Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: All Right, the twenty twenty four Summer Olympics in Paris
Speaker 2: kicks off today with the opening ceremonies happening in about
Speaker 2: three hours time now. The city has seen a surge
Speaker 2: in short term rental listings since last summer, thanks of course,
Speaker 2: in part of the games. Let's take a look at
Speaker 2: lodging demand now with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who is
Speaker 2: there on the ground in Paris alongside Caroline Kno from
Speaker 2: Bloomberg as well. And Brian, let's kick off here with
Speaker 2: the fact that you have fifteen million visitors expected to
Speaker 2: be in Paris during the Games. Obviously Airbnb has a
Speaker 2: big presence there as well. What approximately would you expect
Speaker 2: the impact on your third quarter revenues to be from
Speaker 2: this event?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the first thing I'll just say is
Speaker 3: this is the biggest single hosting event in the history
Speaker 3: of Airbnb. We have the number of people staying in
Speaker 3: the Airbnb here in Paris to fill the Olympic Stadium
Speaker 3: five times over, and they're spending over a billion dollars
Speaker 3: when they're here in Paris. So we're seeing really good
Speaker 3: demand this summer I think Q three is going to
Speaker 3: be quite strong, and I think this event, the Olympics
Speaker 3: is just the ultimate demonstration of the power of bear
Speaker 3: abnb because these hundreds of thousands of people, many of
Speaker 3: them wouldn't have been able to come here and certainly
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been able ford to stay here had it
Speaker 3: not been for the one hundred and fifty thousand homes
Speaker 3: we have here in Paris. And I should just remind
Speaker 3: everyone everybody started for events because in large events there's
Speaker 3: only so many hotels, and so either you add access
Speaker 3: capacity or people don't come.
Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty thousand rooms on the market, that's
Speaker 1: about double at least that's what we have usually in
Speaker 1: Paris for Airbnb. Do you think hosts are actually gaining
Speaker 1: from this, because a year ago I remember one of
Speaker 1: my friends saying I'm going to put my fat on
Speaker 1: Airbnb during the Olympics and make huge money. But it
Speaker 1: seems like the rates are not that high, not as
Speaker 1: high as expected.
Speaker 3: Well, on the average host here in Paris is making
Speaker 3: about two thousand, two hundred dollars on Airbnb during the Olympics,
Speaker 3: so that is I see very very meaningful income for them.
Speaker 3: Many of them are first time hosts, so forty percent
Speaker 3: more listings we have today from the beginning of the year.
Speaker 3: So this is very I think meaningful income for people.
Speaker 3: But I'm also proud that the rates are somewhat moderated.
Speaker 3: You know, we really wanted to make sure we work
Speaker 3: with the IOC, and one of the big concerns they
Speaker 3: had was that the Olympic Games would become unaffordable. So
Speaker 3: I think the flip side of that is, I think
Speaker 3: the games are much more affordable for people, and they
Speaker 3: would have been otherwise.
Speaker 1: Because especially for the luxury side of things. For example,
Speaker 1: for luxury hotel, it seems like rates are done about
Speaker 1: forty percent from their peak about eleven months before the game.
Speaker 1: Is that also what you've been seeing with Airbnb perhaps
Speaker 1: lowing their rates as we approach the Olympics in order
Speaker 1: to feel the rooms and to increase the occupancy rate.
Speaker 3: I mean, we had a lot of bookings, like many
Speaker 3: many months ago, and so we've continued to see bookings.
Speaker 3: I Mean, the thing that's really interesting we have a
Speaker 3: really longly time bookings, but we're still getting like thousands
Speaker 3: of people booking every single day, last minute, even during
Speaker 3: the games. For the coming days. So I think the
Speaker 3: demand has been very, very solid on Airbnb.
Speaker 1: Right here we are in the clubroom of this iconic
Speaker 1: music or set, which used to be a train station.
Speaker 1: It actually was inaugurated in nineteen hundred for one of
Speaker 1: the last Olympics in Paris and also for the international exhibition.
Speaker 1: You're offering two fans to stay here tonight, Yes, for free,
Speaker 1: for free. That's part of airbab icons. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us what it is how you selected those two people
Speaker 1: who are staying here tonight.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So icons are the most extraordinary experiences in the world
Speaker 3: from the world's biggest icons, both people and iconic places.
Speaker 3: And one of the most iconic places in the world,
Speaker 3: certainly here in Paris is this museum. As you said,
Speaker 3: it was a clock character became a museum the ultimate,
Speaker 3: and I think like creativity. To get to this room,
Speaker 3: I had to walk through room a van goes and
Speaker 3: renoirs and monaise. Behind me is this clock tower and
Speaker 3: millions of people or thousands of people take photos of
Speaker 3: this clock tower. And we thought, what if you could
Speaker 3: stay here? And so we got the designer of the
Speaker 3: Olympic torch, which is right next to me and he
Speaker 3: designed this room in every single object in this room,
Speaker 3: and we picked a couple. It was a totally free stay.
Speaker 3: So you can imagine when something like this is free,
Speaker 3: it's a truly once in a lifetime experience. Thousands thousands people apply,
Speaker 3: We look through all the applications. We picked two lucky winners,
Speaker 3: a couple from California, and they're gonna stay here tonight.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I just want to things also say,
Speaker 3: is when you behind me, is this clock tower. If
Speaker 3: you look down, that's the sin where the opening games are.
Speaker 3: If you go into the terrace, you will have quite
Speaker 3: literally probably the best seat in the house for the
Speaker 3: opening games just in a few hours, the.
Speaker 1: Opening ceremony, which is actually taking place in the three
Speaker 1: hours three hours. Yes, we're going to be here. From
Speaker 1: the music as part of these Albnb icons. Obviously this
Speaker 1: is only a couple saying here. Bet, this is a
Speaker 1: whole thing. You launched in May. You got a the
Speaker 1: Barbie dream? Has you get The Prince mentioned what's the
Speaker 1: strategy here in terms of gaining some new sign ups
Speaker 1: for Airbnb at a time perhaps when your gross is
Speaker 1: a little slowing down.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that the growth first of all, is very,
Speaker 3: very strong, and I expect a huge amount of growth
Speaker 3: in the coming years to come. But let me just
Speaker 3: start with icons. We think icons initially is a great
Speaker 3: way to keep air the top of mind, reach new audiences,
Speaker 3: and also let people know that Airbnb is much more
Speaker 3: than a place to stay. It's about an experience, and
Speaker 3: ultimately where we're going as a company is it means
Speaker 3: can be much more than just about accommodations. I think
Speaker 3: the ultimate Airbnbs are experiences, and we're going much deeper
Speaker 3: into experiences. So right now these are more promotions. But
Speaker 3: one of the things we want to do is figure
Speaker 3: out how can we take the magic of icons and
Speaker 3: bring it to millions of people. And I hope this
Speaker 3: magic that you feel in this room is something that
Speaker 3: people bell experience around the world.
Speaker 1: Obviously, there's been some resistance in some other places that Airbnb,
Speaker 1: for example Barcelona in Europe recently we saw some protests.
Speaker 1: There's also discussions about perhaps banning Airbnb all together. From
Speaker 1: twenty to twenty nine forties some of those apartments in Barcelona.
Speaker 1: What's your reaction to this.
Speaker 3: My reaction is that we ultimately want to make cities stronger,
Speaker 3: you know, I think we provide economic impact. The vast
Speaker 3: majority of host on Airbnb are regular people making supplemental income.
Speaker 3: The city becomes more accessible people. We try to make
Speaker 3: sure people are distributed throughout different neighborhoods, but ultimately we
Speaker 3: want to be wanted in this city. We're in one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand cities and towns all over the world, and
Speaker 3: so cities have a right to choose how they want
Speaker 3: airpmum to exist in their market. I think throughout these
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand communities, you see that the cities that
Speaker 3: embrace Airbnb, I think thrive the most, and the cities
Speaker 3: that don't embrace thereby, like New York, which airby is
Speaker 3: no longer in for a short term basis, housing prices
Speaker 3: are not down, the hotel prices are up. So I
Speaker 3: think we've run this experiment. I think the cities like
Speaker 3: Paris that embrace a or ones that thrive the most.
Speaker 1: Airbnb has taken a diplomatic approach to regulation, New York
Speaker 1: City being an exception, as you just mentioned, and you
Speaker 1: recently invested more resources into access to our British access
Speaker 1: to home ownership is at some kind of admission that
Speaker 1: Airbnb is pricing out some people out of certain neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: I think it's so complicated it really I hate to
Speaker 3: make a generalization. I started Airbnb, my co founder, because
Speaker 3: one weekend we couldn't afford to pay rent millions of hosts.
Speaker 3: We have five million host on Airbnb. So many of
Speaker 3: them tell us that they use the money on Airbnb
Speaker 3: to be able to pay their rent, to be able
Speaker 3: to pay their mortgage. That being said, I don't want
Speaker 3: to be one of those tech founders that just defends
Speaker 3: the business and says everything we do is good all
Speaker 3: the time. If you build a platform and one hundreds
Speaker 3: of millions people use their platform, it's going to be
Speaker 3: used for unattended consequences. For most of our platforms, most
Speaker 3: of us believe the vast majority of things happening is good.
Speaker 3: But if we believe everything is good, then we're being
Speaker 3: naive then. But the same point, it's important that people
Speaker 3: understand the majority of people are regular people renting their
Speaker 3: home they live in or their second home, and they're
Speaker 3: hosting guests from around the world, many of which would
Speaker 3: have never been able to travel and stay in that city. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: I think that's a very important thing for the world.
Speaker 2: And Brian, before we let you go, we have to
Speaker 2: ask about us politics, because of course we're three and
Speaker 2: a half months away from the November election. We've seen
Speaker 2: a lot of tech founders in particular come out in
Speaker 2: support of the Republican Party, and I'm wondering from where
Speaker 2: you stand. Have you thrown your support behind either candidate
Speaker 2: at this point.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not, and I'm certainly not going to wait
Speaker 3: into that this time. You know. I think it's really
Speaker 3: important for me to focus the narrative and our tension
Speaker 3: of Airbnb on what we can do for one hundreds
Speaker 3: of thousand people in Paris, and that's what I'm focused on, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Brian, really appreciate the time there. That is Airbnb
Speaker 2: CEO Brian Chesky, and of course Bloomberg's Caroline Cono in Paris.