Airbnb Appoints Andrea D'Amico as VP of Hotels to Lead 30-City Expansion

Airbnb has hired Andrea D'Amico as vice president of hotels, bringing in a veteran of both the adventure travel and OTA worlds to lead one of the company's most ambitious growth categories.

D'Amico, who has served as CEO of WeRoad since 2022, joins Airbnb in early June. Before WeRoad, he spent 18 years at Booking.com, rising to vice president and managing director for EMEA. His appointment comes alongside news that Airbnb led a $58 million investment in WeRoad, where D'Amico will remain as a board director.

Taking the helm at a critical moment

D'Amico takes over from Jesse Stein, who steps back to his broader role overseeing Airbnb's real estate business. Stein had jointly led the hotels effort alongside Lou Zameryka, a former Booking.com executive who joined Airbnb in early 2026 as global head of hotel enterprise.

In an internal message to employees, chief business officer Dave Stephenson framed the hire in direct competitive terms: Airbnb needs "to build out our supply engine, deepen partnerships with hotel groups across the world and compete at a global level in a category with incumbents who have been at it for decades."

Boutique-first strategy, now in 30 cities

Airbnb's hotel inventory — launched in pilots across San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Madrid in Q4 2025 — is now expanding to 30 cities. CEO Brian Chesky has been clear about the positioning: independent and boutique properties are the target, not the major chains.

"The boutique hotel market is really under-served; they feel like it's a monopoly and like that we are custom built for them," Chesky said at the company's Summer 2026 release.

The D'Amico hire brings a combination of OTA distribution expertise and startup operational experience at a moment when Airbnb needs both — supply growth and the ability to move fast against Booking.com and Expedia in a hotel segment those platforms have owned for decades.