Thank you for an amazing 2017!

Thank you for an amazing 2017! I love to share this year's highlights with you.

JANUARY
Jendrik, a friend from my MBA program, came to visit in January. I love sharing my new home with visitors!

The resistance: Together with my friends Mayra and Felix, I joined the SF Women's March. 

FEBRUARY

The Oscar's were quite political as well. 

I am proud that my friend Barry Jenkins won the Oscar for Moonlight in the end. 

MARCH
Christoph, my former roommate, came to visit to extend his Greencard and get a taste of life in San Francisco.

Carlos and I got to enjoy an intimate Airbnb concert. 

APRIL
I went to see my first Golden State Warriors basketball game in Oakland with my fellow female affinity group leaders at Airbnb.  
Carlos and I spent a weekend with friends in Pismo Beach. 
At the age of 32, I had my wisdom teeth removed and enjoyed soup and shakes for a week...

I spent a week in London with friends and coworkers. 

MAY
My parents visited me for the first time and my friend Alex and his family moved to San Francisco for a few months.

I also joined a female leadership program organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in DC and NYC. 
Carlos and I flew to Seoul to attend our friends' Ju & Lawrence wedding. 

We are thankful to have friends all over the world like Sang who made time and hosted us for an unforgettable dinner. 

JUNE
I spent a few days in Paris for work and also met my Erasmus friend Lisa for brunch.
My sister Susi and her husband Ben came to visit me in San Francisco as well. They started in SF and toured California.

We cycled across the Gold Gate bridge and took the ferry back from Sausalito.

JULY
I moved to a new apartment in the Italian neighborhood North Beach with my Austrian coworker Nico.

I celebrated my 6 year anniversary at Airbnb on July 1. 

AUGUST
I participated in Airbnb's new Recharge program and took 9 weeks off to explore my new neighborhood and travel to Spain, Germany and Tulum. 

Our friends Miri and Roman invited us to their wedding in Tegernsee.

SEPTEMBER
My friend and co-founder of glutenfreiheit.org, Jörg, visited from Hamburg during San Francisco's heat wave and I traveled to Big Sur with my friends Miri and Lisa. I also joined the German government's startup accelerator as a mentor.

Carlos and I did a road trip through California and Nevada. We camped and stayed in beautiful Airbnbs like this old Victorian house in Virginia City.

OCTOBER
Together with my friend Andrew, I started taking conversational Spanish classes.

Our friends Natalia and Marek hosted us on Halloween.

NOVEMBER
On Nov 1, after 6.5 years, I quit my job at Airbnb to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. 

You can read my farewell email to my colleagues and highlights of my career at Airbnb here.

DECEMBER
Carlos and I spent the holidays in Spain and Germany with our families.

I wish you all happy holidays with your loved ones and hope to see you soon in 2018! Come visit me in San Francisco or catch me somewhere around the world. ;) 

Follow me on Kaliforniakati and keep in touch!

Thank You & Auf Wiedersehen!

Nach 6,5 Jahren habe ich bei Airbnb gekündigt. Hier ist meine Abschiedsemail an die Kollegen:

Hi friends,

I am writing to say THANK YOU for joining me on this incredible journey for the last 6.5 years as today will be my last day at Airbnb. Allow me to share a few memories with you.

Once upon a time in June 2011, I quit my first job after business school with the intention to start my own company. However, my friend Flo insisted I met with the Accoleo team, which just got acquired by Airbnb, a startup from San Francisco that wanted to scale its European business and compete with the infamous Samwer brothers’ clone Wimdu. And so we did! Fun facts: Little Benno was an intern at Accoleo and he and the one and only Jenny did in fact start working for Airbnb a few days before I did.

I spent the following months fighting on behalf of our hosts to change the local housing law to allow home sharing in Germany`s second biggest city, Hamburg, and snuck onto the very small but mighty Team Justice led by our inspiring female leader Belinda. Hopeful, I moved to Berlin to bring this sensible legislation to our capital and also volunteered to kick off our policy efforts in Greece. Fun fact: I had to convince my manager that the Greek people would be more welcoming towards me than Angela Merkel...

After winning the Greencard in the lottery (my fun fact), I moved to New York City to work on a mobilization campaign convincing New Yorkers that home sharing was good for them while we were relaunching our brand from the fluffy blue logo to Bélo. Fun fact: There were rumors of changing our name, too.

I handed the back then impossible tasks over to more competent folks like Bobby Fischer and M16 and moved further West to our mothership where I was welcomed by colleagues who patiently explained the American healthcare system or the importance of a good credit history to me. These learnings informed my relocation blog Kaliforniakati and led to the founding of the Airfinity Group Foreignairs - Airbnb`s immigrant employee resource group and resistance.

About a year ago, I knew that I had one Airbnb adventure left in me, so I decided to join the force for good Aoife and the incredible rockstar Trips team. If you still have not booked an Experience, yet, you have been missing out - book my favorite one right now! Trips is fulfilling our promise of human and authentic travel to guests and is empowering our hosts economically while pursuing their passions. Fun fact: My partner in crime Sarah and I found ourselves being driven around in a golf cart by a Trump voter through a multi-storey car park looking for our lost rental car at 11 PM before the launch of Trips...

Now, the time has come for me to move on as an entrepreneur - likely in the (gluten free) food industry. Don`t worry, I am not moving back to Deutschland.

THANK YOU, Brian, Nate & Joe for taking me on this journey with you and THANK YOU to everyone of you for teaching me so many things and being my friends and family during my relocations, the Paris attacks and these luckily mostly truly amazing years.

Don`t forget: Always Be a Host and please, be in touch!

Love, Kati