May 5th: A company update from Airbnb

[Airbnb]

COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the travel industry, and today we shared the difficult news that we’re reducing the size of the Airbnb workforce. This week we’re focused on taking care of our employees, and we’d like to ask for your understanding and patience as we spend time supporting them. Here’s what you can expect in the next week:

• We’ll continue to respond on our social channels, in the Community Center, and through our community support team
• We will reach out to partner with a small group of community leaders from around the world to gather feedback and common questions 
• Brian Chesky, our CEO, will hold a live Host Update on May 13 to answer top questions and address what matters to you most

Brian shared this note with the team today, which is a summary of what’s happening. 

We remain committed to supporting you and your guests and to rebuilding our businesses together. We’ll be in touch again soon.

[Paul60]

- I hope this will lead to an end of inexperienced robot style Airbnb case managers and staff communicating via  fake copy n paste templates and start using common sense instead.

- I would like to see a much more fair balanced approach when addressing host concerns.

- Hopefully this will lead to an end of Airbnb magical spin.  Lets face it - we all saw through it anyways.

[Fred13]

 I felt Chesky's letter was sincere and Airbnb's position extremely kind toward those being terminated,  very generous. Having spend time with Airbnb personnel on a few occasions, they did come across as a tight, fun, youthful & likable group. 

Airbnb are doing exactly what many companies unfortunately may have to do now, in all capitalist societies - cut cost quickly or perish. These brutal moves are present-market corrections,  but necessary for some risky companies to continue. Want to hear another story like it ...read on....

Last night, the news came out here in Belize, that Norwegian Cruise Lines, will have to sell two of its ships  and two of its islands (which they had used as collateral to buy those two ships), in order to survive the total shut down of its business this year and the subsequent cannibal lawsuits. One of the chosen islands is the 75-acre resort island just south of where I live (Placencia, Belize), a mere 2 miles away. There goes 30% of the local workforce, make that 50% when counting all the side businesses that invested via borrowing on boats, hotels, restaurants, beauty parlor, etc. in town to support cruise-ship  needs. In two months time the macro reality for Norwegian changed from incoming billions to outgoing ones,  in 60 days the micro local economy of a small 2k-people village has turned exactly upside down. Unlike economically-powerful western societies, Belize is highly dependent on help from the outside world (Taiwan has been extremely helpful, always has, as has been the U.S. and UK).

I hope there won't be too many further stories like this, but I am afraid there will.  

[Gordon0]

Brian has just tweeted https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/1257915103615172608?s=20 

Whatever your thoughts on the man himself, or the situation we're dealing with, it appears he's doing the right thing by his employees.

[Paul60]

@Gordon0 Yes it was definitely a very fair offer that was made to them.  

[Jennifer1421]

@Gordon0For Canadian employees, the severance being offered is the legal minimum for employees being terminated without cause and without 2 weeks notice. Not sure about the US, and I'll definitely be interested to find out how people in other countries where the laws differ significantly will be looked after.

I would guess the shares were in the employee's contracts, and since they're not being fired "for cause" are also legally required.

The health care coverage is likely more to do with perception - can you imagine the vivisection in the press if it weren't offered?

Building an in-house version of Linked In doesn't seem too difficult or expensive for a tech company. I'm personally a fan of the other program - the one where employees who still have jobs get to look for new jobs for their former team mates.

All in all, this messaging is similar to most Airbnb messaging - "look how we're looking after our people". As parties to the so -called 250 Million, 50% reimbursement program, and the Superhost Relief Fund, we are already well aware of the difference between media releases and actual relief.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Jennifer1421 

I’m enjoying reading your informative posts. Just thought I’d say...

[Jennifer1421]

Thanks @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 - you're a trooper if you can make it through my long-winded missives 🙂

[Jennifer1421]

Whoops!

Needing to correct a statement I made above...

Having originally misread the severance package announced, I now realize that it states employees are being paid 14 WEEKS, plus a week per year of service. I had originally read this as 14 DAYS, plus a week/year.

14 weeks is NOT the legal minimum in Canada - 14 DAYS is.

My apologies for misreading, then misstating.  14 weeks is, in my opinion, a generous severance.

[Pilar1]

Hi @Stephanie , how do you add a screenshot with your reply? I tried to do it a few days ago but was unable to. I’m using the app,  do you need to use a desktop? 

[Lizzie]

Hey @Pilar1,

Just saw you comment here so thought I would answer. 

Currently it's only possible to add a photo from desktop, it's something the tech team are looking into at the moment for mobile. 

Once in desktop, on your text box tool bar you will see a little camera icon and then you can select the image you would like. 

Let me know if you still have any difficulties with this and I'll take a look.

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Sarah977]

For those saying the health care package seems generous, I'd be hesitant to be so sure of that without reading the fine print, which we'll never be privy to. It may indeed be fine, but it could also have disclaimers re treatment for a pandemic virus, pre-existing conditions, etc. And remember, most of these employees are young, so relatively healthy- they wouldn't put an undue strain on the insurance provider as compared to an older demographic.

[Fred13]

  Maybe, just maybe there is no fine print, considering we are not privy even to its existence; it would be a shame to not give Airbnb credit judging by the facts we do know. 

[Brenda328]

The press release I saw mentioned COBRA.  COBRA (which is mandatory for many employers in the US) simply enables a terminated employee to remain on the previous employer's health insurance for usually up to 12 months.  However, the employee is required to pay all premiums for the health insurance policy themselves.

[Sally221]

And those cobra  policies can be very pricey indeed- it might be hard to come up with an additional $1000-1500 per month when unemployed. This pandemic is showing why having one's insurance tied to one's employment is inherently risky.

[Elaine192]

Quite often Bay Area companies will pay the costs of Cobra as a lump sum payment to the employee when they are terminated or continue paying the Cobra payments directly for a period of time. It’s quite generous to pay for 12 months, 3 months used to be considered generous. Cobra coverage can continue for up to 18 months and nowadays it’s better than coverage you can buy yourself.