Airbnb reviews

4.0

77% would recommend to a friend

(2,370 total reviews)
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Brian Chesky

85% approve of CEO

65% positive business outlook

Airbnb has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,370 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Airbnb employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Mar 18, 2018

Style over substance

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- More diverse workforce than other tech companies I've been at, which is heartening

Cons

- Work/Life balance is non-existent. Good luck trying to have a personal life after you start working here. - The pay is pretty paltry, no bonus structure, equity package is nothing to write home about. - Decisions are frequently based on "feelings" rather than data, which can be infuriating. Data-driven decision making and overall rigor is not something that's naturally part of the culture. It varies team to team based on whether someone came from a company that was better at utilizing data in everyday work. - Airbnb likes to do everything their own way even if there are existing solutions in the market. Not very smart if they think reinventing the wheel is always the right decision. - The caliber of employees at Airbnb is not nearly as good as ones I've worked with at "Big 4" tech companies, but they sure think they are hot shots. A lot of arrogance fuels the company at every level. There's a lot of style over substance here. - The SF office looks great out in the atrium, but the desk areas tend to be dark, cramped and loud. Not the best environment for concentrating and getting things done. - Employees get their personal items stolen off their desks on a regular basis with little assistance from Security team. - This is very much a hospitality company first and foremost, and a tech company second. Quite a culture shock if you're coming from a die hard tech company (consumer/enterprise software, AR, VR, robotics, gaming, etc). I've experienced this numerous times: mentioning something marginally technical and being faced with blank stares. - The company is a hot mess internally. No standardization in software, minimal cross-team collaboration, no version history in the codebase (well there might be some but not for everything that gets committed), lots of politics and jockeying for position/visibility, teams are very protective rather than collaborative seemingly forgetting we all work at the same place for the same goals.

5.0
Nov 18, 2018

Working here over a year...

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Compensation: pays more than any other tech company (Google, FB, etc) PLUS new cash bonus PLUS can choose to take your equity refreshers (no cliff) in cash. They also bump everyone to above midpoint of the range, which is really kind and close any gaps for pay equity. - Business is doing really well: we're profitable, have money to invest in employees + new ventures, never worried about money. Not even having a round of funding for this far out is amazing. - Great benefits. Free airbnb credits (never expire), lots of PTO and time off, easy parking lot next to the building (they reimburse the price), free lyft credits, top notch food program, etc. - Management is honest about their pitfalls and is honest about fixing it. I appreciate this because they could sweep it under the rug. - We're heavily invested in our infrastructure as a 2019 focus. Even hired a CTO who has decades of infrastructure heavy lifting under his belt. Sweet! - People are really kind and helpful. Fairly rare. There are always going to be politics because people befriend eachother, but honestly you can set up a meeting with a director and they will help you resolve easily. As long as you speak out, people will listen.

Cons

Typical growing pains for our size, honestly. For a long time, Airbnb was flat and you could grow your career quickly since the company was small. Now they're trying to add ways to grow your career and make it defined and achievable since there's not low hanging fruit from a flat org, which is good. There's also increased attrition for people who have been here 5-7+ years, but honestly I think fresh people who are excited and new have been better for my team personally. Many managers are also junior, but we've started to hire senior managers - my manager's manager has been doing a great job shaping and changing, which I appreciate.

2.0
Mar 11, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Visually appealing office - Good salary and benefits - Free food - Company has a good external reputation, solid growth potential

Cons

- More of a hospitality company than a tech company. Engineering isn't a core part of the culture, and it shows in the quality and visibility of the team's work. - Systems receive low traffic levels (compared to those in search, ads, social networking, etc.), so little need to improve efficiency or innovate in the backend space - Weak engineering leadership that won't make hard technical decisions, push through cross-team initiatives like SOA - Senior IC promotions and external hires based more on visibility than technical skill and impact - Steady stream of departures by strong engineers and managers - Culture of niceness and praise to the extreme. Hard to provide constructive feedback, push back against bad projects. - Cramped, noisy desk areas with low-quality monitors and office furniture - Below average meals and snacks

Viewing 4 - 6 of 2,370 Reviews

Glassdoor has 3,253 Airbnb reviews submitted anonymously by Airbnb employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Airbnb is right for you.