Jack Crivici-Kramer

Hot 97 DJ.

Yetis, 11 years ago, Airbnb's CEO said this quote to TechCrunch.

Quote, we are not a hotel, period.

11 years later, Airbnb is hotels, period.

This could be a corporate and brand identity crisis.

Yeah, Jack, because if Airbnb becomes Expedia and sells any type of hotel from the Four Seasons to the Holiday Inn, that would be blanding their brandings.

No offense to Expedia, but nobody loves Expedia.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No offense to Hampton Inn, but a deluxe king without city view is the opposite of Airbnb's authentic neighborhood-y differentiator.

Except for the waffles.

So, the new challenge facing Airbnb, it's one of curation, just like a Z100 radio DJ.

In a world of unlimited hotel options, Airbnb will need to curate the hotels they put on the platform to ensure they have personality.

And because Airbnb is now an $80 billion company, they're going to need to find a way to curate at scale.

Like the hotels on Hotel Tonight.

Interesting point.

The hotel platform that Airbnb acquired in 2019.

That's right.

Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, has known for a while the risk of regulation.

So he's been planning for a hotel plan B.

But like a DJ who can't afford one bad song, Airbnb can't afford one bad hotel on Airbnb.