Sheila Karaszewski is a Community Manager at Airbnb.
1. Pre-Airbnb you were a marketing consultant—different but not unlike many of the free-agents who benefit from the likes of TaskRabbit, Skillshare, Lyft and Airbnb. What creative solutions would you like to see for free-agent income in the collaborative consumption space?
I’d love to see a way for free-agents to form teams to collaborate on projects. For instance, a company might use a platform to announce a project, and then freelance marketing gurus, community managers, designers, and PR pros could find each other, form a team, and pitch their team to take on the project. Or the other way around – teams could temporarily form and pitch clients. Something like this could help freelancers have staying power in a major way, as it seems like all us freelancers have run into the issue of not having enough resources for major projects.
2. It seems that just about every collaborative consumption platform has a community manager. What exactly does a community manager do at Airbnb?
Community Managers at Airbnb are focused on engaging and supporting our host community and spreading the love in our cities. We do that mainly through workshops, events, individualized support, and out newest feature, Airbnb Groups. We get there through a mix of knowing the ins and outs of the market, the city, the local businesses, the people – essentially anything that helps us offer a ton of value and expertise to our host community. Our best days are when we see hosts connecting in the real world, supporting each other, and learning something new about their home city.
3. So we know you’ve travelled all over the world! Besides Airbnb, which collaborative consumption platforms do you most love to take advantage of while traveling?
Yes, Airbnb is a given! Aside from staying in awesome, apartment-envy inducing places throughout the world, I use Sidecar and Lyft when it’s available and I’ve used Vayable. I’m super excited to try out EatWith in Rome this weekend – I think that sharing meals in cities throughout the world will be the next meaningful experience people can have through sharing platforms
4. We know you’re a Brooklyn gal, too. What exactly makes it so special?
Well, I could go on and on about BK – the food scene, the brownstones, Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Flea, the literary history – but I’ll sum it up by saying that the people living there make it so special. There’s just such a positive force of creativity and a continuity to Brooklyn. You feel it and it feels good.
5. Legislation is a big issue for many of the collaborative consumption verticals. Which policy are you most looking forward to seeing overturned and why?
I’ll generalize here – I just want the day to come where sharing is considered normal, just like it was when our grandparents were young, and it’s so normal that there’s no need for major policies.
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Sheila Karaszewski is a Community Manager at Airbnb. She is a passionately curious, travel-addicted, food-obsessed marketer/strategist/communicat
