole-home rentals (no shared spaces or single rooms) and skews toward family and group travel. Vrbo's market share is smaller than Airbnb's overall, but it can be competitive in specific segments like beach houses, mountain cabins, and large vacation properties in the U.S.
Here's the thing: many hosts list on multiple platforms simultaneously. So the competitive battle isn't just about supply. It's about demand, the ability to drive bookings, and the take rate (commission) each platform charges. Airbnb's brand is arguably its strongest moat in this fight.
Where is Airbnb strongest geographically?
Airbnb's market position is not uniform around the world. The company is strongest in:
- North America: Airbnb is the dominant short-term rental platform in the U.S. and Canada by a wide margin. Brand awareness is extremely high, and the supply of listings is deep across urban, suburban, and rural markets.
- Western Europe: Strong presence, but Booking.com is a fierce competitor. In some European markets, Booking.com generates more vacation rental bookings than Airbnb.
- Latin America: Growing presence, particularly in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, though local competitors exist in some markets.
Where Airbnb is weaker:
- Asia-Pacific: This is the most challenging region. Local platforms dominate in China (where Airbnb exited domestic operations), Japan has regulatory complexity, and Southeast Asia has strong local alternatives. The company has room to grow here but faces structural headwinds.
- Middle East and Africa: Relatively underpenetrated, with Booking.com often having a stronger foothold in Middle Eastern travel markets.
For investors evaluating Airbnb industry share, geographic mix is a factor worth watching. A company that's growing share in high-growth regions has a different profile than one defending share in mature markets.
Airbnb market share beyond accommodations
Airbnb isn't only a place to book a room. The company has invested in Airbnb Experiences (activities hosted by locals), and it has periodically explored adjacent categories. However, the non-accommodation business remains a small fraction of total revenue.
Experiences launched with fanfare but haven't scaled into a major revenue driver yet. The competitive set here is different: it includes Viator (owned by Tripadvisor), GetYourGuide, and Klook, along with countless local tour operators. Airbnb's advantage is distribution. It can cross-sell Experiences to its massive base of accommodation guests. Its disadvantage is that Experiences require a different operational model than listing properties.
The long-term question is whether Airbnb can capture a broader share of traveler spending beyond the nightly rate. If it can, the TAM story gets much bigger. If Experiences remain a side project, the company's growth ceiling is lower. This is one reason some investors watch Airbnb's product announcements closely.
How to evaluate ABNB's competitive position yourself
If you're researching Airbnb's market share as part of your investment process, here are a few practical angles to consider:
- Gross booking value (GBV) growth vs. peers: Compare Airbnb's GBV growth rate to Booking Holdings and Expedia Group over multiple periods. Faster growth usually signals share gains. You can find these figures in each company's public filings.
- Nights and experiences booked: This is Airbnb's core volume metric. Is it growing faster than the overall short-term rental market? If yes, that's a share gain signal.
- Take rate trends: Airbnb's revenue as a percentage of GBV tells you about pricing power. A rising take rate alongside volume growth is a strong combination. A rising take rate with flat volume could mean the company is squeezing existing demand.
- Active listings growth: Supply drives the platform's long-term capacity. If Airbnb is adding listings faster than competitors, it has more inventory to attract travelers.
- Regional revenue mix: Track how revenue breaks down by geography over time. Shifts in mix can indicate where the company is winning or losing.
You can start this research on the ABNB stock research page to get an overview of the company's financials and key metrics, then dig into the earnings transcripts for management commentary on competitive dynamics.
Take rate: The percentage of gross booking value that a platform keeps as revenue. For marketplace businesses like Airbnb, the take rate reflects the company's ability to charge fees to hosts, guests, or both. It's a useful proxy for pricing power and competitive positioning.
Does the ABNB competitive landscape favor Airbnb long-term?
The honest answer is: it depends on the segment. In short-term rentals, Airbnb has strong brand advantages and network effects (more hosts attract more guests, which attract more hosts). That flywheel is hard to replicate. But network effects in travel marketplaces aren't as sticky as in, say, social media. A traveler can easily check Booking.com and Vrbo on the same trip, and many do.
Two structural factors work in Airbnb's favor. First, the overall shift from hotels to alternative accommodations still has room to run, especially in markets where short-term rentals are underpenetrated. Second, Airbnb has a lighter cost structure than traditional hospitality companies because it doesn't own properties.
Two factors work against it. Regulatory risk is real and ongoing. Cities around the world continue to impose restrictions on short-term rentals, which can limit supply in key markets. And Booking Holdings has the financial resources and global distribution to keep pushing into Airbnb's territory.
For a broader look at how to analyze competitive positioning across different companies, the stock analysis section has more frameworks worth exploring.
Try it yourself
Want to run this kind of analysis on your own? Copy any of these prompts and paste them into the Rallies AI Research Assistant:
- How does Airbnb's market share break down across different segments like short-term rentals vs. experiences, and who are their biggest competitors in each space? I want to understand where they're strongest and where they're losing ground.
- What's Airbnb's market share in its core markets? Is it gaining or losing ground?
- Compare Airbnb's gross booking value growth to Booking Holdings and Expedia over the last several years. Which company is gaining share fastest?
Frequently asked questions
What is Airbnb's market share in the short-term rental industry?
Airbnb is the largest short-term rental platform globally by brand recognition and listings in most Western markets. Its exact share depends on how you define the market, but in the alternative accommodations category, Airbnb typically leads Booking.com's vacation rental segment and Vrbo in North America and most of Europe. The gap narrows significantly in certain European countries and parts of Asia-Pacific.
How does ABNB market position compare to Booking Holdings?
Booking Holdings, through Booking.com, is Airbnb's most formidable global competitor. Booking.com has a larger total business because it includes hotel bookings, and it has been growing its alternative accommodation listings aggressively. In terms of vacation rental bookings specifically, Booking.com is competitive with Airbnb in Europe and ahead in some markets. Airbnb tends to lead in North America and in brand association with the "home-sharing" concept.
Is Airbnb gaining or losing industry share?
The trend has generally been positive for Airbnb in terms of total nights booked and gross booking value growth. However, competitors are not standing still. Booking.com in particular has been growing its alternative accommodation listings at a fast clip. The answer also varies by region. Investors should compare growth rates across multiple periods rather than relying on a single quarter's results.
What is Airbnb's total addressable market?
Estimates vary significantly depending on scope. If you define Airbnb's TAM as just the short-term rental market, it's in the hundreds of billions of dollars globally. If you include all paid accommodations, it expands to over a trillion. And if you factor in experiences and broader travel services, estimates go higher still. The company's actual penetration of even the narrowest TAM definition remains in the single-digit to low-double-digit percentage range, which is part of the bull case.
How does Airbnb's competitive landscape vary by region?
North America is Airbnb's strongest region with dominant market share. Europe is competitive, with Booking.com matching or exceeding Airbnb in several countries. Asia-Pacific is the weakest region for Airbnb, partly due to the exit from China's domestic market and strong local competitors in countries like Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. Latin America is a growth market where Airbnb has been building presence steadily.
Does Airbnb make money from anything besides accommodations?
Airbnb generates revenue from Experiences (local activities and tours) and earns fees from both hosts and guests on accommodation bookings. Experiences remain a small portion of total revenue. The company has also explored other categories periodically. For most investors, the accommodation marketplace is the business that matters, with Experiences as an optionality play rather than a core driver.
What risks could shrink Airbnb's market share?
The biggest risks include tighter short-term rental regulations in major cities, aggressive competition from Booking Holdings and Expedia, potential market saturation in mature regions, and the company's relatively limited presence in Asia-Pacific. Economic downturns could also shift traveler behavior back toward budget hotels, though Airbnb has historically shown some resilience because it offers a range of price points.
Bottom line
Airbnb market share tells a nuanced story. The company leads in short-term rentals globally, but its position varies by geography, property type, and segment. The competitive landscape is real, with Booking Holdings as a well-funded rival that isn't going away. For investors, the signal worth tracking isn't Airbnb's share at any single point in time but whether that share is growing, flat, or shrinking across the markets that matter most.
If you want to dig deeper into how to evaluate competitive positioning and market share trends for any company, explore more frameworks in the stock analysis guide, or start your own research with the Rallies stock screener. Do your own research before making any investment decisions.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other type of advice. Rallies.ai does not recommend that any security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consult with a qualified financial advisor and conduct your own research.
Written by Gav Blaxberg, CEO of WOLF Financial and Co-Founder of Rallies.ai.
