RBC Capital Markets is finally upgrading shares of Airbnb after spending four years on the sidelines, citing the company’s ability to hedge against artificial intelligence threats as one favorable catalyst for the future. Analyst Brad Erickson upgraded the online lodging company to an outperform rating from sector perform, and hiked his price target by 17%, to $170 from $145, implying the stock could rally another 29% from Tuesday’s close. Shares of Airbnb are little changed for the year. Erickson’s upgrade comes after shares slumped the past five years, with the stock currently trading 39% below its all-time high reached in February, 2021. ABNB YTD mountain ABNB YTD chart “After > 4 years of being sidelined on the name, we upgrade ABNB to Outperform as an increasingly attractive brand monetization story with strong 1p data which [is] likely worth a premium in the evolving consumer AI landscape,” Erickson wrote. As a catalyst, the analyst pointed to the addition of hotels on the platform as an incremental driver of revenue. They could also provide a possible entry point for profit from promoted listings or other brand monetization opportunities. “Beyond the obvious of hotels being a $700B+ opportunity, we’re intrigued at the company’s potential to pursue Europe’s large independent/boutique base with potential disruptive pricing relative to other OTAs,” he wrote, referring to online travel agencies. Meanwhile, Airbnb has also taken care to finally bring its pricing and cancellation policies in line with more traditional competitors. Erickson wrote that Airbnb’s high upfront deposits, inflexible cancellation policies and ,large guest fees have been obstacles. Another catalyst is that Airbnb is relatively more defensible against AI versus traditional online travel agencies due to its strong brand and high direct usage, Erickson said. “In 2026, we expect more attention on LLM-based traffic acquisition as well as the agentic web, all of which are generally less favorable for any company with top-of-funnel traffic acquisition needs,” he wrote. “ABNB is as well hedged as any consumer brand in the space, in our view.” The analyst added that the World Cup and Milan Winter Olympics could also prove modest tailwinds for the stock, although not central to the call.
