Airbnb is fundamentally broken, its CEO says. He plans to fix it.

Chesky walks a delicate tightrope as he tries to motivate profit-hungry hosts by encouraging (some of) them to shrink their margins. — Bloomberg

Airbnb Inc CEO Brian Chesky hasn’t had an easy 2023. First there was the “Airbnbust” frenzy in March, in which hosts took up arms on Twitter (now X) about shrinking profit margins and a potential short-term rental bubble. Then competitor Vrbo beat Airbnb to a feature that customers have long requested with a loyalty programme.

And in September, New York City vastly tightened its rules on short-term rentals, nearly squeezing Airbnb out of a market that in the early days represented roughly 80% of its business. Never mind the increasing strictness of return-to-office policies, which has hampered the flexibility that spurred Airbnb’s business in the pandemic years.