"We have specific business needs around brand distinction, legibility, and scalability, that no available typefaces were addressing"
The font looks almost identical to a lot of other sans fonts.
The font looks almost identical to a lot of other sans fonts.
I think the fact that a negligible amount of the general public could pick the new font (knowingly, not by guessing) out of a group of 9 other sans fonts counts against it's ability to distinguish the airbnb brand from others.
It's low risk but frankly it's even lower reward. If their goal was to distinguish themselves, perhaps they could do it more effectively through something people would notice.