Becoming a hospitality exec just before the pandemic might have been a career-ender. For Airbnb’s Catherine Powell, it was the start of a rocketlike ascent.
executive who joined Airbnb as its seniormost female executive in January of 2020. “What do I do?” she pondered over and over.
Online and in-person experiences combined represent a sliver of Airbnb’s revenue. The home-sharing giant doesn’t publicly break out numbers—online experiences can be booked for less than $15—but Airbnb’s ability to pivot to new offerings so quicklyAirbnb has been a standout in an otherwise battered travel industry. The company
Now based in Los Angeles, Ms. Powell says she didn’t approach her career as a ladder, rather as a series of steppingstones that gave her the chance to learn something new at every turn. She and her husband, a former British diplomat, have relocated so often that each of their three sons was born in a different country. But those decisions brought unexpected opportunities and lessons, and connected her to people that shaped her values as a leader.
So she went back to the drawing board. She unpacked why Airbnb launched experiences in the first place. It was to immerse guests into hosts’ worlds—and foster human connection through a shared experience.
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