Peer-to-peer property rental giants, Airbnb, hire former Amazon Prime Vice President, Greg Greeley, to oversee its core business as its new President of Homes.
The business has made the move to poach Greeley from Amazon as the online platform continues to experience unprecedented growth. After reporting its first full-year profit in 2017, the company, now valued at $31 billion (£22.3 million), claims to have over 4.5 million homes advertised on its platform worldwide.
Greeley will now take over the home division previously run by company CEO, Brian Chesky. This includes two newly-launched listings, Airbnb Plus and Airbnb Collections, as well as a new loyalty program for both guests and hosts.
In nearly two decades at Amazon, Greeley lead the firm into international expansion across Australia, India and Brazil, then appointed as Vice President of its Prime division. Airbnb hope that Greeley’s extensive experience outside of the US will help support the platform’s “overwhelming majority” of listings overseas.
In a recent press release, Airbnb CEO, Brian Cheskey, said:
“Even among an amazing and diverse slate of candidates, Greg stood out for his phenomenal customer-first approach, global operations excellence, and a decades-long commitment to developing and mentoring talented leaders.”
“He led and helped make Amazon Prime into what it is today – one of the most loved membership programs in the world”
During his time working in Europe for Amazon, Booking.com offered Greeley the role of CEO; which he declined. The rivalry between the two seems to be increasing as Airbnb’s expansion coincides with Booking.com’s move into the short-term home and apartment rental market.
The big Airbnb announcement
Greeley announced his departure from Amazon via LinkedIn, describing his 18-year spell at the company as an “amazing and inspirational experience” before adding “the time has come for me take on a different challenge.”
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