Community Spotlight: Catherine Powell

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Hopefully by now, you have all heard we have a new Global Head of Hosting at Airbnb. 

@Catherine-Powell  will be regularly posting updates in the Community Center and sharing more about what her and the team are up to. I know she will be keen to hear from you on those updates, so do keep an eye out for them! Outside of the updates, Catherine has also asked us Community Managers to help gather any additional questions or feedback you have.

 

To get the ball rolling and in true Community Center spotlight style, (plus many of you wanted to know more about her in our recent announcement), we asked her a few questions:

Can you tell us a little more about yourself?

I joined Airbnb six months ago to head our Experiences business. Prior to Airbnb I spent 15 years at Disney with the last three years in the Parks business, where I managed Walt Disney World, Disneyland  and Disneyland Paris. I oversaw the theme parks, restaurants, retail boutiques and hotels. I’m a mother of three boys and a 14 month old, 90 pound “puppy” called Ozzy. I grew up in England, but have lived in Hong Kong, France, Germany, Australia, and now the USA. As a family we love to travel and explore new cultures. Which is just as well - my youngest son has been educated in four different school systems! I seem to spend my time on Zoom at the moment, but when I am free, I love to hike (with Ozzy), do yoga and have Airbnb experiences with friends and family I can’t see. 

Why did you join Airbnb and why did this role attract you?

I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the Airbnb brand, and its mission to connect people and create a sense of belonging. Something that is more needed than ever at the moment. I was so excited to head Airbnb Experiences and help real people share their passions, personal perspectives, culture and histories. Now, as head of Hosting, it’s an honour to be able to amplify this responsibility and champion work that will empower all of our hosts, who are the engine of our brand. I’m humbled by the incredible teams of people who work day and night to build solutions in a very challenging landscape. This is a momentous time for the world; the travel and tourism industry, which represented about 10% of world GDP, has been shaken to its core. Our host community is also suffering. My job is to focus on repairing, rebuilding and coming out stronger on the other side. 

Do you stay in Airbnbs or host? What are your biggest learnings using the product?

I don’t host yet, but I am excited to start when I don’t have a full house, with my boys at home. I love staying in Airbnbs. Once you have stayed somewhere where you feel noticed and cared for, it is difficult to imagine wanting to travel any other way. I had a particularly enjoyable stay with Linda in San Francisco. I was there on business, and coming home in the evenings and chatting to Linda about her travel stories, and love of film (I even gate-crashed her book club one night) was a truly unique and memorable experience.

I firmly believe that what makes Airbnb different is the personal touch: leaving fresh flowers, a welcome beverage, local recommendations. These things connect the host and their guest, many times without even having to meet in person. 

I also love our experiences. My favourite in-person include fire-eating and discovering the speak-easies in LA. And since our launch of Online Experiences I have become an avid guest and traveled the world: meeting the dogs of Chernobyl; making Ricotta with a host in Sonoma; learning about Sake with ‘Wasabi’ in Tokyo; and preparing Sangria with Pedro in Lisbon.

What do you think is amazing about our hosts? 

I’m amazed by the entrepreneurial spirit of our hosts and their commitment to offer the best level of hospitality in all its forms: from sharing a room in their primary homes, to teaching skill or sharing a passion; to setting up a small business venture like a bed and breakfast or boutique hotel. The care and personal attention that they put into making each guest experience so special is inspiring. And the fact that we are a community of individuals is what makes Airbnb, and what we can offer the world, so unique. No two hosts are the same. 

I have also been struck by the resilience and resourcefulness of our hosts, especially now. When travel disruption was most acute, and guests uncertain, our hosts were already asking what they could do to help create safe and healthy environments when travel recovered. And as quickly as we could roll out the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol, hosts rushed to this resource. We already have over 1 million listings on Airbnb where hosts have attested to this rigorous upgraded cleaning routine. 

I’m humbled and honored to be working with such a committed host community, especially at such a critical time for the world and for our company.

Can you share one of your most meaningful moments so far at Airbnb?

I’ve been here six months, and have only been in the Global Hosting role for a couple of weeks.  There have been a great number of inspiring and positive moments, but a significant one that comes to mind was the incredibly difficult decision to temporarily suspend our Experiences globally, for health and safety reasons. I had joined Airbnb to run this business, and two months in I had to tell our hosts they had to stop hosting. Following this, we set up global listening sessions. Our founders, Brian and Joe, participated in these sessions as well. There is something profound about a crisis that brings people together. We were all frustrated, and many people were very upset and angry which was understandable. But the sessions became constructive discussions exploring options together. It was here that I heard from hosts that they wanted to offer online experiences. I loved their creative thinking and determination to continue to offer their experiences to our guests. We mobilized and built that product in 14 business days. It is now the fastest growing Airbnb product. 

This will always be a milestone for me, because it proves the value of directly connecting with our hosts and power of building things together. I know Homes hosts are struggling, some are seeing a spike in demand, but most are still hurting and facing uncertainty. I am committed to making meaningful connections and bringing about positive changes for the entire host community.

What are you focusing on this year? 

My first priority this year is to recenter the Airbnb business around hosts and hosting. We have a clear mandate from Brian Chesky to go back to our roots, and put hosts at the heart of Airbnb in the same way we did in the early days. We have been reflecting on the fact that Airbnb was born during a crisis in 2008, and we have come full circle to a new global crisis. The path we need and choose is to refocus on our hosts. Travel is changing, home sharing is changing, and our commitment is to help hosts succeed in this new world of travel. I’m focused on delivering tools and communicating information that will help our hosts rebuild their business and drive more bookings. Hosts are our partners, the true source of what makes Airbnb special, unique and amazing. This is my focus.

It wouldn’t be a community spotlight without a fun fact. What’s yours?

When I ran Disneyland Paris I had to give a speech, in French, in front of the President of France (President Hollande) and the world’s media. As I stepped up on stage my heels got caught in my skirt and I was stuck in a squat with my back to a thousand people, and the media. I considered pretending to faint. But then I sat down, took my shoes off, and walked barefoot to the lectern and gave my speech. When I was finished and went to walk down the steps the President and his accompanying Guards rushed to help me. And Disneyland Castmembers still call me Cinderella…..  

Thank you so much for sharing more about yourself.

As always, please do share your comments and thoughts here, I’m sure @Catherine-Powell would love to hear from you.

Lizzie

[Linda1213]

Welcome Catherine..... seems as though you have some big tasks ahead of you. Your story at the end spells of humility and determination. That should carry you far. Godspeed!

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Linda1213 ,

Thank you for your note. Yes, we have a journey in front of us - but am delighted to be on it with you!

Best,

Catherine

[Helen427]

Welcome to ABB CC Catherine, you are so blessed to have worked at Disney, Paris.

I learnt much about the history of Walt Disney from when he was a child drawing with Tar on a white wall outside the hairdressers back in the early 1900's when Tar was one of the few materials available to draw with.

I loved learning about Gyo Fujikawa's involvement on Walt's team in the World War 2 & 1930's Depression era.

I learnt they were talking recently about changing the names of Eskimo Pies bc someone doesn't know the history why they are named what they are, the significance of Americans been fascinated with the Artic, igloos, polar bears & the Eskimo people which have always featured on the packaging that Gyo, a Japanese-American, designed in an era we will never experience.

Gyo's artwork continued her inclusion of people of all colours during her time at Walt Disney.

I love the way these people linked people of all colours like ABB do, without discrimination.

We have books about Walt's early life in our main Auckland City Library Special Collections which I must go read sometime and learn more.

All the best for a continuation of a career where people of all colours mingle.

Central To All Home & Location

Remuera, Auckland, New Zealand 

[Catherine-Powell]

@Helen427 

hi Helen, thank you for your sharing your lovely story!

all the best to you, Catherine

[Jamie685]

@Catherine-Powell Just escalated an enquiry to you via customer support. Would appreciate your response! Jamie 

[Katie]

Hi @Jamie685, thanks for getting involved and posting here on the CC - welcome 😊

I have just had an update that you are in contact with a Case Manager regarding this issue, so fingers crossed they can get this sorted for you.

[Jamie685]

Hi @Katie Unfortunately still no response from the Case Manager who closed the case automatically without consent, nor @Catherine_Powell Hope you can pick this up and give me a call maybe? 

[Katie]

Hey @Jamie685 I've just sent you a DM with more info, so take a look when you get a minute 😊

[Evan515]

Hi @Catherine-Powell, 

Thank you for your most recent video that addressed your updates on Airbnb's customer support for hosts.  I can empathize with the high volume your team is handling and appreciate that you are prioritizing a 72 hour SLA.  Unfortunately, there are many instances when 72 hours (or even a few hours) is just too long and leaves us hosts and our guests stuck without the ability to resolve an urgent problem. 

Without giving all the details (but feel free to contact me if you'd like them), I needed Airbnb's help to resolve an issue for a guest checking in that same evening.  I called Customer Support, and the coordinator who answered the call followed your policy of opening a ticket, marking it as urgent, and informing me someone would call me back within 72 hours.  I received a message over the app over a week later.  Needless to say, the response time did not help me resolve the issue since they contacted me after the guest's stay.

While I understand that 72 hours typically might be just fine in most instances, I am hoping you can help outline how Airbnb will assist us hosts in a truly urgent scenario that cannot wait 72 hours (or even just a few hours).  If the plan is to reach out on Chat, as you alluded to in the video, that would be fine - as long as the agents are actually able to help us resolve standard issues instead of just opening a ticket for a requested call/chat-back.  Speaking to phone or chat support, only to learn that another agent possibly will call in up to 72 hours is frustrating and not helpful when we do not have 72 hours to wait before the issue no longer applies.  What can you recommend to us hosts in case something urgent comes up in the near future and we need help?

Thank you,  
Evan

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Evan515,

Thank you for your comment. As travel restrictions ease, we've seen a huge and unexpected rebound in bookings. Along with this, we've seen a big increase in the amount of people contacting our Support Team, which is much higher than we anticipated. In the situation you outlined, we are doing our best to adhere to 72 hour SLA, but are unfortunately short staffed.

As I mentioned in my video, the team is working extremely hard to hire more agents even in these challenging circumstances - there will be a more detailed update on changes we're making to our support team. I also want to provide some changes implemented already to best support you during this period.

1. Calls for reservations within 72 hours of check in or up to 72 hours after check out, are prioritized. So for anything urgent, we should be responding and handling the situation immediately. Your case seems to be an outlier in handling of the situation and I've passed this feedback on to the team.

2. We've expanded our chat functionality which encompasses both a chatbot feature and human agents, with majority of the interactions with a live agent. We are experimenting with the chatbot feature to handle the volume of tickets that can be resolved through an automated system in order to prioritize tickets that require agent intervention.

More changes to come on this.

Best,

Catherine

[Sarah977]

@Catherine-Powell  In what way do you think a virtually non-existent customer service dept. is helpful to hosts?

How are hosts respected when they are now waiting 3 hours for a phone call to be answered, when no one ever gets a call-back as promised, when messages to support are taking weeks to be responded to?

In what way do you think hosts are being supported when Airbnb is illegally withholding their payouts for bookings that have been completed weeks or months ago?

Are you planning to be just as ineffectual and unsupportive of hosts as all your predecessors have been?

The fact that you haven't responded to any of these posts that you have been tagged on is quite telling.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Sarah977 ,

Thanks for the time you've taken to respond here.

In my most recent Host Update I explained that Support service levels are still not where we would like them to be, and I completely agree that three hours is an unacceptable wait time to speak to a representative. We are working hard to improve this, with 1,500 new agents currently in training, amongst other measures.

We are also working to resolve the payment issues that are arising, which although only affecting a very small number of cases, are of course worrying for hosts.

As I have said to others here in the CC, I know that we have a lot of work to do in rebuilding the trust in our relationship with hosts, and it is up to us to put this into action by producing results as quickly as we can. We'll have some more detailed updates for you shortly on this.

Thanks,
Catherine

[Robin4]

@Catherine-Powell 

Hi Catherine, welcome to Airbnb, and more particularly to the Community Centre.

From my point of view Airbnb is one of the best things I have done in my life. It has introduced me to many wonderful people and it has helped give me and my wife Ade a great lifestyle.

It takes a certain type of person to be a host when you host according to the true Airbnb philosophy. They don't enter my house as such but, I meet all my guests and interact with them. At times that is difficult, there is a loss of personal freedom when you invite others onto your property. I can't walk out in the garden and drop a fart when I feel like it....you all the time have to be conscious of others! You do become something of a prisoner in your own space. 

I bring that up Catherine because, with my relationship with guests, I have crammed a massive amount into the past 5 years. I have worked in support through Directly and I have been a part of the Global Development team and I have come to have a reasonable understand of both sides of the fence!

I mentioned in a post the other day "The problem with Airbnb research is, they give a list of pre-prepared options they would like adjudicated by the team. They don't ask what the user wants.....they ask what the user would be prepared to accept! "

I hope that this new broom you bring with you Catherine will perhaps have some influence on the way hosts issues are dealt with by the company. You say you have a clear mandate with Brian Chesky to get back to the grass roots of hosting. I so hope that is not an idle statement!

Welcome aboard Catherine, we are privileged to have your experience, lets look to a bright future!

Cheers.......Rob

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Robin4 ,

Thank you so much for the kind welcome, and for sharing your experience with me - it's really great to hear that hosting has had such a positive impact on your life. I understand that it can be challenging at times, and feedback from loyal hosts like you will really help inform the path forward. Please keep the ideas and suggestions coming. I look forward to hearing more from you in future updates.

Thanks again, Catherine