Chesky on Airbnb's future in travel and beyond

Brian Chesky is far from slowing down at Airbnb.

The 43-year-old co-founder and CEO of the short term rental giant sees his company evolving to new heights.

“We're not an OTA. We do not do alternative accommodations. Alternative accommodations is what Booking.com does. We do Airbnb. It's a distinct, standalone category,” said Chesky. “Take the Airbnb model and we're going to bring it to a lot of different categories.”

He referenced Apple and Amazon’s journeys - what if Apple never launched the iPod, or Amazon never sold more than books?

“Why would Airbnb just offer homes? Why couldn't we offer significantly more things? And that's the future of this company,” Chesky said.

Chesky appeared virtually at Skift Global Forum on Wednesday and shared that Airbnb will be introducing two to three lines of “new business” each year on a go-forward basis starting next year. His intentions extend beyond travel and he reiterated that innovation is his "bread and butter."

“I think we're going to start with travel,” said Chesky. “Eventually we do think there's a path here to be doing more than just travel, but we're going to start with the way the consumers think about us, which is travel.”

It’s not the first time that Chesky has claimed the company will reach past the bounds of travel, he has mentioned longer term rentals, car rentals, housing and more.

But his vision is far-reaching - in terms of both creativity and potential profit, by his estimation.

“I anticipate, every year we launch two to three things that could eventually generate a billion dollars annually in revenue,” he said.

He clarified he doesn’t expect all new lines to be successful.

“Much bigger” Experiences next May

Chesky’s appearance came on the heels of Airbnb's move last week to quietly reopen its Experiences platform to hosts, provoking a mixed response from the industry.

At the time, Airbnb confirmed the reopening but did not offers detail on the new version of Experiences, which has seen a tumultuous existence that has included emphasis on its future as a “major investment” area followed a year later by a pause and then the abrupt removal of listings this spring.

“Our aim is to provide guests with a diverse, unique selection of experiences that authentically reflect the culture and community of cities around the world,” the company said last week. “As Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky mentioned in our latest earnings call, we’re excited about the future of Experiences and look forward to sharing more soon.”

Chesky didn’t offer much more detail Wednesday except to says: “Next May is going to be the 2025 summer release - that's going to involve numerous things, including Experiences coming back in a much bigger way."

He did reveal that the company is targeting “landmark” experiences created with attractions such as the Empire State Building in New York or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He believes there’s a way to cater to the people who want to see iconic landmarks “with a bit of a twist” and said the Airbnb is working to develop the product.

“What's the local way to see the Eiffel Tower?” he said. “I think we're going to have a unique product. It's going to be more local … more authentic than what you might consider mass tourism activities.”

Icons is a marketing play

While Experiences have long been a point of discussion, Airbnb launched a spin on the idea of bookable experiences with its Icons announced in May.

Not long after the launch, industry experts offered mixed reactions and skepticism that Icons was more about publicity than a new line of business - and Chesky largely agreed on Wednesday, saying Icons are primarily a marketing initiative.

The concept for Icons started last summer with a partnership between Airbnb and Mattel to create Barbie’s Malibu DreamHouse - an effort the company said generated more than twice as much press coverage as its initial public offering in 2020.

My bread and butter is going to be innovation.

Brian Chesky, Airbnb

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After seeing the results, Airbnb moved to build a platform based around pop culture experiences. Chesky listed examples including the Up house and Polly Pocket’s Compact and said others are still to come.. But the company isn’t making any money off the initiative.

“I've been asked by investors like, what? How do you make money on this? And the answer is, we don't. This is basically marketing. It's an alternative form of marketing. It's an alternative to advertising,” Chesky said. “It's very, very successful in driving conversation, driving traffic and it is especially helpful in three areas.”

He pointed to young people, social media and emerging markets. Young people, he said, are attracted to these ideas. The new launches wind up on social media - TikTok or Instagram - which Chesky believes could wind up overtaking Google for travel search one day. And internationally, Icons are making a difference, too, as Airbnb seeks to expand to more markets, Chesky said, referencing an Icons effort in India with Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor.

“We think this is a way to warm the water pre-advertising in markets,” he said.

Buzz around “founder mode”

As part of the wide-ranging conversation, Chesky also touched on comments made at a recent Y Combinator event that went viral thanks to a post by Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham. The post prompted a slew of feedback across the industry.

“The theme of Brian's talk was that the conventional wisdom about how to run larger companies is mistaken,” Graham wrote. He added that Chesky had said he’d received advice that founders should follow a certain path and "hire good people and give them room to do their jobs" while they seek to grow. But found it wasn’t a successful tactic.

“The point is this, great leaders are in the details. That's what ‘founder mode’ is,” Chesky said on Wednesday.

That doesn’t mean micromanaging but partnering with a team on decision-making. “So we are in the details, partnering with people to make decisions.”

Chesky added he never actually named the method “founder mode” and believes the name could be divisive. He believes his experience is something “every CEO whether a founder or not” can relate to.