In this photograph illustration, a secret is seen in entrance of a pc display displaying the Airbnb emblem in Ankara, Turkiye on November 22, 2023.
Dilara Irem Sancar | Anadolu | Getty Images
As Airbnb’s not too long ago appointed chief enterprise officer, Dave Stephenson is taking part in an important position within the firm’s future development plans.
He’s additionally filling one other position that’s important to that development: an Airbnb host.
Stephenson, who has served as Airbnb‘s chief monetary officer since 2019 after becoming a member of the corporate from Amazon, has hosted a mountain cabin exterior of Seattle, Washington, for the final a number of years. While those that keep in his cabin may not pay attention to his place throughout the firm, Stephenson’s strategy is indicative of what he sees forward for Airbnb.
An avid skier and hiker, Stephenson is fast to share particulars of the perfect trails along with his visitors. The cabin is supplied with a pizza oven, and Stephenson shares his pizza dough recipe with visitors as properly, together with espresso store suggestions and the rest they might want.
“I enjoy sharing what is an important place for me with others,” he mentioned. “I think they appreciate that local knowledge and they kind of know how much I care, and that feels good as a guest, thinking ‘Wow, this host really cares about me and the experience.'”
Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky informed staff in a memo that Stephenson’s transition into his new CBO position at the beginning of the 12 months marked an “inflection point” for the corporate and a give attention to development throughout present and new companies.
“As we expand beyond our core, it will be paramount to have an executive dedicated to our long-term growth plans, and there’s nobody better than Dave to do this,” Chesky wrote within the memo.
For Stephenson, these long-term development plans heart on three key buckets: driving worldwide enlargement, rising the variety of hosts on the platform and constructing out extra experiences and companies.
International enlargement is essential for Airbnb, and Stephenson is spending loads of time on the street serving to facilitate that, whether or not that is in Germany, South Korea or Brazil. Part of that’s ensuring that “all of the functions are working well together to deliver the results that we’d expect,” he mentioned, whether or not meaning the country-specific advertising and marketing plan resonates, or if there are different particular native elements that should be tweaked to achieve success. For instance, Stephenson mentioned, in Germany there’s a native accreditation that makes shoppers extra comfy, one thing the corporate ensured it acquired. It additionally had the Weissenstein Palace — an 18th-century fortress in Bavaria featured within the Netflix collection “The Empress” —obtainable for unique stays on Airbnb.
“It’s just making sure that we are being very deliberate in how we show up in a country,” he mentioned.
As far as experiences go, it is a lot of what Stephenson helped present his visitors in Washington: a purpose to return again, not solely to that property however to Airbnb.
“We’re going to continue to focus on the kind of unique things that we can do to make a guest experience better,” he mentioned.
Airbnb can also be trying to increase its companies, making it simpler to be a number in addition to a visitor. That may embrace serving to hosts facilitate check-ins or serving to them get the objects they want for visitors, like linens. For visitors, that may very well be transportation to airports or perhaps a totally stocked fridge upon arrival, he mentioned.
“The deeper the relationship we build with the guests and with the hosts, the better we can understand what each of their needs are, and then the better we can do to match them up,” he mentioned. “The more satisfied they are, the better experience they both have and the more likely the host is to stay [on Airbnb] and the more likely a guest wants to come back and try Airbnb in another place.”
Connecting finance with enterprise outcomes
When Stephenson joined Airbnb as its CFO in 2019, one of many issues he mentioned he tried to carry to the corporate was a “more operationally rigorous finance organization.”
In some ways, that meant working very like a chief working officer would, he mentioned. “As CFOs, we think about the business metrics, the customer metrics, revenue metrics; all of these elements, how we actually run the business is just as important as the financials.”
The CFO position has developed properly past the normal finance operate to incorporate a give attention to operations, provide chain, and, more and more, cybersecurity. A CFO position taking up extra tasks was true for Stephenson at Airbnb, who was additionally appointed head of worker expertise in 2021, overseeing expertise and management improvement, in addition to recruiting and compensation.
Stephenson took on this new CBO position at the beginning of the 12 months, whereas Ellie Mertz, beforehand Airbnb’s vice chairman of finance, started transitioning to exchange him as CFO following the corporate’s quarterly earnings name in February.
“Finance is kind of Switzerland in terms of how it works and functions already,” Stephenson mentioned. “The chief business officer in some ways is an extension of that, a neutral function that makes sure that all the other functions are working effectively together and are operating really well.”
Correction: Dave Stephenson began as Airbnb’s chief monetary officer in 2019. An earlier model misstated the 12 months.
