Airbnb's Brian Chesky: 'The trick is to be optimistic' 16 May, 2021 07:30 AM 12 minutes to read Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, says he stayed calm even as bookings plummeted. Photo / Getty Images Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, says he stayed calm even as bookings plummeted. Photo / Getty Images Financial Times By: Dave Lee in San Francisco "I think the psychology of the leader often becomes the psychology of the organisation," says Brian Chesky, reflecting on a year in which his company, Airbnb, was thrown into disarray by the global pandemic. There was no panic, the chief executive and co-founder of the accommodation-booking platform says, even as bookings plummeted by more than 70 per cent and thousands of hosts protested when forced to issue refunds. Others questioned whether the travel industry would ever recover.