Seemingly following in the footsteps of Booking.com announcing “probable” layoffs and TripAdvisor reporting massive cuts of 25% of their staff and 20% of salaries, Airbnb is the latest online travel company that plans to let go of a large chunk of its workers.
In a note written by Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky earlier this week, the company said that 1,900 employees (25% of its 7,500 workers) would be laid off.
The memo stated that the cuts would allow the company to focus on “a more focused business.” With that, layoffs were expected to impact several internal product groups – their plans would be placed “on hold” – with a more streamlined focus on operations on the host community they’ve built.
Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the rest of the world. They will have options to assist with job-finding and will drop the one-year cliff on equity so everyone departing will be able to keep the stock options they’ve accrued. They’re also allowing all those who are leaving to keep their company-provided Apple laptops.
From Chesky:
I am truly sorry. Please know this is not your fault. The world will never stop seeking the qualities and talents that you brought to Airbnb…that helped make Airbnb. I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for sharing them with us.
I am admittedly not a huge fan of Airbnb. I know that lots of people like them and that’s fine. I’m just not comfortable with the idea of staying at a stranger’s house. I’ve seen too many situations where the company took adequate care of neither their hosts nor their guests; they let too many unscrupulous things happen.
That being said, their separation package seems to be on the fairer side, considering it’s because they can’t afford to keep these employees. They’ve also given refunds to guests and reimbursed hosts (rightly so, all things considered, but not usually something that’s easy to get back).
I still won’t use Airbnb because, again, I’d just as soon stay in a hotel. But I feel better about the company; they’re doing more of the right things.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
