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Airbnb’s actions in response to the Ukraine crisis

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Key Takeaways

  • Airbnb has taken a number of steps to support our Host and guest community

Key Takeaways

  • Airbnb has taken a number of steps to support our Host and guest community

Throughout the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Airbnb has taken a number of steps to support our Host and guest community.

Last night, our co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky announced the decision to suspend our operations in Russia and Belarus.

This means that we are blocking Host calendars from accepting new bookings in both countries until further notice. We will also restrict users in Belarus and Russia from making new reservations as guests. 

This follows Airbnb.org’s announcement earlier this week that it will offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. These stays will be funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to Airbnb.org – an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – and the generosity of Hosts through Airbnb.org. 

We encourage anyone interested in getting involved with Airbnb.org to go to airbnb.org/help-ukraine. To date, we have seen an overwhelming response to this effort, with more than half a million visitors to this page.

We are also making efforts to support our community members in Ukraine who remain in the country. Airbnb is temporarily waiving guest and Host fees on new bookings in Ukraine at this time. We have also implemented our Extenuating Circumstances policy in Ukraine so that Hosts and guests can cancel penalty free for qualifying reservations

We are so humbled by the inspiring generosity of our community during this moment of crisis. In the past 48 hours, as we’ve waived our fees for new reservations, we’ve noticed a grassroots movement to book Airbnb listings in Ukraine with the objective of supporting local Hosts.

On March 2 and March 3, there were more than 61,000 nights booked in Ukraine around the world, including more than 34,000 nights booked by US guests.

Finally, we continue to take our compliance obligations extremely seriously. We are removing listings in the Donbas region in compliance with applicable sanctions and they are currently not available to book on the Airbnb platform.

We will continue to update the public and our community with our efforts to support the people of Ukraine during this time of crisis. And we certainly hope that as we look to the future, a path to peace is forged.
Read more about: Ukraine

About Airbnb 

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Every day, Hosts offer unique stays and one-of-a-kind activities that make it possible for guests to experience the world in a more authentic, connected way. Providing hosted travel and the ability to live anywhere on a global scale, Airbnb has become a noun and a verb and most traffic to our platform remains organic. We will continue to invest in innovations that expand the travel market and lead the way in turning travel into a way of life.

About Airbnb.org

Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc.’s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org’s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform.

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