Can the everything app stop the AI backlash?

I speak to Brian Chesky of Airbnb in San Francisco

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of The Only Story in Town, where you get one great business story every week.

This week I have been in San Francisco to speak to Brian Chesky, the co-founder and chief executive of Airbnb. Because I am reporting on location, there will be no audio version this week.

I spoke to Chesky after he hosted Airbnb’s annual summer release event at its headquarters in San Francisco. This is where Airbnb announces the new features it is adding to its app.

The focus of the conversation was AI given the work that Airbnb is doing, the growing backlash against the technology and Chesky’s fascinating views on all this.

The new Airbnb feature that has attracted the most attention and headlines so far is hotels. Airbnb users will now be able to book rooms at independent and boutique hotels, alongside the apartments, villas and houses that are already available. This feature will initially be available in 20 cities, including London and New York.

This represents a remarkable U-turn for Chesky. Airbnb was launched in 2007 in San Francisco as an antidote to hotels. It was a way for people to stay in more interesting places than characterless conference hotel rooms.

“Our first tagline was forget hotels. I thought we existed in opposition to hotels,” Chesky said.

Chesky has even avoided staying in hotels since founding Airbnb because of concerns it would undermine the brand if he was spotted in one.

“I don’t book a lot of hotels,” he said. “I was always afraid someone would photograph me in a hotel. I don’t have a lot of answers to my favourite hotels. I haven’t stayed in many in the last 18 years because I was like: ‘Oh, I will have to wear sunglasses and a fake moustache.’”