Company details

San Francisco, CA

HEADCOUNT

3000-9999

ORG TYPE

Corporate

SECTOR

Technology & Digital

WEBSITE

https://www.airbnb.com/

About the company

Airbnb runs a two-sided marketplace where hosts list places to stay and guests book short and long stays around the world. The company also offers “Airbnb Experiences” and other travel-related offerings, and earns revenue by taking fees on bookings. Airbnb serves individual travelers, families, groups, and business travelers, while also supporting hosts who run anything from spare rooms to professionally managed listings. The company operates globally, with localized policies and teams that cover trust, safety, payments, and support operations.

Locations and presence

Airbnb is headquartered in San Francisco, and the company operates with a “Live and Work Anywhere” setup where many roles can be done remotely or from an office depending on team needs. Some early-career pathways are explicitly tied to in-person or hybrid presence, including programs anchored in the San Francisco office.

Palpable Score

74.9

/ 100

Airbnb offers multiple credible entry points for early-career talent, including internships across regions and a structured engineering apprenticeship that targets candidates from non-traditional backgrounds. The biggest constraint on the score is transparency and outcomes data: the company shares some timelines and pay info, but the company does not publish consistent, role-by-role detail on interview stages, feedback, conversion rates, or early-career progression.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

17.0

/ 20

The company runs a structured internship program with defined eligibility and set program windows, including a 12-week summer cycle and longer regional internships in operations and central functions.
Airbnb keeps a dedicated early-career job track visible on the careers site, with multiple intern roles open across locations and functions rather than one-off hiring.
The company offers the Connect Engineering Apprenticeship as a separate entry route for entry-level engineering candidates coming from bootcamps, self-taught pathways, or associate degrees.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

13.8

/ 20

The company states an expected response window after application submission (3–4 weeks), which helps candidates plan rather than guessing in the dark.
Airbnb describes the interview process as role-dependent and typically multi-touch with current team members, but the company does not provide a consistent stage-by-stage structure or time expectations by role.
The company is upfront that personalized feedback is unlikely due to application volume, and while some postings include clear application requirements and deadlines, the lack of reliable feedback caps transparency.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

16.8

/ 20

The company’s internship program outlines concrete support features like onboarding, impactful projects from early on, dedicated mentorship, and structured programming such as workshops and fireside chats.
Airbnb’s Connect Engineering Apprenticeship spells out a curriculum-led ramp-up, dedicated mentorship, and hands-on delivery with pairing and code review support rather than “watch and learn” shadowing.
The company has mixed signals in intern experiences shared publicly, with some reports of strong learning investment and others describing uneven onboarding and mentor coverage depending on team.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

18.0

/ 20

The company publishes pay rates or ranges on at least some early-career roles and also shares a wider pay-transparency approach that includes base pay ranges and broader total compensation visibility internally.
Airbnb’s “Live and Work Anywhere” approach includes a clear stance that compensation won’t change based on where someone lives within the country of employment, which reduces location-based pay uncertainty for juniors.
The company lists meaningful benefits that matter for early-career stability, including travel credits and learning-related support, but not every early-career posting is equally detailed on full compensation components.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

13.8

/ 20

The company states an intention to convert interns to full-time where possible, but the company does not publish conversion rates or typical timelines from internship to offer.
Airbnb positions the Connect Engineering Apprenticeship as a pathway into software engineering work with shipped projects and exposure across teams, yet public information stops short of showing consistent post-program placement outcomes at scale.
The company has mixed early-career sentiment in public intern reviews, with many positive notes about learning and impact but also some accounts of disorganized starts that can affect short-term outcomes.

Useful links & resources

Internship Programs (Airbnb Careers)Connect Engineering Apprenticeship Early Career Program: Intern roles (filtered listings)