- Elon Musk praised Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on Friday for the way he uses Twitter to gather feedback on his company.
- Chesky asked Twitter users what the booking platform should focus on as a top priority to improve it.
Elon Musk praised Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky for using Twitter as a tool to gather feedback on his company.
"What else can we improve about Airbnb? We will prioritize your top suggestions," Chesky asked users on Friday – two days after the company announced extensive improvements to its platform. It introduced a new take on the foundational idea of the booking platform, "Airbnb Rooms" – staying in strangers' spare rooms.
After gathering some feedback, Chesky listed the "top suggestions" and said the company would be working on it and users could expect more upgrades this summer.
"This kind of interaction with users is awesome," Musk said in his response to Chesky's tweet. "Other companies should take note."
—Brian Chesky (@bchesky) May 5, 2023
The Twitter owner has previously been vocal about encouraging CEOs to be more active on the social media platform.
A couple of weeks following his acquisition of the company last year, Musk said during a public meeting with advertisers on Twitter Spaces: "I would encourage the [brands'] Twitter handles to be more active and for their CEO and CMOs to be more active on the system."
"I would encourage people just to be more adventurous, that's certainly what I've done on Twitter with Tesla and myself and SpaceX and it's worked out quite well," he added.
But as Insider's Grace Kay reported, it didn't necessarily play out as well as Musk made it sound.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Musk in 2018 with fraud after the billionaire tweeted that he would take Tesla private, with "funding secured" – a deal that never materialized.
Musk was later charged with a $20 million fine and removed as chairman at Tesla. The electric car maker was also required to pay an additional $20 million. Shareholders then sued Musk and a jury, who was asked to determine whether he purposely misguided investors, cleared him on February 3.
In other instances, Musk was subjected to criticism for posting a widely debunked conspiracy theory about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband and for sharing an image of a Nazi soldier – both occurred within two weeks following his purchase of Twitter.
Musk and Chesky didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.