Airbnb to Let Employees Live, Work Anywhere

Airbnb is giving its employees a permanent vacation from the office.

In an announcement posted Thursday (April 28) on the company website, CEO Brian Chesky said the vacation rental site’s workers can now choose to work from home or at the office.

“Today’s startups have embraced remote work and flexibility, and I think this will become the predominant way that we all work 10 years from now,” Chesky told employees. “This is where the world is going.”

Chesky is among those workers. As PYMNTS reported earlier this year, he was working out of a different Airbnb property every few weeks. He’s called the pandemic “the biggest change to travel since the advent of commercial flying.”

Read more: Airbnb CEO Plans to Work Remotely From Company Listings

A small number of workers will still need to come to the office or work from a specific location, and those employees have been notified, Chesky said.

Meanwhile, Airbnb will also allow employees to move anywhere in the country in which they work without their compensation changing.

“Starting in June, we’ll have single pay tiers by country for both salary and equity,” Chesky told employees. “If your pay was set using a lower location-based pay tier, you’ll receive an increase in June. Before you move, make sure to talk to your manager about performance and time zone expectations, as well as your availability for team gatherings. Permanent international moves are much more complex, so we won’t be able to support those this year.”

Other changes include the option — beginning in September — for employees to live and work in more than 170 countries for up to 90 days a year, provided they have a permanent address for payroll and tax purposes.

“Most companies don’t do this because of the mountain of complexities with taxes, payroll and time zone availability, but I hope we can open-source a solution so other companies can offer this flexibility as well,” Chesky said.

As PYMNTS has reported, interest in remote work has grown since the pandemic, with studies indicating demand has continued even as businesses reopened and some COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed. A report from job search site Glassdoor earlier this year said queries for remote work jumped more than 300% between June 2019 and June 2021.