Airbnb Has Quietly Rebuilt the Marketing Engine It Famously Cut

Airbnb has quietly reversed its pandemic-era marketing pullback. SEC filings show search engine marketing resumed growth in 2022, brand and performance spending surpassed 2019 levels by 2023, and grew ~32% in H1 2026 against 17% revenue growth. The company's public claim that '90% of traffic is direct or unpaid' increasingly diverges from its actual paid growth initiatives.