Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, unveiled plans to transform the Airbnb app to allow people to book experiences and services as well as short-term home rentals. The company announced it will launch stage one of its $200 million reinvention this month.
These changes include more than 10,000 vendors offering an array of services in 260 cities in 30 countries, as well as revitalizing a program the app previously offered but found unsuccessful: offering local activities to tourists, or what it calls “experiences.”
Jungho Suh, a teaching assistant professor of management at the George Washington University School of Business, can discuss Airbnb’s ambitious relaunch of its platform. His areas of expertise include service management, diversity, equity, and inclusion, entrepreneurship, human resource issues in the service industry, sustainability and environmental, social, and governance reporting in the travel industry, digital platforms in tourism and hospitality, and gastronomy tourism.
Suh has published research on a number of topics related to Airbnb, including the role of customer engagement in Airbnb user experience, a cross-cultural study on the social and economic benefits of Airbnb, and Airbnb service quality.
"Airbnb’s new ‘Everything’ app is a bold yet necessary pivot. By leaning into imperishable, intangible services, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is reframing Airbnb as an "Amazon for Experiences" or "Amazon for Services." It’s also a calculated bet on the future of work—where AI-driven efficiencies will unlock more leisure time, deepening how we live, travel, and connect” said Suh.
If you would like to schedule an interview, please contact Claire Sabin at claire [dot] sabin
gwu [dot] edu (claire[dot]sabin[at]gwu[dot]edu).
-GW-