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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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