An Interview With Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on What Companies Are Getting Wrong About Hybrid Work

Earlier this week, I had a chance to talk to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky about a range of topics, including new features the company is introducing. First, however, we talked about the company’s move to let its employees live and work anywhere, and how he came up with a plan that made sense for Airbnb. 

You can listen to the full interview here:

Airbnb is in an interesting position since not only is the company putting in place a policy that allows its team to be fully remote, but it has also seen the way people are using its product to do just that. Every company is trying to figure this out, and a lot of them have defaulted to what has become known as “hybrid work.”

In many cases, that means employees are required to be in the office three days a week while working from home the rest of the time. According to Chesky, that form of hybrid work isn’t going to work.

For a lot of companies, it seems like the default assumption is that employees need to be back in the office for at least some structured amount of time. Largely that’s because the people who make decisions about how employees work are usually people who have spent their entire career working in an office.

“Most of the people saying that they want everyone back to the office are over 50,” Chesky says. “There’s just a demographic thing, like the older you are, the more inclined you are to be uncomfortable with the idea of flexibility and digitization. I understand that. It’s a generational thing.”

That doesn’t, however, mean it has to be that way. A better version of hybrid work, according to Chesky, is that the default assumption about where you work is that you’ll be wherever you work best. For most people that’s probably home, or an Airbnb in some far-off, inspiring location. Chesky himself has been working from different Airbnbs for the past few months. 

Then, companies can bring people together for extended periods, a week or two, to do the things you can’t do virtually, like build meaningful relationships with your team. That doesn’t have to be at an office–in fact, it’s probably better if it isn’t. If your goal is to create relationships and connections with your team, take them somewhere that is likely to happen. 

One of the most interesting things about our conversation is the reason Chesky is so bullish on giving employees the flexibility to live anywhere. For Airbnb, it means the company can recruit the very best people without worrying about whether they’re willing to relocate.

It’s worth mentioning that Chesky has the data to back it up. He says that despite the pandemic, the company had its most productive two years ever. That came while his team was working remotely, which gave him the confidence to make it the default.

A lot of that productivity came in terms of improving the product. Chesky told me Airbnb made 150 changes to the product just last year alone. Today, however, Airbnb announced what Chesky describes as its biggest upgrade yet, letting you search not just by destination, but by type of property. 

Want to stay in the coolest treehouse? Now, you can search for treehouses. You can do the same for National Parks, or great pools, or cabins, or any one of a number of categories. In fact, Airbnb has categorized all of its listings to give users a far better search experience. And, for travelers who want to stay longer, Airbnb is allowing you to split your stay at multiple locations within one search. 

The bottom line is that Airbnb is making the product better at the same time it’s focused on making its company better for the people who work there. I don’t think that’s a coincidence at all.

“The last thing I’ll just say is the word technology basically means the word change,” Chesky said. “And if you’re unwilling to change, then you’re basically saying you won’t be around the future and we intend to be around for a long time to come.”