The Verge: “Airbnb’s CEO thinks the platform can replace your landlord”

At the same time, Airbnb is expanding its idea of travel beyond short vacations. Chesky says that nearly a quarter of Airbnb bookings are “long term”, or 28 days and longer. “Millions and millions of people” are staying and living at Airbnb listings on a monthly basis, he says, and in cities like New York, that figure is more like 60 percent. He views this as a a shift from travel to “living”, which has been propelled by people discovering they do not need to be tethered to one location to live and work, per the company’s latest earnings report.

I think eventually in the future people will start paying for rent the way they pay for cable television, or for Netflix, you pay on a month-to-month basis, he says. He didn’t mention how this could impact tenants, like those who prefer long-term rentals because it locks in their rent at a set price and offers legal protections. The idea is that more people are going to want flexibility and the ability to parachute into a destination and live like a local. Chesky says that Airbnb has dealt with evictions and squatters in the past and hasn’t found any “intractable issue” that can’t be handled.

Ashley Carman

Not quite sure how this ‘parachuting’ is supposed to work once you have a partner, children, pets, or simply more belongings than you can fit in a luggage. Working from home has introduced a new degree of flexibility, but most companies will probably revert to a hybrid model with regular visits to the office once their employees are vaccinated, so I doubt there will be much room for ‘parachuting’ in a couple of months. But hey, Chesky cannot claim the title of visionary tech CEO unless he lives in a parallel reality, with little connection to the real world.

A 5% increase in revenues is not particularly impressive for a company that claims to revolutionize travel and now renting as well