Latest news with #Chesky
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The biggest tech shift in travel isn't AGI — it's real-time translation, says a luxury hotel mogul
Picture yourself in a tiny sake bar on Japan's Noto Peninsula, swapping stories with the chef in flawless, real-time translation. Such frictionless conversations, Banyan Group founder Kwon Ping Ho says, will "open up the boundaries of travel in a big, big way." Ho, who launched his first resort on an abandoned tin mine in Phuket, Thailand in 1994, has spent over 30 years in the hospitality industry. The 72-year-old told Business Insider that when it comes to AI, tools like simultaneous translation will make a big splash in his industry. "The one AI that I think will revolutionize our industry and travel is oddly enough, not AGI. That's science fiction because nobody can imagine what it's really going to lead to," Ho said on the sidelines of the International Conference on Cohesive Societies held in Singapore last month. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is a theoretical form of AI that is capable of thinking and reasoning like humans. Experts are split on when exactly AGI will be achieved. Some say AGI will be ready in two years, but others say it is decades away. Real-time translation software, on the other hand, could have a similar impact on travel as budget carriers did, Ho said. "One of the biggest impediments to tourism travel is the language barrier, and the places you can go to. It's never been a problem for people to go on group tours and have a tour guide who speaks the language. But as you go deeper into experiential travel, you want to go and talk to people directly," he added. Ho said such software would make travelers more confident to venture into far-flung destinations even if they do not speak the local language. He compared it to the rise of budget airline carriers, which took off in the 1990s and 2000s and opened up lower-cost travel to more people. "When you get instant translation, that's going to make people go into so many areas they normally wouldn't go," he added. "People can go to the remotest village in Japan or Indonesia and not feel strange at all." Ho isn't the only hospitality mogul who said that AI will impact the industry, albeit in a limited fashion, given that the technology is still in its nascent stages. Brian Chesky, the cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, said on the company's earnings call in February that he didn't think AI is "quite ready for prime time." Chesky said Airbnb would implement AI in its customer service functions first before expanding it to other areas. "It's still really early. It's probably similar to like, the mid to late-90s for the internet. So I think it's going to have a profound impact on travel, but I don't think it's yet fundamentally changed for any of the large travel platforms," Chesky said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Airbnb's CEO studied Steve Jobs's playbook to slash bureaucracy and build his $84 billion empire. Inside Brian Chesky's 5-step hiring strategy to cut red tape
As the competition for AI talent heats up amid Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's multimillion-dollar hiring spree, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky believes 'founder mode' is still an essential strategy for corporate survival. On a recent episode of The Verge's 'Decoder' podcast, the 43-year-old entrepreneur doubled down on the 'founder mode' managerial approach he helped to popularize, emphasizing that the age of artificial intelligence has ushered in a need for a more nimble business hierarchy. 'In the age of AI, my argument is you need to be founder oriented/founder mode, because you're going to need to be able to move like a startup to be able to adapt,' he said. 'I think these big, professionally managed companies aren't organized to be able to do that, so they don't bode well for this new world.' Officially coined by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, founder mode isn't just limited to chief executives. Chesky argues the philosophy can be applied to leadership in government, nonprofits, and coaching, emphasizing a need for hands-on management through presence and collaboration, not control. 'If you want to just get something going, you need to get everyone organized,' Chesky said. 'But [getting] everyone organized has a multi-year roadmap, so they now need to make room on the roadmap.' Chesky is no stranger to nimble teams, famously transforming a tiny San Francisco apartment and three inflatable air mattresses with his fellow cofounders into a Fortune 500 giant with an $84 billion market cap. While the short-term rental behemoth now rakes in well over $11 billion a year, the company's early iterations weren't always conducive to rapid growth. 'To me, so many roads lead back to the conversation we have with org charts and founder mode, because you don't want to miss the next wave,' Chesky said. Brian Chesky's 'founder mode' strategy Chesky credits founder mode with helping to save a flailing Airbnb during its early years. In an October 2024 interview at the 'The Art of Hiring' event hosted by Ramp, Chesky described the early stages of his company as a 'matrix' with no limits on the numerous layers of management. Teams formed sub-teams, which formed their own sub-teams, and so on, each adding to a bloated structure with office politics, lack of accountability, and complacency. 'You end up with a lot of bureaucracy,' Chesky said. 'You end up with a company where there are meetings about meetings, where metrics and strategic priorities are the only things that bind the company together.' It's a 'soul crushing' lesson Chesky experienced first-hand when Airbnb's plans to go public collided with a wave of global financial turmoil and sweeping shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented crisis that threatened to jeopardize the company's future. 'We went from the hottest IPO since Uber and Alibaba to people asking, 'Is this the end of Airbnb?'' Chesky recalled. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb faced a decline of 72% in revenue due to a drop in bookings and listings as the global tourism industry suffered from lockdowns. To adapt, the company laid off 25% of staff and paused non-core operations. To save his flailing company, the founder sought business advice from an old friend: famed Apple designer Jony Ive, who suggested, 'You don't manage people. You manage people through the work.' Emulating Apple founder Steve Jobs' playbook, Chesky began to systematically eliminate layers of management, removing managers who weren't deeply involved in the work, and only selecting highly skilled 'experts' to lead key functions instead. 'You can be deeply involved without telling people what to do,' Chesky said. 'It's about working through problems with them.' This strategy paid off. The business ultimately went public in December 2020 with a $100 billion valuation, the year's largest. In 2022, Airbnb netted its first profitable year with $8.4 billion in revenue, and it officially joined the Fortune 500 ranks the next year, in 2023. Chesky, now in his 18th year at the helm of the short-term rental giant, continues to innovate, recently announcing new features in May that allow guests to book experiences like spa treatments, personal training, and in-home meals from professional chefs in addition to their stays. Airbnb's winning hiring strategy In his 2024 conversation at 'The Art of Hiring' event, Chesky also offered five tips for how to find the best new recruits. 1. Start with the results Chesky believes leaders should focus on impact, not titles on résumés, to build the best teams. '[Hiring managers] start with the brands. Oh, this person worked at Google. But you should actually ask yourself, what products do I admire? Then, who built those products?' Chesky said. 'It's like a detective novel to actually find out who actually did the thing.' Fellow Fortune 500 CEO Jamie Dimon agrees, suggesting chief executives 'open our horizons' to employees from more diverse backgrounds. 'The new world of work is about skills, not necessarily degrees,' Dimon said in the 2024 documentary Untapped. 'We must remove the stigma of a community college and career education, look for opportunities to upskill or reskill workers.' 2. Be a detective In order to find the best workers, Chesky emphasizes the need to be 'detective' and rely heavily on reference checks. For Chesky, it's not enough for a candidate to say they were involved in a successful campaign or product, they should prove their contribution to the outcome, too. 'I remember Andreessen Horowitz would tell me, you should do eight hours of reference checks per employee, which is probably over the top,' Chesky said. 'But you should probably spend as much time referencing as you do hiring.' 3. Ask better questions and dig deep Chesky recommends kicking off a reference call by assuring the conversation is off the record to elicit more honest responses, and asks for specific examples to back up the praise. 'What do I need to watch out for if I were to hire them? What is the one area of development you would give them?' Chesky said. 'If you say that, they have to tell you something because they feel like they're not thoughtful enough.' 4. Recruit beyond openings Chesky said networking is central not just to hiring, but to long-term success. At the end of each reference call, he asks for two additional candidate suggestions. It's a strategy that can be applied for job seekers, too. According to a recent survey from LinkedIn, over a third of Gen Z workers feel anxious about networking due to isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and feel they don't know how to begin. 'Hiring is too much like a sales pipeline, and hiring should be more like network building than a sales pipeline,' Chesky said. 5. Dig deeper in interviews For a successful interview, Chesky suggests hiring managers ask follow-up questions—ideally, two in a row—to move past surface-level answers. 'You never want to get the first answer. You always want the third answer, and if people don't know what they're talking about, they struggle,' Chesky said. 'They might be able to follow up, but in the second follow-up, they actually become absent of details.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
NBC News' Morgan Chesky, a Kerrville native, to host Reddit AMA aboutTexas floods
The devastation in Texas' Hill Country — where flash flooding killed at least 132 people while more than 160 remain missing — has been especially poignant for NBC News correspondent Morgan Chesky, a Kerrville native. Chesky grew up just two blocks from the Guadalupe River, which swelled during the July 4 floods and swept away girls and counselors from Camp Mystic, which sits on the river's banks. He flew from Los Angeles to report on the tragedy in his hometown, which affected friends and forced his mother to evacuate her home on the Guadalupe. Chesky's stepfather helped families and RVs move out of the way before the powerful floods washed them away. Since then, Chesky has interviewed survivors, worried families and local officials. He'll be hosting a Reddit AMA at 9 a.m. CT Monday. Users can submit their questions and have them answered using this link. 'The nature of this job throws you into disasters all over the world, and in each instance, there is a layer of separation,' Chesky wrote last week. 'But when it hits your home, it's like seeing tragedy for the first time.' This article was originally published on
Business Insider
14-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says his company is a 'convenient scapegoat' as European cities protest overtourism
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said his company isn't to blame for overtourism in certain European cities. Rather, Chesky said overtourism is due to poor policy and long-standing housing issues. Anti-overtourism activists plan to protest in cities like Barcelona and Venice on Sunday. Overtourism is rattling cities across Europe, where some activists blame short-term rental companies like Airbnb for swelling the cost of living and limiting housing options for locals. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky disagrees. Chesky addressed the criticisms during an interview with Dagmar Von Taube of WELT, a German newspaper that is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, saying, "I've heard the criticisms — and I have responses." The tech billionaire mentioned Barcelona, where activists protested overtourism in 2024 and are planning further protests on Sunday. "In Barcelona, housing prices rose 60% over the past decade, but Airbnb listings actually decreased. So we can't be the culprits. Sure, people see a lot of tourists, but many of them are cruise ship passengers or hotel guests — in Barcelona, that's around 70%," Chesky said. Airbnb has become a "convenient scapegoat for a failed policy and deep, long-standing housing issues," he said. "Cities haven't built enough new homes to match urban growth. That's the real crisis," Chesky said. "But we're committed to working with cities. We support modern, targeted regulations that protect housing without blocking hosts from occasionally sharing their homes." Chesky's remarks came after Airbnb blamed hotels for the problem this week. In a new report, Airbnb said hotels make up "almost 80% of guest nights in the EU." Theo Yedinsky, Airbnb's vice president for public policy, echoed Chesky's "scapegoat" remark in an interview with The Financial Times published this week. That garnered a response from Tui, Europe's biggest travel operator, which pushed back against Airbnb's suggestion that it's not getting a fair shake on Friday. "The reason protesters hit the streets is because of issues with the cost of living and especially housing. Both are driven by the secondary home market and short-term leases," Alexander Panczuk, group director of policy and reputation at Tui," told The Guardian. "All the destinations where we have seen the conflict of tourists and living spaces in the last few years are not where [operators like] Tui are active." Representatives for Airbnb did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Although tourism can boost economies, those grappling with overtourism say the influx of travelers in their cities has caused the cost of living to spike, contributed to housing crises, and encouraged overcrowding. Last July, protesters took to the streets of Barcelona holding signs that read "Barcelona is not for sale" and "Tourists go home." Some even sprayed people visiting popular tourist spots with water guns. That June, the city announced its intention to ban all short-term rentals. Activists have also staged demonstrations in Italy, Mallorca, and other popular destinations. Widespread protests are scheduled for Sunday in cities across Spain, Portugal, and Italy. "When they (officials) say that we have to specialise in tourism, they are basically telling us that you have to get poorer so that other people can get richer," Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, a spokesperson for Barcelona's Neighbourhoods Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, told the outlet.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Airbnb Kicks Off New Lollapalooza Experiences, From Private Sets to Backstage Tours
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. After launching Airbnb Experiences and Services and collaborating with artists like Chance the Rapper and Cherry Glazerr in May, Airbnb is giving music fans another chance to get closer to their favorite artists' music this summer. The travel brand has teamed up with Live Nation to bring its Experiences to Lollapalooza for the first time. That includes all of Lollapalooza's locations, including Berlin, Chicago, São Paulo, and Mumbai. More from Rolling Stone These Best-Selling Sony Headphones Are Only $11. Seriously. NBA Finals Tickets: How to Get Last-Minute Thunder vs. Pacers Stubs Online How to Watch Thunder vs. Pacers NBA Finals Games Online Book on Airbnb Airbnb says that guests can book everything from daily Lollapalooza-based Experiences (think: private performances) and even access to Airbnb's Lollapalooza lounge on-site. In Berlin, Lollapalooza attendees could book an Airbnb Experience with the performance artist BUNT to see a private DJ set. For now, the brand hasn't revealed its Chicago-based Lollapalooza Experiences. 'Fans are traveling the world to see the artists they love, and festivals like Lollapalooza are leading that demand,' says Michael Rapino, CEO and president of Live Nation Entertainment, in a statement. 'Partnering with Airbnb helps us make those trips even more memorable for fans, connecting them to the culture and community around the music that makes each festival unforgettable.' According to Airbnb, 75 percent of Lollapalooza attendees in Berlin don't live in town, and 50 percent of festivalgoers in Chicago are visiting from another city. Book on Airbnb 'The great thing about Lollapalooza and working with artists is it's another way to step into the culture of a city rather than the traditional — you know, double-decker bus tour, that idea of looking at things and seeing nothing,' Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky tells Rolling Stone. Continued Chesky, 'We just want to do things that are cool. We want to do things that are different. We want to do things that are interesting. We're not giving a ton of experiences to start because we want to really work with Lollapalooza and make sure we do something really thoughtful. But I think this is the beginning of something. I imagine 10 years from now you'll be able to go to cities all over the world, and you're going to be able to have these incredible experiences. There could be this entire economy built around music experiences. Why would that not be possible?' Book on Airbnb Chesky also says that Airbnb could become an 'income source for musicians. You can sell music. You could go on tour. You can also share experiences, and isn't that what life is ultimately about? So I think this is, for us, the beginning of the next chapter with Airbnb.' This year's lineup for Lollapalooza in Chicago includes headliners like Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler, the Creator, and Sabrina Carpenter. Last-minute Lollapalooza tickets are still available before the four-day fest kicks off on July 31. Best of Rolling Stone The Best Audiophile Turntables for Your Home Audio System
