<img decoding="async" class="size-full-width wp-image-1581044" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/GettyImages-2214314967.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="Man in black shirt and pants stands onstage" width="970" height="646" data-caption='Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says Airbnb must be rebuilt from the ground up to drive growth across new categories.. <span class=”media-credit”>Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images</span>’>

Brian Chesky has a plan to put Airbnb back on a faster growth track. The CEO, who built the home-sharing platform into a travel giant, now admits the company has lost momentum. After years of explosive expansion, Airbnb’s revenue growth has slowed dramatically: from 40 percent in 2022 to 18 percent in 2023, and just 12 percent last year. For the current quarter, growth is expected to land between 8 and 10 percent. “I think Airbnb should be growing significantly faster,” Chesky said at the Skift Global Forum on Sept. 16, adding that the rate ought to at least reach the “teens.”

To reignite that pace, Chesky is expanding Airbnb’s services beyond home rentals, making a second bet on curated experiences, pushing deeper into international markets, integrating hotels and infusing A.I. across the platform.

In May, Airbnb rolled out a variety of services, such as massages, catered meals and personal training experiences, in a bid to compete with the offerings of hotels. “We thought this was a huge opportunity not only to have a multibillion-dollar revenue expansion line, but also to get people that would otherwise stay in a hotel to stay in Airbnb,” said Chesky.

The company also relaunched its Experiences platform, which first debuted in 2016 but faltered after the pandemic. Chesky believes the reboot, which features offerings such as a private Notre Dame tour with a restoration architect or ramen-making with an award-winning chef, can now succeed.

Airbnb is also looking to strengthen its hotel business. In 2019, the company acquired HotelTonight for last-minute bookings and plans to integrate the platform more tightly into Airbnb’s ecosystem.

Another priority is geographic expansion. Roughly 70 percent of Airbnb’s business still comes from the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K. and France. “So, what about the other 215 countries?” Chesky asked. Replicating even half the penetration Airbnb has in the U.S. overseas, he argued, would be “a massive growth acceleration,” one the company has “just never really focused on” until now.

A.I. is also central to the turnaround. Airbnb is piloting a new search tool slated for release next year. Unlike a chatbot, it will aim to intelligently match travelers with stays and experiences by processing user preferences or asking tailored questions.

Chesky says the goal is to follow the playbook of companies like Amazon, which expanded far beyond its original business. “We now need to basically rebuild the entire company from the ground up so that we can have five, ten, fifteen businesses built, not just one.”

<img decoding="async" class="size-full-width wp-image-1581044" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/GettyImages-2214314967.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="Man in black shirt and pants stands onstage" width="970" height="646" data-caption='Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says Airbnb must be rebuilt from the ground up to drive growth across new categories.. <span class=”media-credit”>Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images</span>’>

Brian Chesky has a plan to put Airbnb back on a faster growth track. The CEO, who built the home-sharing platform into a travel giant, now admits the company has lost momentum. After years of explosive expansion, Airbnb’s revenue growth has slowed dramatically: from 40 percent in 2022 to 18 percent in 2023, and just 12 percent last year. For the current quarter, growth is expected to land between 8 and 10 percent. “I think Airbnb should be growing significantly faster,” Chesky said at the Skift Global Forum on Sept. 16, adding that the rate ought to at least reach the “teens.”

To reignite that pace, Chesky is expanding Airbnb’s services beyond home rentals, making a second bet on curated experiences, pushing deeper into international markets, integrating hotels and infusing A.I. across the platform.

In May, Airbnb rolled out a variety of services, such as massages, catered meals and personal training experiences, in a bid to compete with the offerings of hotels. “We thought this was a huge opportunity not only to have a multibillion-dollar revenue expansion line, but also to get people that would otherwise stay in a hotel to stay in Airbnb,” said Chesky.

The company also relaunched its Experiences platform, which first debuted in 2016 but faltered after the pandemic. Chesky believes the reboot, which features offerings such as a private Notre Dame tour with a restoration architect or ramen-making with an award-winning chef, can now succeed.

Airbnb is also looking to strengthen its hotel business. In 2019, the company acquired HotelTonight for last-minute bookings and plans to integrate the platform more tightly into Airbnb’s ecosystem.

Another priority is geographic expansion. Roughly 70 percent of Airbnb’s business still comes from the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K. and France. “So, what about the other 215 countries?” Chesky asked. Replicating even half the penetration Airbnb has in the U.S. overseas, he argued, would be “a massive growth acceleration,” one the company has “just never really focused on” until now.

A.I. is also central to the turnaround. Airbnb is piloting a new search tool slated for release next year. Unlike a chatbot, it will aim to intelligently match travelers with stays and experiences by processing user preferences or asking tailored questions.

Chesky says the goal is to follow the playbook of companies like Amazon, which expanded far beyond its original business. “We now need to basically rebuild the entire company from the ground up so that we can have five, ten, fifteen businesses built, not just one.”