Airbnb Icons 2024: how Brian Chesky relaunched Experiences with Michelin chefs and Olympic athletes after Experiences quietly underperformed for nearly a decade
Airbnb announced Icons on May 1, 2024 — a relaunched Experiences product featuring once-in-a-lifetime offerings hosted by household names: a sleepover inside Pixar's Up house, a private flying lesson with Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, a Prince concert experience at Paisley Park curated by Questlove, dinner with Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor, and dozens of others. The pricing was either modest, free, or by lottery to maximize cultural moments. The Icons launch represented Brian Chesky's third major attempt to make non-stay experiences a meaningful part of Airbnb's business after the original Experiences launch in 2016 (which scaled slowly and was paused during the pandemic) and the 2022 Categories redesign of search. Through the broader 2023-2024 period, Airbnb has executed a meaningful brand-strategy shift: less performance marketing, more brand marketing, more product-led design under Chesky's hands-on leadership, and continued bookings growth ($146 billion gross bookings 2024 vs $77 billion in 2022). Icons is studied as a case in how marketplace platforms create cultural moments and in the long arc of product-bet patience.
- Story: Airbnb launched Icons on May 1, 2024: relaunched Experiences product featuring once-in-a-lifetime offerings with household-name hosts (Pixar's Up house, Simone Biles, Prince's Paisley Park, Janhvi Kapoor, Lionel Messi). Many free or lottery-allocated to maximize cultural moments. The launch was the third major attempt to make non-stay experiences meaningful for Airbnb after the 2016 original and 2022 Categories redesign. Through 2023-2024, Airbnb has shifted from performance marketing to brand marketing under Brian Chesky's hands-on 'founder mode' product leadership. 2023 revenue $9.9B (+18%), nights booked ~448M.
- Why it matters: Airbnb Icons is the worked example of how mature marketplaces create cultural moments to drive brand awareness when performance marketing reaches diminishing returns.
- Takeaway: Brand vs performance marketing mix should shift as marketplace maturity grows.
- Takeaway: Cultural moments can drive measurable brand-awareness and direct-traffic outcomes even when direct ROI isn't measurable.
- Takeaway: Product-bet patience matters: Experiences took eight years and three iterations to find the Icons framing that worked.
Airbnb Icons + brand strategy — the four-step story
Airbnb Icons + brand strategy at a glance
Quick facts
The long Experiences journey
Airbnb launched Experiences as part of the Trips program in November 2016. The premise: marketplace hosts could offer guided activities, classes, food experiences, and adventures in addition to overnight stays. Chesky framed Experiences as the second leg of Airbnb's product strategy, alongside Homes. The launch was high-profile and well-marketed.
Reality fell short of ambition. Experiences grew slowly through 2017-2019, never reaching meaningful share of Airbnb GBV. The supply side (hosts willing to invest time in offering experiences) was constrained, the demand side (travelers seeking experiences as primary booking reason) was smaller than projected, and the unit economics (experiences typically priced at $50-200 vs nightly stays at $200+) made Experiences harder to scale economically.
The pandemic paused Experiences entirely from March 2020 through 2021. Airbnb refocused on stays during the recovery, with Experiences receiving minimal investment. By 2022-2023, internal reviews suggested Experiences was not on a path to be a meaningful business in its existing form. Either the product needed substantial rethinking or it should be sunset.
The 2022-2023 Chesky-led product reset
Brian Chesky's 2022 'founder mode' moment (which became a public discussion in 2024 when Paul Graham wrote about it) involved Chesky taking deeply hands-on involvement in product, marketing, and design decisions across Airbnb. The strategic frame:
- Performance marketing reduction: Airbnb's reliance on Google search ads, Facebook ads, and other performance channels was reduced substantially. Chesky's thesis: a brand with strong word-of-mouth and direct traffic shouldn't depend on performance-marketing CAC for growth.
- Brand marketing investment increase: Airbnb shifted spend to brand-marketing platforms (TV, out-of-home, brand-storytelling content) intended to build long-term brand equity rather than near-term conversion.
- Product organization restructuring: Chesky took direct review of all major product decisions. Product groups became smaller and more cross-functional.
- Categories redesign (May 2022): search and discovery reorganized around content categories (unique homes, beachfront, design, cabins, treehouses) rather than location-first search. The redesign increased discovery of long-tail properties.
- Total Price Display (April 2023): Airbnb began showing total price (including cleaning fees) by default after years of complaints about post-search fee inflation. The change reflected Chesky's product-quality focus.
- Experiences pause and rethink: while Experiences continued operationally, Chesky's team began designing what would become Icons.
The Icons launch and the cultural-moment strategy
Icons launched May 1, 2024 with eleven initial offerings designed to generate cultural moments rather than significant direct revenue:
- Up house sleepover: a recreated version of Carl and Ellie's house from Pixar's Up (2009), floating with balloons in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Available via lottery; substantial press coverage including Wall Street Journal, BBC, Today Show.
- Prince's Paisley Park: an overnight stay curated by Questlove at the late musician's Minnesota estate. Free; lottery allocation.
- Simone Biles gymnastics lesson: a private session with the Olympic gold medalist. Free; lottery allocation.
- Bollywood dinner with Janhvi Kapoor, Mexican cooking with Eva Longoria, private museum tour with Doja Cat, X-Men experience at Cerebro, Inter Miami access with Lionel Messi, and others.
- Pricing structure: many Icons were free with lottery allocation; some were paid (the Up house was $400/night for selected lottery winners); the goal was cultural moments rather than revenue.
- Marketing approach: each Icon launched with substantial PR push and celebrity-host participation. The combination of celebrity hosts and unique experiences drove viral social-media coverage.
The business results and the broader trajectory
Through 2023-2024, Airbnb's core business has performed strongly:
- 2023 revenue $9.9B (+18% YoY), 2024 trajectory continuing growth.
- 2023 nights and experiences booked: ~448M, up from ~393M in 2022.
- Operating income: $1.6B 2023 (vs $1.8B 2022; small decline reflected continued investment).
- Free cash flow: $3.8B 2023, supporting substantial share buybacks ($2.25B authorized 2024).
- Geographic mix: Latin America and Asia-Pacific growing faster than North America, with international expansion a continued strategic priority.
- Direct traffic share: Airbnb's direct-and-unpaid traffic continued growing as performance-marketing dependence was reduced, validating the brand-marketing shift.
- Icons-specific impact: incremental revenue minimal but PR-impressions estimated in the billions; cultural-moment dynamics drove app downloads and organic traffic.
How RGM thinks about marketplace cultural-moment strategy
Airbnb Icons is the worked example of how mature marketplace platforms create cultural moments to drive brand awareness rather than direct transaction revenue. The structural logic: when the marketplace is large enough that incremental performance marketing produces diminishing returns, brand-marketing investments that create moments (regardless of direct ROI) can be more effective at sustaining growth.
Our framework for clients in similar marketplace situations: the appropriate spend mix between brand marketing and performance marketing shifts as the business matures. Early-stage marketplaces need performance marketing because brand awareness is low and demand has to be manufactured. Mature marketplaces (Airbnb, Uber, Etsy, DoorDash) can shift toward brand marketing because awareness exists and the question is sustaining preference. Airbnb's specific Icons execution combines brand-marketing strategy with product-experience innovation in a way that produces dual benefits. Clients considering similar moves should evaluate honestly where their marketplace sits on the maturity curve before reducing performance marketing.
Frequently asked questions
What is 'founder mode' and how does it apply to Airbnb?
'Founder mode' became a public discussion in September 2024 after Paul Graham's essay describing how founders run companies differently from professional managers, citing Brian Chesky as an example. Chesky had described his hands-on approach at YC events: directly reviewing product decisions, marketing campaigns, design choices, often weekly. The framing positioned founders as having permission to operate outside the management-school playbook of delegate-and-trust. Whether 'founder mode' is generalizable or specific to particular founders is debated; the Chesky/Airbnb example is the most-cited instance.
Did Icons actually drive bookings?
Icons themselves drove minimal direct bookings (most were free or limited lottery). The cultural-moment impact drove brand-awareness and app downloads. Direct attribution from Icons to overall Airbnb bookings is difficult; Airbnb has positioned Icons as brand-marketing rather than performance-marketing, so direct-bookings ROI isn't the appropriate measurement.
What's Airbnb's regulatory situation now?
Continued geographic complexity. New York City's Local Law 18 (2023) effectively eliminated most legal short-term rentals; Airbnb lost ~70% of NYC listings. Other cities (Barcelona, Paris, various others) have imposed restrictions. Airbnb has been more cooperative with regulators than during early-growth phase, supporting tax collection and limited-rental-period frameworks. Regulatory risk remains the single biggest structural concern for Airbnb's long-term growth.
How does Airbnb compete with Booking Holdings and Expedia?
Different segments largely. Airbnb dominates unique-stays and alternative-accommodation listings (cabins, houses, treehouses); Booking and Expedia dominate hotel inventory. There's overlap in 'apartment'-type listings where Booking has been gaining share in some markets. Airbnb's brand and product position have allowed it to retain category leadership in alternative accommodations despite Booking's substantially larger overall revenue.
What's next for Airbnb?
Continued international expansion (Asia-Pacific, Latin America especially). Co-host expansion (Airbnb announced October 2024 a new platform for connecting hosts with co-hosts). Continued Icons-style brand moments. Probably another major product launch in 2025 (Chesky has hinted at significant Experiences revival beyond Icons). Long-term: the company has indicated it views Airbnb as still in early innings of what marketplace platforms can be.
Sources & references
- Airbnb Icons announcement — Airbnb May 1 2024 official announcement.
- Paul Graham 'Founder Mode' essay — Paul Graham essay referencing Brian Chesky.
- Airbnb 2023 10-K — Airbnb SEC filings.
- Brian Chesky on performance marketing — The Information coverage of marketing strategy shift.
- NYC Local Law 18 coverage — Curbed coverage of NYC regulatory impact.