Nov 7 (Reuters) -

Vacation home rental company Airbnb ( ABNB ) narrowly beat

estimates for third-quarter revenue on Thursday, helped by

strong growth in its Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets.

The travel company, which has been investing heavily to

bolster its presence globally, said the average growth rate of

nights booked on an origin basis in expansion markets was double

that of its core markets in the third quarter.

Nights and experiences booked increased 8% to 122.8 million

from a year earlier, led by growth of 19% in Asia-Pacific and

15% in Latin America.

The company posted a third-quarter gross booking value of

$20.1 billion and revenue of $3.73 billion, both up 10%,

compared with a year earlier. Analysts expected quarterly

revenue to come in at $3.72 billion.

In the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue of

between $2.39 billion and $2.44 billion, or a rise of 8% to 10%

from a year earlier.

Airbnb ( ABNB ) said it is expecting fourth-quarter nights booked to

be higher on a year-over-year basis.

However, the San Francisco-based company said the core

profit margin in the quarter was expected to decline due to

higher marketing and product development expenses.

It also expects the average daily rate (ADR), or average

cost per night, in the current quarter to increase modestly,

compared with a year earlier. Global third-quarter rates came in

at $164, up 1% from the prior year.

It reported a profit of $2.13 per share for quarter ended

Sept. 30. Its year-earlier profit of $6.63 included one-time

income tax-related benefits.

The company's implied take rate was flat at 18.6%, as the

revenue generated by the additional service fee amount for

cross-currency bookings was offset by investments in customer

service.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru and Doyinsola Oladipo

in New York; Editing by Anil D'Silva)