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