Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky plans to fix ‘fundamentally broken’ company. Here's how
Airbnb to a feature that customers have long requested with a loyalty program. And in September, New York City vastly tightened its rules on short-term rentals, nearly squeezing Airbnb out of a market that in the early days represented roughly 80% of its business. Never mind the increasing strictness of return-to-office policies, which has hampered the flexibility that spurred Airbnb’s business in the pandemic years.
By mid-September, when he rolled out a handful of site improvements, it seemed as if Chesky had found himself in a Catch-22, caught between the conflicting demands of guests and hosts. Top of mind among them: Guests want to spend less money and be guaranteed a better product, while hosts are worried about potential declines in bookings and their bottom lines. The new improvements are incremental and largely designed to benefit guests.
They revolve around five common pain points, from affordability to customer service. On the cost side, the promise is to show consumers total prices per listing—including transparent and lower cleaning fees, a subject of particular ire—while giving hosts insights that ensure competitive nightly rates. Moreover, a new listing verification system is reducing calls to customer service by identifying and removing fake listings, and search was improved with new filters for king-size beds and pet-friendly homes.
Chesky, who co-founded the company in 2008, has been prone over the years to hyping up small updates as major features. But the CEO I spoke with recently over Zoom was grounded and realistic, confessing that the latest improvements are, in fact, patches over deep cracks in Airbnb’s foundation. “We need to get our house in order," he says.
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