This is because people know that the money will directly go to the hosts, whose lives are being upended by Russia .
A spokesperson for the home rental company stated that they are temporarily waiving host and guest fees on all bookings in Ukraine. This means Airbnb will not make any profit on these bookings. The total gross booking value for Ukraine on March 2nd and 3 was almost $2 million.
U.S. guests booked more than 34,000 nights, while U.K guests booked over 8,000 nights and Canadian guests booked nearly 3,000 nights.
Many people donated their time by booking Airbnbs and shared their touching responses on Twitter. Some hosts were stunned by how many people offered to rent their homes, even though they don’t plan on staying.
Kristy Webeck, an Australian comedian, said that she booked nights in Kharkiv via Airbnb “to send some tangible and immediate assistance.” The message that she received from hosts was shared by her on Twitter.
The message said, “Good afternoon, we’re sitting in a basement with very poor internet.” We are grateful for your support and material assistance.
Bridgette Chambers shared her experience booking an Airbnb in Ukraine. The host thanked her for all of her support and said, “Thanks!” “I invite to Kyiv in peacetime.
Airbnb encourages hosts to offer their homes to refugees. Other people can also support the initiative by donating money to help refugees. The spokesperson stated that they have received an overwhelming response with over 1.2 million people visiting this page.
Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, tweeted Monday morning that 11183 people had signed up to the site in the past week to provide refugee housing.
Chesky posted on Twitter last week that it was suspending all Russian and Belarus operations.
Mila Kunis, a Ukrainian actress, and Ashton Kutcher, her husband, have pledged to match $3,000,000 of donations to help families in Ukraine. They said that the money would go to both Airbnb.org’s refugee housing initiative and Flexport.org which organizes supply shipments to refugee locations.