Is booking an Airbnb an effective way to help Ukrainians in the age of digital media?

People want to help Ukrainians, and Airbnb has emerged as one way to do it. But is it the most effective? To be honest, I can’t give a straightforward and definitive answer. But as a marketing student, I have to admit that this move by Airbnb has made me love the brand even more, and it has shown me the power of the human touch that a brand can bring.

Book an Airbnb, a new way to support Ukraine

As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its third week, over 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country and ordinary people around the world are finding ways to show their solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people. According to statistics, 61,000 vacation homes in Ukraine were booked by Westerners between March 2 and 3, with a total of £1.5 million in transactions, and these orders came from European and American folk who made this as a special “donation”.

This approach was first launched on social media when an Airbnb host named Igor said on social media that his apartment would provide free accommodation for people who had lost loved ones in the Kyiv shelling. On Wednesday (March 2), an Instagram vlogger launched a campaign to book Airbnb to help Ukrainian hosts, and within a day, hundreds of people joined the campaign by booking Airbnb in the worst affected areas of Ukraine. On March 4, according to statistics, people around the world had used the platform to book more than 61,000 nights in Ukraine, with more than half of the bookings (34,000) were made by Americans, with a total booking value of nearly $2 million.

Since Airbnb temporarily waives host and guest fees for bookings in Ukraine, and hosts receive a payment within about 24 hours of a guest checking in, booking Airbnb seems like a quick and efficient way to get cash directly into the hands of struggling Ukrainians.

These show that digital media and technology have given people greater autonomy in knowing how, where and who their donations go to.

Why has booking Airbnbs become such an attractive way of supporting Ukrainians?

Firstly, Social and digital media can help forge at least the impression of intimate social connections, and since people tend to be more motivated to give to identifiable recipients, new platforms could help boost donation.

Secondly, In a crisis like this, it’s better to have help than no help at all. Booking Airbnbs could be an important first step in allowing people who otherwise would not donate to demonstrate and build their philanthropic power. And of course, innovations in charitable giving that support Ukrainians are expected to be expanded and scaled up to support more neglected crises and conflicts of others.

What's more, people identify more with “individual victims” than “statistical” ones. Giving cash directly to an identifiable individual or family allows donors to build deeper relationships with recipients than a donation to traditional relief organizations that will make its way to recipients the donor will never know.

Is this an effective way compared to other forms of charitable giving that could be directed toward Ukraine?

The main problem with donating to Ukrainians via booking Airbnbs is who is being helped — and more importantly, who isn’t. By booking Airbnbs, people are “reaching folks primarily who speak English, who sell on Etsy or Airbnb in major cities.” As an active war zone, everyone in Ukraine is in some kind of need, but providing aid via Airbnbs is “not a system that’s designed to reach the most vulnerable or the people in poverty. Ukraine is among the poorest countries in Europe, with a GDP per capita even lower than its neighbor and Russian ally Belarus. As of 2021, more than 30 percent of the population did not have access to the internet. Thinking from this perspective, you are choosing maybe the top 5 percent, maybe 1 percent, of the Ukrainian population.

So it seems that the donations made through booking Airbnb may only help a small percentage of people. But on the other hand, it is a much better way to motivate people to donate than many traditional donation methods. The overwhelming popularity of this campaign on the Internet has inspired more people to join the campaign than traditional donation methods could ever do. At the same time, it had a very positive effect on Airbnb’s brand image and was certainly a very effective piece of free advertising.