Today I got a chance to visit the Airbnb HQ through an Experience on the platform. I have always been a big fan of Airbnb vaguely because I love what they are doing and they seem to be a unique, legendary tech startup with lots of growth as well as stories (the latter matters more). Through the tour, I am deeply impressed by the company’s strong obsession with design and its dedication towards its missions.

Design is in Every Breath of the Company

During the tour, I smelled the scent of design in every corner of the office. I have learned from books and countless news articles that two of the three founders of Airbnb have design backgrounds; a friend of mine working in Airbnb once casually said that “designers share the same status as engineers in the company”, which is definitely not a common thing in the Bay Area. However, when I was physically inside the office, the overwhelming dedication towards design was still beyond my expectations. At the entrance, the spacious, bright, and colorful hallway left a remarkable first impression. Every group meeting room in the office features a unique listing on the platform: it could be a room in Shanghai with grey wall tiles and an old broadcasting telephone; it could be a room in Brooklyn with leather coaches and large suitcases; it could be a submarine with lots of water pipes and Octopus tentacles (not sure if it is a real listing). Those meeting rooms are purposefully decorated to be fun and unique. For employees, those designs are strong reminder that the platform has great diversity of culture and presence. Airbnb first began as a platform for travel accommodations and it was about space. Naturally that feeds the company lots of inspiration for space design.

The dedication is also shown beyond room decorations. There are workshop studios where employees are encouraged to create handicrafts with tools from knives, silk screen printer to 3D printers. Many open working space are full of balloons, drawings, and flying unicorns. Even some internal posters for events at some corners of the offices look well designed in terms of fonts, colors, and layouts. There are installations that re-create the original room listing made by three printers in a public space.

Tech startups’ offices have long been famous to be fun, open, and relaxing. Airbnb’s office is also fun, but more importantly, lively and full of human-touched. Inside it, I feel the creativity is being valued and humanity is embraced.

Mission-Driven

Airbnb has a strong culture towards its mission that make people around the world feel like they could “belong anywhere”. It even symbolized the mission into a new logo and named it “Belo”. In the tour, I strongly saw the company strives to build a great community for hosts on the platform. Whenever the guide mentioned about the hosts, he always picked the words “we serve”. On the walls, there are many photos of the hosts and the stories of them. Clearly for the companies, the hosts are not simply figures on the growth trajectories or financial reports. These hosts from all over the world are valued and their stories are shared. This builds emotional connection to the hosts for the employees. They can vividly see the real people on the platform that they serve, the changes they bring to the hosts’ lives, and therefore, establish the meaning of their own work.

The strong dedication towards mission can also bring motivations to build better products. Airbnb’s mission itself is never about only the accommodations — it is about a style of living and traveling. We have seen Airbnb expands beyond the accommodation. It starts to offer diverse experiences, provide travel-related services, and partner with various of local communities. The tour guide shares us a complete map of Airbnb’s vision on the traveling. On the map, there isn’t any particular product or competitors; instead, there are just what people want and what problems they are facing. Focusing on mission can helps the company see what really matter and strive to solve problems.

The office tour is a very good experience. It is not because the office is pretty and fun (even though it is). It provides me many ideas about how much a company can be benefited from the obsession with design and its grant mission. I got new inspirations for contributing and making impact to the society with my work.