Airbnb’s growth has slowed in recent years, says the company’s CEO, Brian Chesky, but he has a plan to remedy the situation.

During an interview on Tuesday at the Skift Global Forum, a key event for the travel industry, Chesky shared that Airbnb saw a 40% growth in 2022. However, this rate fell to 18% in 2023 and further to 12% in 2024. For the quarter ending June 30, the revenue growth was recorded at 13%.

Chesky expressed his dissatisfaction with the company’s current growth rate at the event, stating, “I’m not pleased with where our growth rate stands. Airbnb should be expanding at a much faster pace. I aim to lead a company that grows by more than 20% one day.”

Chesky attributed this issue to the company’s lack of a strong foundation for sustainable growth. He mentioned that they needed to “rebuild” the company fundamentally earlier this year to pave the way for new ventures.

“That’s what we’ve been doing,” Chesky said. “The final stage is now we reinvent ourselves.”

In May, Airbnb revamped its app to include a feature allowing guests to book various services (like massages, photography, spa sessions, personal training, private chefs, and beauty treatments) alongside experiences (such as attending a comedy show or participating in a local boat tour). Chesky explained that the goal is to expand their primary focus on vacation rentals while integrating these additional services and experiences.

Chesky said on Tuesday that he believes Airbnb’s new offerings will be “multi-billion-dollar businesses” at some point, per Business Insider.

^{Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo by Myunggu Han/Getty Images for Airbnb}

Despite Airbnb’s historical pattern of “decelerating” growth, Chesky expressed optimism for accelerated growth next year, reminiscing about the company’s “hypergrowth” phase when it launched in 2008.

“We grew the company like a rocket ship,” Chesky stated at the event.

Airbnb is also focusing on AI development. In August, Chesky mentioned on an earnings call that Airbnb aims to become an “AI-first application” within a few years. The company started using AI for customer service in April, which decreased human interactions by 15%. Currently, AI manages tasks like canceling reservations and assisting with travel plans. Airbnb intends to enhance their AI capabilities this year, allowing for more sophisticated functions, such as searching through reservations for specific details.

Airbnb had a market cap of over $76 billion at the time of writing. The company has over 5 million hosts.