As Airbnb rolls out dozens of updates, CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky mentioned the corporate is “stepping on the gasoline” after a significant revamp in the course of the pandemic.
Chesky advised “CBS Mornings” in an unique interview Thursday that Airbnb hasn’t had any widespread layoffs since early 2020, when he mentioned it misplaced about 80% of its enterprise in the course of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Now, as journey restrictions are lifted and extra persons are touring, he mentioned the corporate expects greater than 300 million visitor arrivals at its properties in 2023.
“We’re increasing fairly aggressively,” Chesky mentioned. “Lots of people need to journey and we need to lean into that.”
He mentioned the beauty of Airbnb is it is a “fairly resilient mannequin.”
“We realized that folks nonetheless journey, they nonetheless love Airbnb,” he mentioned. “So we simply hunkered down. We principally rebuilt the corporate from the bottom up, and it is stronger than ever now.”
Airbnb introduced more than 50 updates this week to deal with a few of its customers’ greatest issues, akin to hidden charges, safety and costs. Chesky mentioned the modifications got here after his group analyzed thousands and thousands of customer support calls, social media posts and visitor evaluations.
One of many options is “Airbnb Rooms,” which goals to make it simpler for customers to ebook a keep in a spare room as an alternative of a whole dwelling.
Wanting forward, Chesky mentioned he needs Airbnb to be greater than only a platform for folks to discover a place to remain.
“It is about connecting folks,” he mentioned. “It is about bringing folks collectively by way of cultures all around the world, and I’ve received to be trustworthy, I feel the world most likely wants that greater than ever proper now.”
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