Airbnb's growth has slowed down in recent years, says the company's CEO, Brian Chesky, but he has a plan to fix the situation.
In an interview on Tuesday at the Skift Global Forum Conference, an event for the travel industry, Chesky found that Airbnb recorded growth of 40% in 2022. However, this number decreased to 18% in 2023 and then 12% in 2024. For the second quarter on June 30th, sales growth was 13%.
“I'm not happy where the growth rate is in the company,” said Chesky at the event. “I think Airbnb should grow much faster. It should grow at least in teen age, and I strive to lead the kind of company that would one day grow by more than 20%.”
Relatives: Airbnbs CEO says that he personally manages 40 to 50 employees as direct reports: “A lot of work”.
The problem, Chesky said, was that the company lacked the basis for sustainable growth and had to rebuild itself completely at the beginning of this year to open the doors to new companies.
“We did that,” said Chesky. “The last phase is new now.”
In May, Airbnb designed its app in such a way that they contain a new function with which guests can book services (such as massages, photography services, spa treatments, personal training, private chefs and beauty treatments) and experiences (such as watching a comedy show or a comedy show with local hosts). Chesky said the company hopes to increase his core business, the holiday rentals and to give these services and experiences.
Chesky said on Tuesday that he believes that Airbnbs will be new offers “multi-billion dollar companies” at a certain time per businessper.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo by MyungGu Han/Getty Images for Airbnb
In the interview, he also explained that he believes that Airbnbs growth will accelerate growth next year despite the Airbnbs history of “slowing down”, and remembered the company's “hypergrowth” when it was founded for the first time in 2008.
“We built the company like a rocket ship,” said Chesky at the event.
Relatives: Airbnb will be the place where you can find work after the AI ​​has accepted your job, says his CEO: “Nobody wants a robot to answer the door.”
Airbnb also leans in AI. In August, Chesky said on a profit call that Airbnb would become an “AI-First application” in the next few years. The company began in April with AI for customer service, which reduced human customer service interactions by 15%. AI is now taking on tasks in the company such as the cancellation of reservations and help in travel plans. Airbnb plans to expand the agent this year and to give it more advanced functions, e.g. B. the possibility of searching a reservation to find specific details.
At the time of writing, Airbnb had a market capitalization of over 76 billion US dollars. The company has over 5 million hosts.
Airbnb's growth has slowed down in recent years, says the company's CEO, Brian Chesky, but he has a plan to fix the situation.
In an interview on Tuesday at the Skift Global Forum Conference, an event for the travel industry, Chesky found that Airbnb recorded growth of 40% in 2022. However, this number decreased to 18% in 2023 and then 12% in 2024. For the second quarter on June 30th, sales growth was 13%.
“I'm not happy where the growth rate is in the company,” said Chesky at the event. “I think Airbnb should grow much faster. It should grow at least in teen age, and I strive to lead the kind of company that would one day grow by more than 20%.”
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