Chapter 1: The Origin
From dream to reality

Chapter 1: The Origin

Exactly 10 years ago, the European Airbnb CX Leadership team gathered at an old Georgian-style house in Dalkey, about an hour outside Dublin, Ireland.

It was an unusually sunny day by Irish standards. Nothing beats the Irish countryside on a sun-kissed day.

The purpose of the gathering was a team bonding session for our newly formed Leadership team tasked to take care of Airbnb’s guests and hosts in Europe. Our session leader was the extraordinary Maurice Whelan . This was not your usual run-of-the-mill leadership session; instead, it forced us to look within, be vulnerable, open up to each other, and come out the other way as changed people.

The whole thing lasted 3 days, and I have to admit, it was one of the most transformative experiences I’ve had in a professional setting.


2014 Airbnb CX EMEA Leadership team offsite in Dalkey, Ireland

One of the exercises we had to do was called a “Personal Vision Board.” You had to think and project yourself 10 years down the road and write in specific detail what you see. My personal vision board went something like this:

In ten years' time, I want to own a hotel somewhere in the countryside. I will spend my days connecting with guests, sharing stories, cooking for them and showing them what Greek hospitality is all about. I will have a kid with curly hair running around, being happy and enjoying nature.

Fast forward 10 years, I was catching up with Maurice, and I broke the news to him about the new hotel I’m building.

"OMG, man, you’re manifesting your 10-year plan," Maurice proclaimed.

"What ten-year plan?" I replied in a confused state.

I completely forgot what he was talking about, but after speaking with him, it all came back to me. I remembered in detail what I wrote on that sheet of paper.

It all clicked at that point, and even if I wasn’t consciously trying to do what I said I’d do, it must have always been at the back of my mind. Almost everything came true except for the curly hair on my kid. I didn’t even know why I wrote that; no one in my family has curly hair..

But where did the desire to go into hospitality come from?

I can't pinpoint a radioactive-spider-biting-you kind of moment, but I guess it was a series of events culminating over the years from a young age.

I grew up in a social house. We always had people over. We were hosting big parties, cooking feasts, going on vacation with big groups. Hospitality runs in the Greek DNA and manifests in most aspects of life, whether you run a cafe, restaurant, hotel, Airbnb, or if you go out with family, host friends for a birthday party, or have a large gathering for a holiday celebration.

At the same time, my entire professional career has been dedicated to customer service. I spent the first few summers of my life at my dad’s call center, helping out in any way I could. I was 6, and I was obsessed with cleaning the windows of the office. I don't know why. Maybe it was the smell of the cleaning product or the squishy sound when you drag a wet paper towel over glass.

Semi-accurate representation. No smartphones or accessible portable cameras existed in the 90's

Service has always been a huge part of my life. I was fortunate enough to have a long and meaningful career in the customer experience industry, with my passion for service and deep connections as my guiding North Star. This desire to solve problems and create an unforgettable customer experience shaped my core.

So it felt natural to me that the next big bet would be to try my luck in the hospitality sector. I believe people will always want to travel and create new experiences, and it’s an industry I’d like to be part of long-term.

Why not continue into Tech?

The next logical step for me would have been to join another tech company.

I know the industry, I know the challenges startups have at the beginning of their journey, and I’ve learned from the best along the way. I could leverage my experience and find a company doing something cool in AI and do it all over again.

But I decided this path is not for me, at least not at this moment in time. See, one thing they don’t tell you when you are part of a hyper-growth company is the burnout. Startups require you to act as if there’s a fire under you, all the time. It is incredibly rewarding and incredibly exhausting.

I reached a point where I was traveling 200 days of the year. I was home for about 1.5 weeks per month. I know because I had to count the days in a diary. I was working non-stop for almost 2 decades, trying to move the needle on a daily basis.

I wanted to learn new things, explore, see things from a new perspective, and challenge myself. I wanted to bring all my experience working for great companies to a new industry and shape something completely new.

Why Now?

Covid. Like many, Covid was a timeout that, although it was tough and challenging, forced many, including myself, to reconsider their priorities. Is this how I wanted my life to be? Is this what I wanted 70% of my awake time to be spent on? The answer was no, so I consciously dove headfirst into this new world. There is no better time than now, and I decided to take the risk and go for it.

--

About a year ago, I was at the plot where we are building the hotel, and I was trying to coordinate some contractor work. I was hiking up and down mountainous terrain in the sweltering heat, carrying heavy equipment to facilitate some work that had to be done.

Clearly out of my element

As a “knowledge worker” spending my life sitting on a chair in front of a computer, I am not used to this type of work. So I paused for a bit to take a breath, and looked up to admire the incredible view.

I couldn’t remember the last time I did manual labor and was this exhausted. I also could not remember the last time I felt this happy.

This was the path forward.

Blue meets blue meets green. Uninterrupted views for all our rooms


Thanks for reading - stay tuned for Chapter 2: First Steps, dropping next Friday.




Cathy O'Hara Harrison

Community Operations

11 个月

This is awesome! Thanks for taking me down memory lane! What a special time in our lives. Keep on reaching!!

Emily Drulis

Trust & Safety Executive | Trust Transformation & Optimization | Scaling High Performing Operations | Risk Assessment & Mitigation | Angel Investor | Advisor | Formerly Airbnb, Stripe, Meta (Facebook)

11 个月

Love this story, thanks for sharing Loukas!

回复
Patricia Gonzalez (she her hers)

Customer Support Leader at Rippling

11 个月

Love this Loukas, what a session it was! Congrats on realising your dreams

回复
Norbert Szymkowiak

CIO/CEO/CTO/Entrepreneur

11 个月

Bravo!

回复
Vin Kanesen

Empowering Leaders | Fostering Growth & Connection | Transforming Potential into Performance

11 个月

Congratulations on your first article! It's quite interesting, and I'm eager to see how 'Breaking Boundaries' unfolds with its weekly chapters. ??

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Loukas Tourkomanis的更多文章

  • Chapter 8: Lessons and Learnings

    Chapter 8: Lessons and Learnings

    So here we are, at the final chapter of this newsletter. I've been reflecting on the lessons and insights from the…

    1 条评论
  • Chapter 7: Sustainability

    Chapter 7: Sustainability

    Did you know the term 'Greenwashing" actually originated from the hospitality industry? The term "greenwashing" was…

    1 条评论
  • Chapter 6: Hospitality Tech

    Chapter 6: Hospitality Tech

    Where does tech fit into hospitality? Turns out, in many places! Hotel tech has been evolving a lot over the past few…

    3 条评论
  • Chapter 5: The Design

    Chapter 5: The Design

    With a really strong foundation of our Mission, our Values and the Branding that will define the hotel, we started the…

    6 条评论
  • Chapter 4: Branding

    Chapter 4: Branding

    Typically, branding takes a back seat in the early stages of a new venture like this. Often, it's a last-minute…

    2 条评论
  • Chapter 3: Mission and Values

    Chapter 3: Mission and Values

    Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Having worked for a design-led company (2 of the 3 co-founders of Airbnb are…

    1 条评论
  • Chapter 2: First Steps

    Chapter 2: First Steps

    So you want to build your own hotel. If you're not from the industry, where do you even start? “You reach your…

    8 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了