By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Airbnb stock (NASDAQ:ABNB) fell 2.1% in Monday’s premarket on fears the recent rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe could mar its prospects in the busy holiday season.
Austria brought back lockdowns starting today after cases surged while Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel today said the situation is worse than anything the country has experienced so far. She called for tighter restrictions to help check the spread.
Jens Spahn, the country’s health minister, had last week said he couldn’t rule out another full lockdown. Many of the country’s famed outdoor Christmas markets have already been canceled for the second year in a row, and people who aren’t inoculated face possible curfews, according to Bloomberg.
In the U.S., cases are beginning to rise again in some states just when the Delta variant, the most rapidly-spreading of the coronavirus that struck, seemed to be waning.
Average daily cases are hovering around 93,000, a rise of around 30% over 14 days.
Airbnb had earlier this month said things were going to get better after it reported a blow-out third quarter.
The vacation rental company said gross bookings, which include room nights booked and experiences, rose 48% from last year, to $11.9 billion, and were also higher than the same pre-Covid period.
The company expects to deliver October through December revenue between $1.39 billion and $1.48 billion, higher than the same period last year as well as the previous quarter. It sees nights and experiences bookings to significantly outperform under both comparisons.