Airbnb Brand Health Report 2026: Epignosis Insights Study Finds NPS of +58 and Category-Leading Top-of-Mind Awareness

Epignosis Insights, a Global Market Research and brand intelligence consultancy, today released Wave 14 findings from its proprietary BrandPulse™ Travel Tracker, a continuous consumer brand-health study covering the alternative-accommodation category. The research finds that Airbnb holds a Net Promoter Score of +58, leads the category on unaided, top-of-mind brand awareness at 34%, and converts a near-universal 97% aided awareness into a 71% category consideration rate, confirming its position as the most recognized and recommended brand in the global short-term rental market.

Airbnb Leads Category on Brand Awareness and Consumer Consideration

According to the BrandPulse™ Travel Tracker, fielded among 4,000 adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and India between June 22 and July 20, 2026, Airbnb recorded the highest unaided top-of-mind awareness of any brand tested, at 34%, ahead of Booking.com at 29%, traditional hotel chains at 21%, and Vrbo at 12%. The study found aided brand awareness reaches 97% of the total sample, with 71% of respondents actively considering Airbnb for their next trip and 42% preference share among those who considered it. Epignosis Insights noted the gap between near-universal aided awareness and more moderate unaided recall points to a salience-building opportunity for future marketing investment.

Net Promoter Score of +58 Signals Strong Category-Leading Loyalty

Airbnb's Net Promoter Score of +58, built from 68% Promoters, 22% Passives and 10% Detractors, sits well above the BrandPulse™ travel-category benchmark range of +25 to +40 typically observed for accommodation and booking platforms. The research found loyalty is strongest among respondents aged 18 to 34, particularly first-time Gen Z travelers, while advocacy is comparatively softer, though still solidly positive, among respondents aged 50 and above. Frequency of use also correlated positively with advocacy, with guests who booked three or more Airbnb stays in the past year scoring meaningfully higher on NPS than infrequent users.

Consumer Perception Strongest on Uniqueness, Weakest on Customer Service

The BrandPulse™ six-attribute perception battery found Airbnb's strongest brand equity lies in experiential differentiation: uniqueness and local experience scored 84 out of 100, followed by innovation at 79 and trust in the platform at 76. Value for money scored 68 and customer service scored 63, the two lowest-rated attributes and both below the tracker's 70-point threshold for category-competitive perception. Open-end verbatim responses collected alongside the quantitative survey frequently cited total-cost transparency and support responsiveness as the drivers behind these comparatively softer scores, giving Epignosis Insights a clear signal on where brand investment could have the greatest impact.

“Airbnb's brand health profile is a textbook example of a category leader whose experiential equity is outrunning its functional equity,” said Abhijith Nair, Senior Research Manager at Epignosis Insights. “The awareness and loyalty numbers are exceptional, but the value-for-money and customer-service scores tell us exactly where the next wave of brand investment should go if Airbnb wants to convert category leadership into an even wider gap over Booking.com and traditional hotel chains.”

Brand Strength Aligns With Airbnb's Reported Financial Momentum

The BrandPulse™ findings track closely with Airbnb's own most recently reported financial results. The company posted Q2 2026 revenue of $3.6 billion, up 17% year-on-year, and gross booking value of $27.2 billion, up 16%, with nights and seats booked reaching 148.3 million, up 10% year-on-year and accelerating from the prior quarter. Growth among first-time bookers accelerated to 11%, the fastest pace in four years, with the Gen Z cohort growing fastest, a pattern consistent with the tracker's finding that NPS and advocacy run highest among the youngest respondent segment. Epignosis Insights said this alignment between brand-health signals and commercial performance indicates consumer perception and business momentum are currently reinforcing one another rather than diverging.

Competitive Landscape Shows Category Leadership With Clear Improvement Areas

The report's competitive benchmarking shows Airbnb leading on unaided awareness and on attribute scores for uniqueness and innovation, while Booking.com scores more competitively on value-for-money perception and traditional hotel chains retain an edge on safety and customer-service attributes. Vrbo trailed meaningfully on both awareness and NPS despite operating a similar home-sharing model, a gap Epignosis Insights attributes to Airbnb's longer operating history, larger inventory base, and accumulated word-of-mouth. Market-level analysis found Airbnb's awareness lead over Booking.com widens in the United States and Australia but narrows to within the margin of error in Germany, while India showed the strongest preference-to-consideration conversion of the five markets tracked