Airbnb appoints Pepijn Rijvers as chief business officer

Source Airbnb appoints Pepijn Rijvers as chief business officer — ShortTermRentalz

What It Says Airbnb has named Pepijn Rijvers as its new Chief Business Officer (CBO), effective immediately. Rijvers, a veteran of both Booking.com and Tripadvisor, replaces Dave Stephenson, who is scheduled to depart the company at the end of 2026. In his new role, Rijvers will oversee Airbnb’s core business units, including Homes, Hotels, Global Markets, and Enterprise Operations.

The appointment coincides with a broader leadership reshuffle:

• Fallon O’Connor moves to Head of Communications and People.
• Corporate Development and Strategy teams will now report to CFO Ellie Mertz.
• Partnerships will transition to the supply growth division under Hiroki Asai.

Why It Matters Rijvers brings deep institutional knowledge from Airbnb’s primary competitors. During 13 years at Booking.com, he was instrumental in building their "alternative accommodations" (homes) business. His move to Airbnb signals a strategic push to evolve the platform from a rental marketplace into a comprehensive travel discovery engine. By hiring a leader who understands the mechanics of hotel supply and performance marketing at scale, Airbnb is positioning itself to capture a larger share of the total travel market beyond traditional short-term rentals.

Useful Signals

• Strategic Pivot: CEO Brian Chesky noted that while Booking.com serves users who know their destination, Airbnb aims to influence "destination discovery."
• Operational Consolidation: Moving Strategy and Corporate Development under Finance suggests a tighter focus on fiscal discipline and ROI for new initiatives.
• Supply Growth Focus: Placing Partnerships under Hiroki Asai indicates that future third-party collaborations will be strictly measured by their ability to increase property inventory.

STR Tech Report Take For STR technology vendors, this leadership change suggests that Airbnb’s "Hotels" and "Experiences" categories are no longer secondary experiments but core pillars of the business. The move of Partnerships into the supply growth organization may signal a more aggressive stance toward API integrations and channel management software that can onboard inventory quickly. Operators should expect Airbnb to continue blurring the lines between hotels and homes as they chase the "discovery" traveler who is less loyal to a specific accommodation type.

Original Source https://shorttermrentalz.com/news/airbnb-pepjin-rijvers/