Airbnb has announced the recruitment of Andrea D’Amico as
vice president of hotels.
D’Amico, who has been CEO of adventure travel specialist
WeRoad since 2022, will take up the position in early June. He takes over from Jesse
Stein, who will now resume his wider role leading Airbnb’s real estate business. Airbnb announced at the beginning of 2026 that Stein would lead hotels alongside former Booking.com executive Lou Zameryka, who was recruited as global head of hotel enterprise.
In an internal email, chief business officer Dave Stephenson
told employees that the company needs “to build out our supply engine, deepen
partnerships with hotel groups across the world and compete at a global level
in a category with incumbents who have been at it for decades.”
D’Amico spent 18 years at Booking.com, rising to VP and managing director for EMEA before he left the company.
The
move comes as Airbnb looks to expand its hotel business with a particular focus
on independent and boutique properties. The company said it was adding hotels to its app last September and later confirmed pilots with properties in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Madrid in the fourth quarter of 2025. The hotel inventory is now expanding to 30 cities.
At the company’s Summer release early
this month, CEO Brian Chesky described independent and boutique properties
as a “little bit more on brand” and authentic for Airbnb.
“They
don’t have the same problems. The boutique hotel market is really under-served;
they feel like it’s a monopoly and like that we are custom built for them.”