Airbnb CEO anticipating post-COVID travel boom ‘unlike anything we’ve ever seen’

Brian Chesky, CEO of holiday accommodation rental company Airbnb, shared an upbeat view of the travel industry in the coming years, saying during a CNBC interview that he expects travel to boom after the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the CEO said that the company will need to add millions of new hosts to its platform in order to accommodate the increase in travellers over the coming years. Currently, Airbnb has four million hosts opening their homes to guests.

“I think that we probably will have a high class problem where there will probably be more guests coming to Airbnb than we’ll have hosts for,” the CEO said. “We think there’s going to be a travel rebound coming that’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Chesky added “we are working our hardest to get more hosts on the platform,” and believes that given the demand for its service, it should succeed in doing so without needing to offer many incentives.

“I think that all we have to do is just continue to tell our story of Airbnb, and the benefits of hosting. And we are seeing a lot of interest,” he continued.

According to Airbnb’s filings, by the end of 2020, the San Francisco based company had over five million active listings in more than 220 countries and regions worldwide.