Airbnb founder Nate Blecharczyk: “I hosted more than a thousand guests”

So can we meet with the Airbnb strategy director at home?
Clear. Even while I’m on this journey. Unlike our CEO, Brian Chesky, I keep my profile private, but there is a possibility of booking my home. Some people then get the unexpected surprise that their Airbnb host is also one of the founders. And for me, this is a great opportunity to get close to both sides of our product.

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You were at the WEF in Davos twice. Also have you booked an Airbnb there?
Yes, I remember one thing in particular!

Because it’s too expensive? Prices during WEF are famous…
(Laughs) My team chose that, so I had to ask. I remember it better because it was such a nice place to stay, you could take the funicular, a little train.

So it’s a complete Swiss experience. Change of topic: Your co-founder and CEO, Brian Chesky, admitted in an interview with “Spiegel” a few months ago that Airbnb had gone off course and neglected its core business. For example, having the hosts themselves present. Do you agree?
This was one of the most important things we learned during the pandemic. We had to make some difficult decisions, especially in the beginning, because the tourism industry was so badly affected. We had to lay off our employees and could no longer continue as before.

What does this specifically mean?
We asked ourselves: What is most important to us? If we could only keep half the company, which half would it be? This reminded us that Airbnb’s main purpose is hosts. We wanted to focus on that again. Even if it means we have to give up things that could be good development opportunities but are not our core business (e.g. flights, magazines, hotels). This worked. Since then, we’ve been releasing product updates every six months that really speak to what we’re about.

For example?
“Private Rooms Update”. The hosts offer an extra room in their own home and are there for the duration of the stay. That’s how we started with Airbnb, but it became less visible during the pandemic because people were less interested in cheap accommodation and more interested in privacy. Another feature is the “Host Passport”, which allows the host to stand out in the offer. Before booking, guests can find out who he is, what he does, or what his hobbies are. And that has synergy with our original offering.

Artificial intelligence is experiencing a boom right now. What AI tools do you use at Airbnb?
We have launched a new service for our hosts called “Photo Tours”. What you need to know is that, roughly speaking, twenty or more images are displayed for each of our seven million objects. We have a total of 175 million images on the platform. There are now quite a few things you can better organize as a homeowner. Artificial intelligence recognizes what is shown in each image. Kitchen, bedroom or living room?

So what does this do for website visitors?
With a set of twenty or more images, it is often unclear to website visitors what they are looking at. The AI-powered photo tour organizes the property in question by room, giving a better picture of what to expect.

You’re talking about seven million objects. The peculiarity of Airbnb is that the offer consists entirely of individuals; The company cannot design the houses and apartments itself. Shouldn’t Airbnb design its own accommodations?
That’s exactly the power of our platform: we could never build seven million objects on our own. More than a million new offers were added last year alone.

It might be five thousand initially.
In any case, in the past Airbnb had plans to design and build the apartments themselves. It’s true that we don’t have completely direct control in our marketplace model. But through our rating system, we can create incentives for hosts to focus more on their guests. This is our priority. Building things yourself is not one of them. If there is such a thing, our hosts can do it if they want.

How are things going in Switzerland?
We have 25,000 homeowners here, most of whom are “individual providers.” The trend is towards longer stays and increasingly rural excursions. The countryside is a strong performer. In the first quarter of the current financial year, we also recorded a 50 percent increase in search queries from Swiss travelers. The most preferred destinations include Switzerland, followed by France, Germany and Portugal. If you want to go further afield, warmer places like Thailand or Hong Kong are in high demand.

As Swiss, we are of the opinion that Airbnb was not the inventor of apartment sharing. But Swiss company Swiss Chalets (now Interhome), founded in 1965 by Swiss tourism pioneers Bruno Franzen and Werner Frey. The Swiss invented this; Do you agree?
The history of sharing dates back hundreds of years. Some countries have their own and very special sharing culture…

So we didn’t invent it. But so is Airbnb.
It’s great to see that the Swiss have their own sharing culture! And we probably weren’t inventors either. But what Airbnb managed to do successfully was to scale the sharing concept and bring it into the mainstream. Thanks to the review concept and secure payment methods, we have managed to reduce the barrier and build trust.

Who is your biggest competition: Platforms that rely heavily on apartments, like Booking.com and Expedia? Or is it regulators in major cities who want to restrict Airbnb’s development?
We don’t actually think too much about competition. However, it is aimed at a market that has not been addressed before, with potential that has not yet been discovered. There are still a large number of people who have never used our service, either as hosts or as guests. There is still tremendous potential for growth that we can capitalize on with further innovation. The pie will get bigger for everyone over the next few years. What makes us unique: Sharing is our focus. And we are the only ones who have built an entire business specifically on this foundation.

Still, regulators are keeping an eye on Airbnb.
The more mainstream we become, the more integrated we become into the regulatory structure. We are aware of this and we do not want to avoid it. As long as these are common sense solutions.