Silicon Docks-based Airbnb platform wants to replicate the trajectory of Google in Dublin.
Accommodation marketplace Airbnb is anticipating the doubling of its workforce in Dublin to 1,000 people over the next three to five years.
That’s according to an interview in The Irish Times this morning (23 March) with the company’s head in Ireland, Aisling Hassell.
She said that the growth rate would fill the company’s existing two buildings in Dublin’s Silicon Docks.
Hassell said she hopes the company replicates the growth trajectory in Dublin of search giant Google, which recently surpassed 7,000 workers in the capital.
Last year, the company located its head of global IT support in Dublin.
Currently, Airbnb employs around 500 people in Dublin city.
It started with a mattress
Airbnb, which enables people to rent out their homes to globetrotters, has more than 3m lodgings listed in 65,000 cities in 191 countries worldwide.
It was founded in San Francisco in 2008 when two former schoolmates, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, were renting an apartment in San Francisco but could not make rent.
They had an idea to rent out a spare room that had only an air mattress in it.
Today, the same company is valued north of $30bn and is hotly tipped for an IPO in the next two years.
Airbnb is an economic powerhouse generating revenue for hosts and exciting, authentic experiences for travel enthusiasts.
In 2016, hosts in Dublin welcomed an estimated 358,300 arrivals who spent roughly €196m in the city.
Design culture
Last year during a visit to Dublin, Airbnb’s vice-president of product, Joe Zadeh, told Siliconrepublic.com that design culture runs deep at Airbnb.
“Two of our founders are designers, and design is something we care deeply about. Designers have a way of taking a step back and looking at the entire problem.
“People don’t just travel to stay in rooms. People travel the world to take in entire trips and experiences. And now, our focus is on the entire trip and experience. In November [2016], we launched Airbnb Trips, which is our way to move into the entire platform.”
Airbnb logos. Image: AlesiaKan/Shutterstock
