Airbnb has appointed Andrea D’Amico as vice president of hotels, bringing in a travel executive with deep online distribution experience as the company steps up its hotel expansion. D’Amico, who has been CEO of adventure travel company WeRoad since 2022, will take up the role in early June. He succeeds Jesse Stein, who is returning to a broader real estate leadership role at Airbnb.
The appointment is notable because D’Amico spent 18 years at Booking.com, where he rose to a senior regional leadership position. That background suggests Airbnb wants stronger supply-side and distribution expertise as it builds out its hotel business. Internally, the company has made clear it wants to deepen partnerships with hotel groups and compete more seriously in a category long dominated by established players.
The timing also matters. Airbnb has been expanding hotel inventory with a particular focus on independent and boutique properties, which CEO Brian Chesky has described as more aligned with the brand. The company began adding hotels to its app last year and has since expanded that inventory to 30 cities. Separately, Airbnb recently led a $58 million funding round in WeRoad and took a 10 percent stake in the company, while D’Amico will remain on WeRoad’s board.
For Airbnb, the hire looks less like a routine leadership change and more like a sign that hotels are becoming a larger strategic priority. The company is still in the early stages of building this business, but bringing in an executive with long OTA experience suggests it wants to scale faster while improving supplier relationships and execution.
