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Likely they're mostly photographers. Airbnb hires a lot of professional photographers to take listing photos. Here's an example job posting: https://careers.airbnb.com/contractors/1404981/

But that posting is "freelance contractor" photographer which means they are not employees. Is AirBnb/LinkedIn counting non-employees in that ~3365 Arts & Design headcount?

Probably? I think it's self-reported. If I was mostly working for Airbnb as a photographer, I might put them as my employer on LinkedIn, freelance or no.

I was surprised myself, and I don't know what they're for. I have heard they are a design-driven company though. Also, they have a magazine (airbnbmag.com)

Might they rent out designers in a Client Services model, where they help owners take good pictures and basically tart up the property profiles?

I bet these are not majority employees, but contract photographers or even Airbnb hosts