Airbnb rises on upbeat outlook, bucking broader industry caution

Nov 6 (Reuters) - Airbnb shares jumped more than 10% on Friday after the vacation-rental ​firm raised its full-year revenue growth forecast betting on resilient global leisure travel demand.

The upbeat outlook contrasted with recent commentary from other online travel agencies such as Booking Holdings, Expedia and TripAdvisor, which have pointed to challenges from higher airfares ‌linked ⁠to the Iran war and unrest in parts of Europe.

Investors and analysts have also been closely tracking Airbnb's expansion efforts that are increasingly positioning the company as a more conventional online travel ​agency and setting the stage for greater competition with established industry peers.

Airbnb expects annual revenue growth in "high teens", compared with "at least ​mid-teens" forecast earlier.

"We're back in growth mode," CEO Brian Chesky said on a post-earnings call on Thursday, pointing to accelerating demand across regions and continued momentum in newer markets.

Globally, nights and seats booked, a metric that includes both room stays and service bookings, rose 16% to 155 million in the third quarter.

"Growth was broad-based, with all major regions posting faster bookings growth and first-time bookers reaching their strongest pace in several years," Jefferies equity analyst John Colantuoni said in a note.

Chesky noted hotel bookings accelerated during the quarter and that hotels were growing "markedly faster" than its core home-rental business.

The company is also developing an AI-powered travel agent to help guests plan and book trips.

"We think AI agents will gravitate to Airbnb's credible, cost-saving aggregation, booking, payment, and service attributes at favorable economics compared with traditional Google searches," said Dan Wasiolek, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.

"Airbnb's platform will remain relevant as independent suppliers (100% of room nights) lack these benefits."

Airbnb has a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 31.86, compared with TripAdvisor's 23.8, Booking's 18.31 and Expedia's 15.97, according to LSEG data.

(Reporting by Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)