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Squawk Pod

Leaders Playbook: Inside Airbnb 1/28/26

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, News, Investing, Business

4.2543 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CNBC Leaders Playbook features candid conversations with the world’s top CEOs and business leaders about how they think, decide, and lead, hosted by CNBC Senior Media & Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin. In this episode, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky discusses how he went from an industrial design major to tech founder and CEO of the home sharing app which forever changed the way we travel, plus the major shift in his approach to leadership. All-new episodes air Wednesdays at 10PM ET/PT on CNBC. Visit CNBC.com/LeadersPlaybook for more.

Transcript

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0:00.0

On this episode of Leader's Playbook,

0:03.8

It all started with an airbed.

0:08.2

Inside Airbnb, the home sharing app that has forever changed the way we travel.

0:13.7

Airbnb today is now known as a noun of verb all over the world.

0:17.8

Meet the leader who convinced people in hundreds of countries to let total

0:21.9

strangers sleep in their beds. I just maybe had this core insight that people are basically good.

0:28.9

They could trust one another. Find out how an industrial design major turned founder and CEO

0:33.7

runs a multi-billion dollar company. At that moment, I realized that's what a leader is.

0:38.8

Learn how the company's executives led Airbnb through one of its biggest challenges.

0:43.6

We lost 80% of our business in eight weeks. People are asking, is this the end of Airbnb?

0:48.8

Our business has effectively evaporated overnight. Plus, how a major shift in how the CEO approached leadership

0:56.0

helped save the company. I was told to hire great people and trust them and get out of the

1:00.5

way. I think that is terrible advice for the vast majority of founders. Leaders playbook,

1:04.9

Airbnb, starts now. I'm meeting up with Airbnb's co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky at this estate in Beverly Hills,

1:15.6

a five-star listing he's Airbnb being.

1:18.6

Chesky was in town to make a big announcement.

1:20.9

I am so excited.

1:22.5

Launching Airbnb's super app, allowing users to book more than a place to stay.

1:27.5

If you want to get makeup done for an event, if you want to hire a caterer, if you want to get a

1:32.8

massage, you can just go to our app, you can book it.

1:35.4

You don't need to be on a trip.

1:36.7

It's one of the biggest changes he's made to the app in 17 years.

...

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