People have found a direct way to help individual Ukrainians: booking their Airbnbs. A whopping 61,000 nights were booked in Ukraine on March 2-3 as people know the money will go straight to the hosts, whose lives have been turned upside down as their country is being invaded by Russia.
The home rental company is temporarily waiving guest and host fees on bookings in Ukraine at this time, a spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. This means that Airbnb will not take advantage of these bookings. On March 2 and 3, the total gross value of bookings to Ukraine was nearly $2 million.
Over 34,000 nights were booked by US customers, over 8,000 nights were booked by UK customers and nearly 3,000 nights were booked by Canadian customers.
Several people who donated while booking Airbnbs shared their heartwarming responses on Twitter. Some the hosts were shocked by generous people willing to book their accommodation, even if they are not staying.
Australian comedian Kristy Webeck said she had booked a few nights in Kharkiv on Airbnb “to try to send tangible and immediate help”. She shared the message she received from the hosts on Twitter.
“Hello, we are sitting in a basement, we have a very poor internet connection,” the message read. “We are very grateful for your words of support and your material help.”
Bridgette Chambers also shared his experience by booking an Airbnb in Ukraine. “Thank you for your help and support,” the host wrote. “I invite you to Kyiv in peacetime.”
Airbnb also encourages hosts on their platform to donate their homes for use as housing for refugees. Others who want to support this initiative can also donate money that will go towards housing refugees. “To date, we have seen an overwhelming response to this effort, with over 1.2 million visitors to this page,” the spokesperson said.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tweeted early Monday that 11,183 people signed up last week to offer their homes to refugees.
Last week, Chesky announced on Twitter that the company was “suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus.”
Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis and her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, have pledged to match $3 million in donations to help families in Ukraine, and said the money will go to both l Airbnb.org’s refugee housing initiative as well as to Flexport.org, which is arranging shipments of supplies to refugee sites.
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