book hotels<\/a>, the institutions that Airbnb initially sought to upend. Mr. Chesky insists that it\u2019s a natural evolution. Independent hotels and boutiques are on the platform because customers want them, he said.<\/p>\n\u201cI was ideological for 10, 12 years. I was like, \u2018We\u2019ll never go to hotels,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAt some point,\u201d he added, \u201cour customers changed my mind.\u201d Then, the founder made it happen.<\/p>\n
This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n
Tell me about your upbringing. You\u2019re from upstate New York, right?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. Niskayuna, a suburb of Schenectady.<\/p>\n
My parents are social workers and they lived a life of service, didn\u2019t make a ton of money. I remember my mom one day said, \u201cI chose a job for the love, didn\u2019t get paid a lot of money. You should choose a job that pays a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
I chose to be an artist.<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cYou chose the only job that will pay you less than a social worker.\u201d<\/p>\n
My dad got me into ice hockey when I was 5 and it became a big part of my life. I learned about teamwork. I learned all the things that an artist doesn\u2019t learn.<\/p>\n
When did your path in art school turn more toward design?<\/p>\n
There was a department head who said that industrial design is the design of a toothbrush to a spaceship and everything in between.<\/p>\n
It was technical. It involved manufacturing and marketing. It involved user interface design, and it really prepared me to be a tech founder and C.E.O.<\/p>\n
I have insatiable curiosity. I like learning things. That\u2019s part of being a designer. You want to disassemble things. Just keep asking questions, then you\u2019ll find answers.<\/p>\n
I also studied leadership, partly because I just didn\u2019t think I was that good of a leader at Airbnb. I felt like I was a good founder \u2014 it was intuitive. But the moment I became C.E.O., it was not intuitive. I was like, \u201cWhy am I not good at this?\u201d<\/p>\n
This is 2013, 2014, 2015. I went through a lot of pain and suffering and research and learning and stumbling to just figure out how to do this. That was a version of curiosity. Why are these companies really well run and Airbnb isn\u2019t?<\/p>\n
Is that what you led you to \u201cfounder mode\u201d?<\/p>\n
I ran the company as a negotiation between my intuition and the people I hired. I learned a very hard lesson. The right way is one way.<\/p>\n
The C.E.O. ultimately has to pick that way, partly because the people who you listen to maybe won\u2019t even be at the company, and you\u2019re still pursuing their strategy. The right way is one way and the one way has to be your way.<\/p>\n
Have you changed how you explain what you mean by founder mode?<\/p>\n
No, definitely not. I think that the principles that I described were right.<\/p>\n
I do think founder mode wasn\u2019t well understood. I remember there was a tweet, \u201cI\u2019m going founder mode on this burrito.\u201d I don\u2019t know what that meant, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s founder mode.<\/p>\n
I think that founder mode and hustle culture are totally different.<\/p>\n
How so?<\/p>\n
As a leader, you\u2019re in the details, you\u2019re making sure your team\u2019s in the details, you make sure everyone\u2019s rowing in the same direction and you take ownership of everything. I think that can coexist with a great environment to work in.<\/p>\n
I actually found that the more involved I got, the happier people got. Some people left, but most people stayed and they were happier because I was able to empower them when I was closer to them. There\u2019s not this notion that either you have power or I have power. It\u2019s not zero sum.<\/p>\n
In an age of A.I., even C.E.O.s of the big Fortune 500 companies need to be in founder mode, meaning they need to get into the details. They need to rethink how they\u2019re doing everything. They need to start using A.I. themselves.<\/p>\n
What do you see as the most powerful use of A.I. at Airbnb?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably customer service. When people have an issue, 40 percent of people get their issue resolved in a chat through an A.I. agent. That\u2019s pretty amazing, especially because Airbnb customer services are kind of difficult. There are a lot of things that can go wrong.<\/p>\n
Many people use A.I. chatbots to help plan their travel. That\u2019s more competition for you. How does Airbnb stand out?<\/p>\n
For now, we think chatbots are probably going to be like Google, sending traffic to us. It\u2019s probably more beneficial than competitive, at least in the next year.<\/p>\n
Airbnb now lists hotels on its platform. That\u2019s surprising, since Airbnb is seen as a competitor to hotels. Why add them? Is this Airbnb waving the white flag?<\/p>\n
Customers want them on Airbnb. We\u2019re not against hotels.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re not going to have the big chains. We\u2019re going to have cool, unique independent boutiques that really care about hospitality.<\/p>\n
Approximately half the hotels in the world are independent boutiques. We looked at them, and we were like, \u201cWow, a lot of these feel like Airbnb hosts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there are some people who only stay in hotels. There are some who only stay at Airbnbs. And there are a bunch of people who stay in both.<\/p>\n
They stay in Airbnb in Italy with their family and they book a hotel for a night in Boston for work. We were losing those travelers.<\/p>\n
Was including hotels a response to frustrations that people have about Airbnb, like finding a lockbox or being scolded about not doing the dishes and taking the trash out?<\/p>\n
The main response to that is to try to streamline the experience. For example, there\u2019s a total price display that we\u2019re introducing. You\u2019re not going to see a bunch of tacked-on fees.<\/p>\n
We are limiting and streamlining house rules. We are constraining checkout tasks to reasonable checkout tasks.<\/p>\n
How much is too much for a host to ask of a guest?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to say. We basically said, for example, you should put away trash in a bin \u2014 even though maybe at a hotel you don\u2019t have to. But you shouldn\u2019t have to take the trash bag out to the backyard.<\/p>\n
No one should have to put the towels in the washer and start it. It\u2019s reasonable to ask people to put dishes in the dishwasher but, with rare exceptions, they shouldn\u2019t have to turn it on. I don\u2019t know if I have a pithy statement except to say we generally like the golden rule: Treat the home as if it\u2019s your own.<\/p>\n
For hosts, it\u2019s to remember to be as hospitable as possible. These people are on vacation and they\u2019re on vacation from their chores.<\/p>\n
We have almost six million hosts. You\u2019re going to get extraordinarily outlandish requests. We\u2019re trying to help and empower people to provide hospitality, but they\u2019re competing with hotels that have people who went to hospitality school.<\/p>\n
Airbnb has been expanding into experiences and classes and other features. Is it becoming an \u201ceverything app\u201d?<\/p>\n
If you can Airbnb more than Airbnb \u2014 well, then, what is an Airbnb? If it\u2019s not just a house, is it travel? Is it more than travel?<\/p>\n
We are piloting dozens of other businesses and categories. Some are services that make the trip easier. Some make a trip more magical, meaning memorable.<\/p>\n
I think what we decide not to do is as important as what we decide to do. I think we become a community for traveling and living.<\/p>\n
The World Cup is going to be a big moment for travel. But there are questions around rising prices and fears about traveling to the United States given the White House\u2019s immigration policies. Could this potentially dampen demand?<\/p>\n
Airbnb\u2019s business has historically been a little more resilient than other travel platforms. When the economy is not doing as well, more people turn to hosting. A lot more people are putting up their homes and wanting to offer a place to stay for the World Cup. There are more people that want to go than there are hotels to house them.<\/p>\n
We expect record demand for the World Cup, and we\u2019re working our hardest to try to provide housing for as many people as possible.<\/p>\n
We definitely think that this will be the biggest event in the history of Airbnb.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for the lightning round. What\u2019s an item you never travel without?<\/p>\n
I bring a sketchbook.<\/p>\n
Where haven\u2019t you been but want to go?<\/p>\n
Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the last question you asked A.I.?<\/p>\n
A question about Hulk Hogan.<\/p>\n
What was the question?<\/p>\n
I was watching the Hulk Hogan documentary \u2014 the first episode \u2014 and I asked why he rose to be the central figure in wrestling. What were the ingredients?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your best advice for meetings?<\/p>\n
Make sure that you have a clear decision maker and that you leave with a decision. The best meetings are as few as possible and short as possible.<\/p>\n
How often do you check Airbnb\u2019s stock price?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t even think weekly. Not very often. Just after earnings. I\u2019ll look because I think of it as a scorecard for my earnings, but otherwise I just don\u2019t check things I can\u2019t control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Chesky is still in \u201cfounder mode.\u201d Mr. Chesky, chief executive of Airbnb, helped popularize the term in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13382,66,55936,97624,2051,174,96931,97625,10920,56162,9,24,55,54,56,10921],"class_list":["post-250323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-airbnb","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-brian","tag-chesky","tag-computers-and-the-internet","tag-content-type-personal-profile","tag-customer-relations","tag-executives-and-management-theory","tag-hotels-and-travel-lodgings","tag-mobile-applications","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-travel-and-vacations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}