Jony Ive Joins Airbnb To Drive Product Design

Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive is set to consult with Airbnb on hiring and future products, according to CNBC.

Ive, alongside his independent design firm LoveFrom, will aid Airbnb in the next few years on designing new products and services. They’ll also hire designers for an internal team, according to a blog post from Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.

Ive left Apple last summer after heading up several of the company’s well-known products, including fronting the team responsible for the iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch.

LoveFrom also counts Apple as a client, CNBC writes.

Chesky wrote that he and Ive “have been good friends for many years,” and said Ive had been gracious enough to offer advice and guidance on projects going forward.

Airbnb had a tough go of it early in the pandemic with lockdowns roiling its usually-profitable business of offering vacation rentals, which led the company to lay off a quarter of its staff.

But in recent months, as city residents with the new option to work remotely began booking trips in the country, Airbnb began to see a resurgence in revenue. In August, the company secretly filed for an IPO, hoping to raise $3 billion in what could be one of the biggest stock market listings of the year.

The company’s filing is expected to be publicly available in November after the U.S. election. The public offering could come by December, according to unnamed sources familiar with the company’s plans. But nothing is set in stone due to the volatile nature of the current economy.

PYMNTS reports that the decision to go public signifies the company’s dramatic return from the COVID-19-related downturn. Travelers’ preference for rural rentals rather than big hotels in tourist destinations is also on display as the pandemic forces people to change their lifestyles.