Airbnb Believes Remote Work is Here to Stay
Airbnb transformed the travel industry. They're now partnering with Apple's former Chief of Design Jony Ive.
Airbnb has been one of the most disruptive companies of the decade amassing a network of more than 5 million hosts from over 200 countries with more rooms available than the five biggest hotel chains combined. Hosts choose to list on Airbnb because of the demand and tools they offer, such as $1 million of damage and income loss protection. Airbnb has a diverse selection of locations, styles, and price points that a hotel chain can’t match. The idea of staying in a stranger’s home once felt foreign but has now been accepted as the norm by society.
The hospitality industry was tested during the pandemic. Airbnb has proven to be adaptable and innovative. In 18 months, the company went from losing 80% of its business to going public during a pandemic. This is primarily due to the intellectual acuity of their founder and CEO, Brian Chesky.
The future of work is the future of travel, and the future of Airbnb is living, not travel. In a letter to shareholders, management said, “Guests aren’t just traveling on Airbnb, they are living on Airbnb…an increasing number of guests are discovering that they do not need to be tethered to one location to live and work.” Airbnb touts that 50% of reservations are longer than a week and ⅕ of all reservations are one month or longer. This is an indication of the future, not the results of a pandemic.
Apple’s former Chief of Design and Steve Jobs’s right-hand man, Jony Ive, left Apple last year to found his own design company, LoveFrom. Ive brought the vision of Steve Jobs to life, designing Apple’s most popular products pioneering elegance and simplicity in electronics. You may know him as the British guy saying fancy things in an Apple product launch video.
Last year, Airbnb announced a multi-year partnership with Ive’s firm. Chesky says, “Jony and I are working together on thinking through the entire Airbnb design and ecosystem– the system of trust, the reviews, the profiles, the payments, how the whole thing works together…We’re thinking of some pretty big stuff. Certainly [to be released] by 2023.” In a memo, Chesky said Ive would help design “the next generation of Airbnb products and services.”
We can speculate that Chesky sees Airbnb as more than a place to book a vacation. Perhaps they will focus on creating more experiences, whether in-person or virtually. One thing is for sure, Airbnb is here to stay.