Reactive, Contrived and Chaotic - Anonymous employee Airbnb Employee Review

2.0
Jun 1, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The product is innovative. Opportunity to advance if you are based in San Francisco. I hear health benefits for some USA staff are good.

Cons

Internal re-branding does not fix issues of morale and results in organisational chaos. No one knows who does what and reports to who anymore except a few key people in upper management. Broken tools for users and employees which are never to be fixed in favor of new tools that break quickly never to be fixed... Everything is ego driven. This is not pleasing to the court. Every major issue is reacted to. Reaction in business is a symptom of management that does not listen to employees who see a larger problem looming. Processes are are over thought and contrived. Think of ways to reward employees who work with upset and angry users daily. A reward certificate is just a piece of paper. Employees who are difficult to work with are promoted then become even more difficult to work with. Benefits for employees hired in 2011 (post-EJ scandal) are being stripped away. If you don't want the remaining remote staff, take the steps to do the right thing and offer severance and any other transition assistance possible. They need their jobs because job markets are bad, so they're not quitting without even a small safety net no matter how much pressure you place upon them to quit. Offer time for long time employees to properly train new employees, that I understand you've moved from an almost defunct department to newly re-branded and further broken out departments. Paying new, HQ based, bottom tier employees more than long-time bottom level employees who are at advanced levels and who also live high COL cities is an insult. "Make their lives easier, not harder." Extend this to your own, hard working employees. Telling them to do it themselves is not only insulting but telling of true core values at play. The creedos are not extended to employees. Employees are also hosts and guests. Staff knows exactly what it means when upper management says "you'll be taken care of" and those words are feared.

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Jun 8, 2026
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Pros

Laid back, strong mentorship/training, and good team chemistry.

Cons

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5.0
Jun 4, 2026
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Pros

Airbnb's mission of creating a world where anyone can belong anywhere strongly resonates with me. I'm excited by the opportunity to build products that operate at global scale and directly impact millions of users. My background in full-stack engineering, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and AI-powered applications aligns well with Airbnb's focus on innovation, reliability, and exceptional user experiences. I am particularly attracted to Airbnb's engineering culture, emphasis on ownership, and commitment to solving complex technical challenges while delivering meaningful value to hosts, guests, and communities worldwide.

Cons

One challenge of working at Airbnb is the complexity that comes with operating a global platform at scale. Engineering teams must balance reliability, performance, compliance, and user experience across many markets and stakeholders. While this can make development and decision-making more complex, it is also one of the aspects that makes the work technically interesting and professionally rewarding.

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