Beaten by Covid-19 causing 80% of business activities to disappear after 8 weeks, sometimes thinking ‘dead’, how did Airbnb miraculously revive?

CNN reported that Airbnb has gone through a wild journey. Many people at one point doubted whether this company could survive when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and the company lost up to 80% of its business. But now things are turning for the vacation rental business as users book longer stays thanks to greater flexibility in how we live, work and travel.

Co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky recently gave an interview to CNN about the business and his vision for the future of Airbnb.

Here are the interview details:

Reporter: You mentioned the “travel revolution” and said that this industry will come back bigger than ever. Some people see that and they say, ‘Wait, things have fundamentally changed, the way people perceive travel has also changed’. So what makes you feel so optimistic?

Chesky: They’re right. Everything has change. The world will never be the same again as it was before 2019. Before the pandemic, we used to live in one place or home, work in another place or office, and go to a third place – to travel. . Now, all three places are in the same place. And they can be anywhere they want, as long as employers allow people to live a life of freedom – we don’t all have to go back to work five days a week.

That means millions of people are now more flexible. They are more flexible about where they can go, when they can go. And so, I think this will open up a huge amount of flexibility, and therefore, people will be commuting more.

Reporter: So will the upcoming travel involve longer stays or longer weekends?

Chesky: Absolutely. For example: Half of our booked rooms are now a week or so. Half of our business is now a week or so. This is very different from the typical tours of the past, which lasted only a few nights.

1/5 of bookings even lasted more than a month. It’s not tourism. This will never be possible if you have to go back to the office.

Reporter: So what about Airbnb? His company seems to have not asked employees to return to the office for a year. And even then, he mentioned the “living anywhere” style.

Chesky: That’s right.

Reporter: This is very different from what we hear from some other companies. The Morgan Stanley CEO says that if you can go to a restaurant, you can go back to the office. What do you think about this point of view?

Chesky: I don’t think CEOs will dictate how people work in the future. I think the staff will decide for themselves. I think ultimately, we as leaders will need to compete for the best talent. And after salary, the next most important benefit will probably be flexibility. And so I think in the end it’s the worker who will shape the future, not the employer.

Reporter: But do you still want to meet your staff sometimes?

Chesky: I don’t think anyone is sure yet about asking employees to go back to the office in a week or a few months. Nor did anyone say they would let employees work remotely forever.

Maybe we’ll think about seeing the staff from time to time. In addition, we will also need to design ways for people to connect with each other. One of the things we’re doing is inspiring more people… off-site, family gatherings…

Reporter: In terms of business, the pandemic is an existential threat when it first occurs. But now it’s just like “I look back, and I think ok, Airbnb has become a great place to be because I wanted to go somewhere and couldn’t go far”. At first, everyone’s thought was “Airbnb is done”.

Chesky: There have been many articles like: Can Airbnb survive? Is this the end of Airbnb? Can Brian Chesky save Airbnb? These are crazy because just eight weeks ago we were preparing for an IPO.

We are a high-tech startup. And eight weeks later, the company lost 80% of its business. We had to rebuild almost from scratch. Since then, we’ve been doing everything on Zoom. We did the IPO via Zoom as well.

Reporter: Did Airbnb IPO via Zoom? The company hired 1,000 people on Zoom?

Chesky: Yes, the company recruited 1,000 people on Zoom. And we are more productive than before. Again, I don’t think we should all just live remotely 100% of the time. But everyone should admit this is part of the future.