Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the shifting dynamics of the workplace and how people are traveling while working from various locations.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

AKIKO FUJITA: Welcome back to "Yahoo Finance Live." We are back with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, joining us from his Airbnb in Atlanta. And Brian, before the break, we were talking about how you've seen the way in which people use Airbnb spaces change because they have a little more flexibility, they're able to work remotely. How has that shifted your thinking about how you think about your workplace?

BRIAN CHESKY: I mean, I think it's-- it is pretty remarkable. If you had told me two years ago that I could run Airbnb from someone else's house, all I need is my laptop and their Wi-Fi, it would have been pretty far-fetched. But that's the world we're in. And I don't think, like, we're not going back to office five days a week, and I don't know very many companies that will.

We are still designing our future workplace, but I can confirm that it's going to have a lot of flexibility in it. I think that's where the world's going. Airbnb is benefiting from that, and we should walk the walk. And so that's absolutely where we're looking at, and I think it's really exciting.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, I mean, on that front, you've implemented a permanent flexible policy that allows employees to work remotely. Has that kind of expanded your pool of employees? I mean, we've heard a lot of tech companies, especially, who opted for that early on say, you know, they're now able to tap into talent not just in the Valley, but outside of the state of California. How has that expanded the pool for you?

BRIAN CHESKY: I mean, it massively opens the pool. Now, the one thing I want to be clear about is that, like, we're still sorting out the details of the long-term policy. And people want to know, obviously, where will I live in one, two, three years. But that being said, I think this is a really, really important trend for the world because I think it provides economic opportunity, because not everyone could move to San Francisco. You know, and so-- where our headquarters is. And so I think this is just kind of democratize a lot of opportunities around the country for a lot of-- for a lot of jobs. So I think it's a very exciting opportunity for us.

AKIKO FUJITA: Something we've heard from so many companies is about this growing competition for talent, which is, of course, something that we've seen in the Bay Area for some time. Have you started to notice that, as well, in terms of, as a company, having to offer additional incentives, employers having a little more say and a little more leverage in choosing which jobs? What have you seen firsthand?

BRIAN CHESKY: Well, I think a year ago, I think-- or last year, I think I went on record saying something that I think, at the time, might have-- I don't know if it was controversial, but I said employers aren't going to dictate the workplace policies, employees will. And so any CEO that thought they were going to haul their employees back to the office five days a week, I said that's their prerogative, but ultimately, we're in the business of getting the very best talent. And so you've got to be competitive in the market. And I think, after compensation, workplace flexibility would be the most important benefit.

And so I think employees, not employers, by and large, are going to dictate it. Or said differently, the market is going to dictate how we all work and how we all live. And I think, clearly, the people are speaking. And what they're saying is that they want flexibility. And the vast majority of people don't want to go to the office five days a week. But they're also, I think, saying that we don't want all consent to recreating the movie "Wall-E," where we're staring at screens and we never have human connection in the real world.

And so that's what I think the key design is. I think the future is flexibility. We want to provide opportunity all over the country and all over the world. Obviously, remote work is extremely efficient, but people need human connection. And if we don't provide human connection as employers, if our product isn't bringing people together in the real world, then I think we're going to be living in a fairly lonely period.

So there's a balance. And I think you have to get it right, but I think the days of people going back to the office five days a week are over. I even think the model that people were talking about remote, a hybrid of three days a week is also-- you know, I think that was a little overly ambitious, and I think that what everyone's realizing is more flexibility is where the world's going.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about that global footprint that you have. As you were alluding to before the break, you said you think there's going to be a big tailwind once borders open up in a big way. Outside of North America, what do you see as the biggest international opportunity?

BRIAN CHESKY: It's hard to say what the biggest one. I mean, we're-- just to give you a point of reference, we're in 220 countries and regions. I think we're in nearly every country in the world but North Korea, Iran, South Sudan, Crimea, and a few others. So we're very international. I mean, Europe is going to be a boom, but Latin America has been growing. You know, obviously Asia, Asia-Pacific, Africa.

So I-- it's hard to-- I think the thing about travel is it's universal. It's not a regional thing. It's not a trend. Every person has, I think, inherent in them a desire to see the world, to travel, to go to communities. This is not a regional trend. This is a global thing. And so I think the opportunity is going to be spread all over the world.

And the thing I've learned, having been in 100,000 cities and communities all over the world, is I am shocked not how different we are, but how similar we all are. Most people are 99% the same. And we like to talk about the 1% that makes us all different. But you know, having over 1 billion guest arrivals on our platform in communities all over the world, I can say that, you know, the world is more similar than it is different. And so frankly, the opportunities are pretty similar in geographies all over the world.

AKIKO FUJITA: You mentioned Asia as an opportunity. Obviously, China in focus with the Beijing Olympics coming up in the next few weeks. Airbnb is a sponsor here. And your company, along with other sponsors, like Intel and Coca-Cola, have received a lot of criticism for not necessarily speaking out on especially human rights issues that are happening in China. I realize this isn't a sponsorship that's just for the Beijing Olympics. It's multiyear. Talk me through the risk/benefit calculation the company sees in sponsoring the Olympics, especially one that is more controversial, like Beijing.

BRIAN CHESKY: Yeah, I think it's very important that we-- that I'm explicit about what our sponsorship is. We have a nine-year sponsorship with the Olympics. We're not sponsoring specific Games. Our sponsorship was designed about-- around athletes. And the reason we decided to do a sponsorship of the Olympics was when I heard a stat that said that the average Olympic athlete was living at or below median income, and many of them live at the poverty level. I think a lot of people don't realize that a lot of athletes are not sponsored.

We tend to focus on the ones that have big sponsorships. A lot of athletes have to pay their way. And we found out that a lot of athletes were staying in Airbnbs to defer their costs, they were training out of Airbnbs, or they're even hosting. And so we thought this is a great way to really kind of help these athletes with economic empowerment. And the idea of the Olympics was countries coming together. That's really like Airbnb. On New Year's Eve, we had 4 and 1/2 million people staying in Airbnb from, I think, 200 countries all over the world.

So we're here to support athletes over nine years, throughout Games all over the world. And we're not just supporting the Games. We're supporting the Paralympics and the athletes in between the Games. So this is really-- really about supporting athletes.

AKIKO FUJITA: Brian Chesky, good to talk to you today. Really appreciate you taking the time with us. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky joining us. Alexis and Karina, I'll toss it back to you.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Thanks a lot, Akiko, Brian Chesky. Great conversation there, guys. Thanks so much.