Brian Chesky travel tips

Young people made Airbnb a household name, and CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky doesn’t want his online travel agency to lose its cool factor. Chesky is pushing the online travel agency to evolve faster to give the next wave of emerging travelers what they want most, namely, affordable places to stay and a hip, intuitive booking interface.

Airbnb released a host of new upgrades and features in its summer release last week. Airbnb chief executive officer Brian Chesky has promised to work on more.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky was very open with me in the interview I did with him earlier this week, where he tantalizingly hinted at how Airbnb will change in the next year, much of it predicated on AI.

Airbnb is at the cusp of the revolution happening in artificial intelligence, not only because its roots are in the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem, but also since there is a close connection between CEO and Co-founder Brian Chesky and OpenAI Founder and CEO Sam Altman.

If this turns out to be the summer of travel, as touted, Airbnb is ready for it.

Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern, who’s been working on revamping the company since April 2020, said “it would’ve been impossible for the old us, three years ago,” to have been nimble enough to be among the first movers in generative AI among online travel companies.

Airbnb has been out there a lot these last couple of weeks talking about its new product updates and launches, and CEO and Co-Founder Brian Chesky has been surprisingly open about what went wrong from the original vision, how he runs the company and what’s coming in the company’s AI-driven future, even beyond its core.

In monitoring online travel CEO compensation packages over the years, it’s always interesting to see these leaders receive what may be looked at as lifetime achievement awards, a monetary “thank you.” At long last, it’s time to cash in.

For developers, generative artificial intelligence will “allow our devs to kind of be super devs.” For consumers, it “can level the playing field from a service perspective.”

Whoever has the most short-term rental listings wins, right? OK, that’s a simplistic view. But with Airbnb’s revenue per available room forecast to decline a tad over the next four years compared with 2019, it would have to count on listings growth to hit analysts’ bookings expectations in 2026.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, June 1. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Airbnb claimed growing traction for a listing service where owners of multi-family properties allow tenants to rent out their units from time to time. The real-estate program, launched in the U.S. last November with about 175 buildings in 25 markets, now has 260 properties in 40 markets.

After Brian Chesky’s lively conversation with Skift CEO Rafat Ali about how Airbnb is returning to its core mission of renting rooms in people’s homes at last year’s Forum, we are elated to announce that he will be once again returning to Skift Global Forum for our tenth edition.

Flush after a profitable second quarter, Airbnb executives laid out what they see as the growth opportunities: Provide better value than hotels; expand into under-penetrated markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific; and provide new services to hosts.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, August 4. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Ever since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT service last December, travel companies have been rapidly devising strategies to use generative AI to boost business.

Major online travel agencies feel a ton of competitive pressures, but one thing is clear: They throw off a ton of cash.

Expedia Group’s vacation rental brand Vrbo for the first time reversed its traditional guest refund policy, and is mandating that hosts refund guests in Maui.

One year ago, Harvard Business School researchers released findings about the home-share rental platform Airbnb—and they weren’t good. The university created Airbnb user profiles under names that are common among African-Americans, and found they were 16 percent less likely to be accepted for a booking. Real Airbnb users of color said they weren’t surprised. Black users shared stories of repeated cancellations and failed booking attempts, using #AirbnbWhileBlack on social media.

Airbnb differs in many ways from traditional hotel chains. Among the differences: Whereas every major hotel group has a robust loyalty program, Airbnb has none. But that may be set to change.