Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced a worldwide tour today as part of his attempt to ensure that Airbnb is more than just a company and the the individual hosts that together make up the organization, have more of a voice within it.
The idea here is to kind of unionize or make a very involved community of Airbnb hosts. Interestingly, the mission of this particular community/union is to lobby with local governments and also attempt to restrain the rapid growth of AI at tech firms. Chesky outlined all this at a conference held at Airbnb headquarters.
The world tour will also attempt to increase engagement between individual hosts and the company. Chesky also announced the formation of a host advisory board, that will have the function of providing feedback to Airbnb’s executive. The advisory board will also participate in one of Airbnb’s four annual board meeting. As if to prove his commitment to the idea of a community, Brian also announced that he was changing his title to CEO and head of community.
Chesky is embarking upon a world tour wherein he will be touching base with the company’s hosts in London, New York, Cape Town, Delhi, and Beijing.
Meanwhile, all these changes are also being looked at in a political light as well. And make no mistake, the company has been a proponent of change brought by political lobbying. For instance, since 2014, more than 10,000 Airbnb users have contacted an elected official.
Airbnb has been one of the most vocal startups out there and has been standing out in its opposition of some of the policies of the current administrations — such as those related with transgenders, students and immigrants. Indeed, the company has been taking more active role as well — such as offering free housing to homeless immigrants stuck in the middle of nowhere due to President Trump’s executive order banning entry to the US.
The company has now set its sights upon automation and the introduction of robots into business. Indeed, Chesky took the opportunity to stress that regardless of what other companies are doing, humans will rare at the center of Airbnb and will continue doing so going into the future.
To keep users politically engaged and motivated on this and other topics Airbnb feels are relevant to its community as a whole, the company is also expanding its hosts club. There are currently around 100 of those around the world and the company plans to take that number up to 1,000 by the end of next year.
