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Brian Chesky reacted on thisBrian Chesky reacted on thisEvery part of your trip is now the easy part. Starting today you can use Airbnb to: → Connect with friends and get inspired → Search in your own words → Get to know a neighborhood before you book → Compare homes side by side → Find helpful services for a smoother stay Not seeing something yet? Features are rolling out over time and may vary by location and device.
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Brian Chesky shared thisAirbnb started because of a housing problem. My roommate and I couldn't afford our San Francisco rent, so we rented out airbeds in our apartment. Nearly 20 years later, housing is unaffordable for millions of people. The biggest reason is simple: we don't build enough of it. So we asked ourselves: what can Airbnb do to help? We found a few places where we can. This is new for us. We'll get some things wrong. And $250 million won't close a five-million-home gap on its own. I know there will be skepticism about this, and that's okay. Airbnb only works if communities trust us and feel good about our presence in them. We can’t ask people for that trust. We have to earn it.Brian Chesky shared thisToday, Airbnb is launching the Housing Accelerator: a long-term commitment to help make housing easier, faster, and cheaper to build. For years, every conversation we've had with mayors, city councils, and state legislators has ended in the same place: the U.S. needs to build more homes. We've been working alongside those governments on rules that protect housing while preserving someone's ability to share their own home. Today we're going further: → $250 million in last-dollar financing for projects that are one check away from breaking ground, expected to unlock roughly $5 billion in development over a decade → Support for the local leaders pushing zoning, permitting, and building code reform: AURA: An Austin For Everyone, Florida Housing Coalition, Citizens' Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), Housing Action Coalition → The Airbnb City Index, an open-source dataset on what cities are actually building, for journalists, researchers, and policymakers → A $5 million Housing Accelerator Prize, awarding $5MM in funding for innovators and entrepreneurs developing technologies that make homebuilding faster and cheaper Our first investment is in Austin: 201 income-restricted homes in the St. John neighborhood, at a site the neighborhood fought two decades to see built. Short-term rentals are not permitted in those homes. We invested anyway, because this is about housing supply. Every city we operate in is different, and there is no single fix. This is the work we think we can usefully do, and we're looking for the next project. Details, and how to submit one, in the comments.
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Brian Chesky shared thisToday, we welcomed Pepijn Rijvers as Airbnb’s new Chief Business Officer, as Dave Stephenson steps back to take a much-deserved beat. Pepijn joins us from Tripadvisor Group, where he was Chief Business Officer, and before that spent 13 years at Booking.com. Pepijn's experience at Booking gave him a clear view of why Airbnb needs to follow a very different path. Traditional travel platforms are largely built around intent: you know where you’re going, and they help you book it. Pepijn believes Airbnb has the opportunity to start much earlier, helping people discover where to go, where to stay, and what to do once they get there—to help people discover what makes a place special. I want to thank Dave for everything he’s done for Airbnb. Since he joined in 2018, he’s served as CFO, CBO, and Head of Employee Experience—three of the hardest jobs in the company, two of them at the same time. Airbnb is stronger today than it’s ever been, not because of any single quarter, but because of years of work compounding. Dave’s leadership is a big part of that. Here's the note I shared with our team: https://lnkd.in/gU4XCtPzAirbnb announces Pepijn Rijvers as Chief Business OfficerAirbnb announces Pepijn Rijvers as Chief Business Officer
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Brian Chesky shared thisToday we shared our Q2 results, and they're some of the strongest we've had in years. Revenue grew 17% to $3.6 billion, nights booked accelerated, and more people booked Airbnb for the first time than at any point in the last four years. People naturally want to point to one product or one initiative to explain a strong quarter. That’s not what’s happening here. We’ve rebuilt Airbnb to be an AI-native company. We're shipping nearly 80% more features and improvements this year compared to last, moving from idea to launch as much as 60% faster. This isn’t a one-quarter story. We’re executing at a much higher level than we were just a few years ago, and I think that’s one of the reasons we're growing faster than our largest peers. The long-term opportunity is bigger than ever.
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Brian Chesky shared thisTaxi lines, bags you’re stuck with, an empty fridge when you arrive, a room that looks like any other. We fixed it. Airport pickups, luggage storage, grocery delivery, and boutique hotels - all on Airbnb.
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Brian Chesky reposted thisBrian Chesky reposted thisNow there’s even more to Airbnb: - More places to stay, including boutique and independent hotels - New partner services like grocery delivery, luggage storage, airport pickups, and car rentals (coming this summer) - Experiences you can’t get anywhere else
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Brian Chesky shared thisAirbnb posted another strong quarter, with 18% YoY revenue growth driven by strong demand across the platform. Looking ahead, we have the FIFA World Cup 2026™ this summer, and are excited to host more guests than any event in Airbnb's history.
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Brian Chesky shared thisExcited to share that Gus Fuldner is joining Airbnb as our new Global Head of Operations. Gus is a true pioneer. At Uber, he helped build the first insurance models for ridesharing, work that fundamentally shaped how the entire industry operates today. What I admire most is how he approaches problems: diving deep into the details while never losing sight of the bigger picture. His mix of operational rigor and strategic thinking will be invaluable as Airbnb continues to evolve and scale. Welcome to Airbnb, Gus. https://lnkd.in/gduXfqp4Airbnb announces Gus Fuldner as Global Head of OperationsAirbnb announces Gus Fuldner as Global Head of Operations
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Brian Chesky shared thisAirbnb had a strong Q4. But the real story is how we got here.
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Brian Chesky liked thisBrian Chesky liked thisToday, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and CEO, welcomed the fifth cohort of Voyager Scholarship recipients: 100 college juniors preparing for careers in public service. The 2026–2028 class represents 39 states and territories and 68 colleges and universities. Sixty-one percent of the cohort are first-generation college students, bringing even more perspectives and lived experiences to the Voyager community. Their work spans some of today’s most pressing challenges, from resilient infrastructure for island communities and water quality in the Great Lakes to accessibility policy for the Deaf community and the use of artificial intelligence in clinical care. Others are exploring graphic design as a tool for community engagement, first-time voter participation, food access in urban neighborhoods, and economic opportunity in rural and Appalachian communities. “Every year, this scholarship reminds Michelle, Brian, and me that there is no shortage of young people ready to take on hard problems,” said President Obama. “This year’s Voyagers come from small towns and big cities, from islands in the Pacific and neighborhoods here on the South Side. They are working on housing, health care, clean water, and public safety, and most of them started that work long before anyone offered to pay for it. We’re proud to help them keep going.” At the heart of the Voyager Scholarship is a shared belief that experiencing communities and cultures around the world can deepen understanding, build empathy, and prepare the next generation to create meaningful change. Along with scholarship support, summer travel funding, and personalized career coaching, Voyagers participate in monthly virtual sessions where they sharpen their vision for a career in public service, strengthen their bridge-building skills, and build relationships with one another. We can’t wait to see where their journeys take them. Join us in welcoming the newest class of Voyagers in the comments!
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Brian Chesky liked thisMy latest column features Brian Chesky, the CEO and co-founder of Airbnb. I talked to him at an interesting moment for the short-term rental company. The company is part of the "disruption economy," that grew alongside other upstarts like Uber. But recently its stock price has stalled as analysts look for signs that the company can keep growing. Chesky a few years passed popularizing the term "founder mode" and thinking about ways to redesign his company. Airbnb has introduced ways that its expanding its offerings (think: car rentals, luggage store, booking food tastings) Most surprisingly, perhaps, is that an Airbnb user can also now book hotels, the institutions that Airbnb initially sought to upend. “I was ideological for 10, 12 years. I was like, ‘We’ll never go to hotels,’” Chesky told me in a recent interview. “At some point,” he added, “our customers changed my mind.” Then, the founder made it happen. https://lnkd.in/gDE3GXeJ
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Brian Chesky liked thisBrian Chesky liked thisBrian Chesky just got off stage at Airbnb's Summer 2026 release. Car rentals and grocery delivery will grab the headlines, but I think the most important announcement for hosts & PMs were the ones focused on leveraging AI to improve booking conversion. Here are four things from today that won't trend, but will impact who books and what properties they book: 1. Listing highlights: Airbnb will now personalize your listing page to highlight exactly what will help a guest convert, based on what they know about that guest's trip purpose and needs. Same listing, different guest, different emphasis. 2. Review highlights: Airbnb has 1 billion reviews. They're now using AI to surface the specific reviews and language that speak to what each guest actually wants to know. This isn't just a summary. It's specific social proof for your most important listing attributes organized together. 3. Ask about the home: Guests can now ask a question, and Airbnb will answer it by showing the reviews that address it, the photos that prove it, and the map that contextualizes it. No more hunting for the backyard photo or opening Google Maps to find the nearest trailhead. 4. Listing comparisons: Not a side-by-side of amenities. An AI-generated case for why you should book each property, personalized highlights, top review themes, and the key differences that actually matter to that guest. We knew this was eventually coming. As soon as Airbnb launched expanded guest profiles a few years ago, we knew it would, and now it has made the booking process fully personalized, using its listings, reviews, and guest data to drive both conversion and satisfaction. For hosts, the implication is direct: your reviews, photos, and listing details are now active conversion assets, not passive content. The listings with the richest data will win.
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Edward Koai
One of the first things I learned at Snapchat was that in most products, user retention is inversely related to user growth. As you scale and reach more users, they usually care less. If they cared more, they would’ve found you sooner. That means your retention is always in a state of decay! Your product HAS to be getting better as more people join. Network effect products like marketplaces and social networks do this naturally. Everyone else has to build their way back with features.
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Varun Anand
Here's how Clay used "Reverse Demos" to find product-market fit and build a self-serve motion from scratch: When we first launched Clay on Product Hunt in February 2022, we got hundreds of signups overnight. We demo’d our product to them like we knew best: by running 30-minute presentations like college professors on Zoom. Unfortunately, few retained -- most likely because no one was actually learning during the demo. Potential customers were usually impressed when they saw me use Clay, but as soon as they tried to use it themselves, they got stuck and churned. Enter: the reverse demo. Instead of running canned demo meetings, we started emailing potential customers before meetings, asking them to come prepared with a specific data enrichment problem to solve. If they didn’t come with an idea, we’d use the first 5 minutes to come up with a personalized use case for them. Once they were in the meeting, we’d ask them to share their screen, give them a Clay signup link, and use Zoom annotations to show them exactly where to click to complete their workflow. Our goal on every reverse demo was simple: solve the customer’s stated problem within the 30 minutes -- and try to blow their minds in the process. Initially, we had to walk people through multiple calls before they had their "a-ha" moments. Through reverse demos, we were able to get it in under one call. Our goal was to build product habits: by solving any customer’s unique business problem within 30 minutes, we helped them build confidence with Clay and made it more likely for them to use the product to solve their future problems. The obvious benefit of the reverse demo was better customer conversion and retention. After 100+ reverse demos, we were getting people to “a-ha” moments within just a few minutes and most would convert after that call alone. But—much more importantly—the reverse demo helped us quickly improve Clay’s product. There’s no tighter feedback loop than getting your ideal customers on Zoom and watching them use the product for the first time. There were dozens of times that I noticed something on a reverse demo, whether bad UX, bad copy, or a bug, and asked Eric Engoron on our engineering team to ship a change the same day. Each reverse demo was a UX masterclass. That helped us go from 7 calls to convert a customer to just 1 in less than a year. Eventually this improvement gave us the confidence to remove our waitlist and launch a successful self-serve motion. This feedback loop was foundational for our growth as we navigated product-market fit and evolved our GTM motion.
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