Brian Chesky's AI lab paid Airbnb $7.1M for some of its intellectual property and to cover certain expenses, Airbnb disclosed in its quarterly filing on Thursday. Chesky, Airbnb's chief executive, founded the lab and controls it.

Under the deal, signed this month, Airbnb can choose to join the lab's future funding rounds. It also gets a licence to use some of the lab's technology inside its own business. Chief technology officer Ahmad Al-Dahle holds a stake in the lab and works for it too. The Information, which reported the disclosure, said Chesky has funded the lab himself so far, citing a source. TNW has not independently verified that.

“Their roles with the AI Lab do not change their duties and responsibilities to Airbnb,” the filing said of the two executives.

A special committee of independent board members approved the deal under Airbnb's policy on related-party transactions. The filing does not name the lab or say what it is building.

Al-Dahle joined Airbnb in January from Meta, where he led generative AI, Bloomberg reported at the time. We reported in June that Chesky was building an AI lab of his own.

Back in growth mode

The filing came with Airbnb's third-quarter results. Revenue rose 19% to $4.9bn, its fastest growth in more than three years, and net income reached $1.9bn. Nights and seats booked rose 16%. Airbnb now expects revenue to grow in the high teens this year, up from at least the mid-teens. It also approved up to $12bn more in share buybacks.

“It's rare for a marketplace of our size to reaccelerate growth, but that's exactly what we're doing,” Chesky told analysts on Thursday's earnings call.

Airbnb last raised its forecast in August. Hotels, which it began adding this year, grew “markedly faster” than homes in the quarter, Chesky said.

Shares jumped more than 10% on Friday, Reuters reported. That set Airbnb apart from Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor. All three have pointed to higher airfares linked to the Iran war and to unrest in parts of Europe, Reuters said.

Its own travel agent

Airbnb plans to start rolling out its own AI agent for planning and booking trips in the first half of 2027, it said alongside the results. Instead of a chat window, the agent will build each answer from maps, photos, comparisons, calendars and itineraries. It will also handle changes, refunds and payment problems after a booking.

Chesky argued that general assistants such as Meta's Muse and Instinct are not built for travel. They still send Airbnb little business, he said on the call, as Business Insider reported.

“We're not seeing a lot of traffic, and even fewer bookings, from Muse and Instinct yet,” Chesky said.

Agent traffic peaked in early October and has not grown since, he added. Airbnb's own support assistant now resolves about 40% of customer issues without a human. Support costs per booking fell more than 17% from a year earlier, the company said.