Dr. Ellen Madeker

What happens when Airbnb meets hotel management?

Well, confessions were made by Dr. Ellen Madeker Head of Public Policy for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (DACH) & Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) at Airbnb and Phil during a live podcast recording at the Berlin Travel Festival.

A lot has changed in the apartment rental business and sharing economy in the last couple of years and some of that is thanks to Airbnb, which has given a face to a formerly often overlooked part of the hospitality industry and offered a new economic lifeline to a bunch of people.

Ellen and Phil discussed the beauty of the diversity within the travel industry and what it means to find a balance for tourism, that caters to hosts, cities and communities sustainably. They also spoke about the gap between adding sustainability measures to your offer and the demand for it, the undeniable benefit of “working from anywhere” and how to support future female leadership.

And of course, we are not going to miss out on the opportunity of getting some personal career advice from Ellen, who has been wowing in EU politics very successfully.

So tune in to this podcast episode of SMACK’s Season 5 and see what happens if a full-throttle hotelier meets up with a true Airbnb aficionado.

Enjoy the show!