Is This PR or Real Good Deed? Airbnb’s Support for Refugees Fleeing Ukraine

On Feb 28, 2022, four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Airbnb.org and Airbnb announced that Aribnb.org would offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. This is not the first time Airbnb offered help in crises. Airbnb has provided free accommodation to 20,000 Afghan refugees, and during the pandemic, they also offered free and discounted stays for Covid-19 frontline workers.

After seeing the announcement, I started browsing the comments under Twitter, Instagram, and some related posts. While some people praise Airbnb’s humanistic action, some raise serious questions.

Here are the three categories of frequently asked questions:

1. Besides providing links for hosts and donations, Airbnb doesn’t explain how it works. The only related link they provide is from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, it is complicated. People are fleeing from Ukraine; they give up their homes and don’t even have enough food. Those red tapes are too complex and heavy for them.

2. Free hosting? Is it the generosity of hosts or Airbnb? According to the announcement, these free stays are funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund, and the generosity of Hosts through Airbnb.org. However, there isn’t further clarification about how much Airbnb, Inc. is involved. Is it possible Airbnb only provides its platforms? If hosts welcome the refugees and give up earnings, does Airbnb provide any support (financially or emotionally) for the hosts?

3. If Airbnb is now supporting the refugees from Ukraine (and Afghan refugees), how about other refugees from other countries? Is the hosting support only for Ukrainian citizens, or does it include international students, workers, etc.?

Those conversations are happening right now on social media, and if I can see and summarize it, people who work in Airbnb are supposed to know this better than me. However, Airbnb doesn’t officially respond to any of those questions so far. I understand that it takes time for them to develop detailed answers, so let us hope Airbnb will do so after a few more days.

Here are some things they could do:

They should use social media to listen, connect, and engage with their audiences.

1. I can’t speak for other consumers. But during this critical time, after Airbnb’s Instagram itself just posted the help Ukraine announcement, the next few days, they are not following up on the process of helping Ukraine. Instead, they are posting wonderful vacation houses… I think that is inappropriate.

People will not forget you have such beautiful accommodations, so please use Instagram or Twitter as a channel to keep updating your progress. For example, Airbnb promises to help up to 100,000 refugees. What is the number now? How many people actually offer or receive help? If they do, could you share some photos or messages of them? In this way, Airbnb can increase the credibility of this action; otherwise, it is hard for people to know whether you deliver your promise. Furthermore, as I mentioned before, people have many questions about this action. Therefore, Airbnb should use social media as a channel to answer the questions. More importantly, Airbnb should come up with detailed instructions asap to teach refugees how to book!

2. Airbnb should create a hashtag. Airbnb-Ukraine-related posts are all over social media. Some people that are not hosts want to offer help. Some Ukrainian people need accommodation but don’t know how to do so. If Airbnb can create a hashtag, people can easily find the related information and answer instead of testing tons of different keywords.

3. Now, Airbnb bookings in Ukraine have raised nearly $2 million. Brain Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, is retweeting those posts by people who have already helped. I am touched by people’s love and support for Ukrainian. However, I can’t help wondering that people donate their money to support the hosts, but Mr. Chesky, how about your help? You can’t just take credit for people’s generosity. Could you upload and share the following progress of Airbnb’s action? Without transparency, people will raise serious questions.

War is ruthless, and my heart goes out to Ukraine.

I sincerely hope Airbnb offers real help in this critical time, not just mere PR; looking forward to seeing its updates.