Passionate company and transformative product - Software Engineer Airbnb Employee Review

5.0
Nov 12, 2014
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

- Working on a product based around travel (opportunities to travel on Airbnb around the world) - Free food 3 meals a day! - Amazing impact on cities and individuals - Tons of opportunity for impact - Leadership training opportunities for many people - Relatively flat structure

Cons

- Growing pains transitioning from a smaller startup to a successful larger company - Only recently started doing performance reviews so still getting ramped up to new process

Explore other reviews about Airbnb

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Airbnb's mission of creating a world where anyone can belong anywhere strongly resonates with me. I'm excited by the opportunity to build products that operate at global scale and directly impact millions of users. My background in full-stack engineering, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and AI-powered applications aligns well with Airbnb's focus on innovation, reliability, and exceptional user experiences. I am particularly attracted to Airbnb's engineering culture, emphasis on ownership, and commitment to solving complex technical challenges while delivering meaningful value to hosts, guests, and communities worldwide.

Cons

One challenge of working at Airbnb is the complexity that comes with operating a global platform at scale. Engineering teams must balance reliability, performance, compliance, and user experience across many markets and stakeholders. While this can make development and decision-making more complex, it is also one of the aspects that makes the work technically interesting and professionally rewarding.

1.0
Apr 10, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

- Friendly and inviting environment - Inclusive - Autonomy

Cons

- Poor training (gaps exist in workflows, workflows are tailored to senior agents only and not new joiners) - Metrics (discussed briefly, but never something emphasized until it's too late) - Low pay (you're criminally being underpaid for this role and it's responsibilities despite the company being massive) - False expectations (be okay with metrics that were closed to meeting, but suddenly, cutting you loose without any advance notice)

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