How to get a referral at Airbnb
Getting into Airbnb reliably means a referral or a warm introduction from someone who knows both of you, and the search for that person is one most applicants skip.
By Jerry Feng, Growth at Happenstance. Updated August 31, 2026.
The short version
The best way to get a job at Airbnb is a referral or a warm introduction from an employee, reached through someone you already know. Most people have that mutual without knowing it: a former manager who moved to Airbnb, or a college classmate whose old roommate sits on the team that's hiring. Finding them is the work, and it's a search you can run across the accounts you already have. Ask whoever has the strongest tie for a referral or an introduction, and keep the message short enough that yes is the easy answer.
Why the warm path beats the queue at Airbnb
Airbnb runs a marketplace for stays and experiences and hires across engineering, product, design, data, trust and safety, and operations. A company that size gets more applications than any recruiting team can read with care, so the ones that get real attention are usually the ones an employee has already put their name next to. A referral puts that name there for you, and a warm introduction gets you to the same place by way of the mutual who makes it.
You don't need a best friend at Airbnb. You need somebody who can say, honestly, how they know you, or how they know the person who's vouching for you. A former manager who has since moved to Airbnb counts, and so does a college classmate who's still close with her old roommate on the trust and safety team. Figuring out who those people are isn't guesswork, because your own accounts already hold the answer.
Finding who you know at Airbnb, and who knows them
Your inbox and calendar. If you've ever emailed or sat in a meeting with someone who's at Airbnb today, that's a direct route, and the history of the relationship is already written down. The trouble is that memory doesn't index people by where they went after you lost touch, so those names sit there unread.
LinkedIn's mutual connections. Open the Airbnb company page or any individual profile and LinkedIn shows the people you're both connected to. That's useful once you have a specific name in mind, and much less useful before.
Happenstance. Happenstance searches every account you connect, Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, and the networks of the friends you've added, then answers in plain English. Ask who you know at Airbnb and you'll see each person, how strong the tie is, which account it surfaced from, and for anyone a friend knows, the friend who can make the introduction. Sidedoor works from the posting instead: paste the job link and it finds who in your network can refer you for that role. Happenstance is free. The free plan is the whole product, with usage limits on chat and web searches beyond your network. Pro raises the limits: unlimited web searches and results, higher chat limits, and CSV export. The whole job-search version, from first search to offer, is on Happenstance for job seekers.
The ask
Send one message, under a hundred words, that names the role, reminds them how you know each other and says what you'd like them to do. When the person is a mutual rather than an Airbnb employee, ask for the introduction and add a paragraph they can forward without rewriting it.
Subject: Referral to Airbnb
What Happenstance can see
Email is read as headers only. Message content and attachments never reach our servers. Yes. Your connections are searchable only by you, the friends you accept, and the groups you join, and sharing is always mutual. Your public profile shows a constellation of named people you know by default, which you can turn off anytime. We never share, sell, or use your data to train AI models. Happenstance is SOC 2 certified and DTI Trust Level 2; the full list of what is stored and for how long is on the security page.
Frequently asked questions
Is a referral or a warm introduction better for a job at Airbnb?
Either one gets your application read by a person rather than sorted by a queue, and that's the entire advantage. A referral means an Airbnb employee submits you through the company's own process; a warm introduction means a mutual vouches for you to someone at Airbnb, who may then refer you themselves. Take whichever the person you reach is comfortable giving.
What if I don't know anyone at Airbnb?
You probably know someone who does. Most introductions come through second-degree paths, like a former manager whose old report is at Airbnb or a college classmate whose roommate works there. Happenstance searches your own accounts and your friends' networks, so "who do I know at Airbnb" returns the people one introduction away, along with the mutual who can make it.
How do I ask someone at Airbnb for a referral?
Name the role and link the posting, remind them in one line how you know each other, and say what you'd like: a referral, or an introduction to the hiring manager. Stay under a hundred words and leave them room to say no. If you're writing to a mutual instead of an Airbnb employee, ask for the introduction and include a paragraph they can forward as it stands.
How does Happenstance find people at Airbnb?
Connect the accounts you already use, Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, then ask in plain English who you know at Airbnb. Each result shows how well you know the person and which account the tie came from, and results through friends name the mutual who can introduce you. Sidedoor does the same starting from a job posting you paste in. Happenstance is free, and Pro raises the limits.
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