Airbnb Regulatory Fixer to Depart, Leaving Controversial Legacy
Skift Take
Under Chris Lehane, Airbnb has often irritated and outraged local government leaders and short-term rental peers. But as we know about negative campaigns and hardball tactics, they often get results.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky knew what he was getting when he hired Chris Lehane in 2015 to spearhead the company's global face-off with regulators, and to lead communications.
A political operative in the Clinton White House dating to the Monica Lewinsky blowup and press secretary for the Gore-Lieberman Democratic ticket in 2000, Lehane told Skift, after the news broke Wednesday that he'd be leaving Airbnb in February for a crypto venture fund, "what has been foundational to the policy and comms work has been the actual campaign model that we designed for the policy and comms work."
What he meant was that whether it was in Boston, Jersey City, New Jersey, or New York City, and numerous other locales, Airbnb has mounted political-style campaigns, some very pointed, to oppose what it saw as detrimental regulations.
A 2019 Wired story detailed Airbnb's alleged guerrilla war against local governments, and how the company initially argued i
