Needs improvement - Anonymous employee Airbnb Employee Review

2.0
19 Apr 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Colleagues are the best group of peers I've ever known. They're seriously great people to be around. Incredibly kind and supportive bunch. Decent meals, fun parties and always a good beverage selection. Paid community service and well-intentioned show of efforts to facilitate equality and diversity.

Cons

Can't trust your own managers as they're too busy looking out for Number One to back you up in front of their bosses. When you need support for career-advancement or just dealing with the stress of the job, you become seen as the weakest link for not having figured it out yourself. You're a potential threat to the culture if you take note of any areas of cultural improvement. Speaking of culture, they love using that word a lot, like preaching it over and over somehow negates the fact that management couldn't care less about the well being of their crewbies. Distracting us by promoting alcoholism and trying to look grounded by cussing like a sailor doesn't fix problems. We need real support. Management needs to be trained to really listen and not just communicate orders from higher up. In addition, the founders love to tout advancement opportunities for everyone. That doesn't carry over to CX. Here, no one cares if you have a multitude of talents and skills to offer. They want to keep you in your place, crunching tickets until you're too burnt out for anything else, which does nothing for career advancement. The core work doesn't help advance your career in any way as they only look at quantity but not quality.

Explore other reviews about Airbnb

5.0
8 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Laid back, strong mentorship/training, and good team chemistry.

Cons

Online only, they had summer branch offices, but nobody went in.

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Airbnb's mission of creating a world where anyone can belong anywhere strongly resonates with me. I'm excited by the opportunity to build products that operate at global scale and directly impact millions of users. My background in full-stack engineering, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and AI-powered applications aligns well with Airbnb's focus on innovation, reliability, and exceptional user experiences. I am particularly attracted to Airbnb's engineering culture, emphasis on ownership, and commitment to solving complex technical challenges while delivering meaningful value to hosts, guests, and communities worldwide.

Cons

One challenge of working at Airbnb is the complexity that comes with operating a global platform at scale. Engineering teams must balance reliability, performance, compliance, and user experience across many markets and stakeholders. While this can make development and decision-making more complex, it is also one of the aspects that makes the work technically interesting and professionally rewarding.

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