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German ministry partners with #Accommodation-Ukraine and Airbnb.org to provide housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine

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Today, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland (BMI), #Accommodation-Ukraine and Airbnb.org have announced a new partnership to provide free, short-term accommodations for refugees fleeing Ukraine in Germany. 

“We are experiencing a wave of solidarity. Civil society has already mobilized free, private housing for 300,000 refugees across Germany. Now, it is important to organize stay for a constantly growing number of refugees in a structured way.”

State Secretary Dr. Markus Richter, BMI.

Airbnb.org will work directly through nonprofits on the ground across Germany – who are responsible for booking and coordinating stays for refugee guests, regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, or how they identify – to connect refugees to available housing. Anyone who wants to offer accommodation to refugees can register at unterkunft-ukraine.de or airbnb.org/help-ukraine. By connecting the civil society alliance to the nonprofit gut.org AG and – and leveraging Airbnb.org’s international experience with providing temporary accommodations in times of crisis – BMI will aim to efficiently coordinate housing needs for a growing number of refugees.

Last week, Airbnb.org committed to offer free, temporary housing for up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine, and since then, more than 11,100 people across Europe – including nearly 1,800 across Germany – have signed up through Airbnb.org to offer their homes to refugees for free or at a discount.

Earlier this week, Airbnb.org also announced a new partnership with the International Organization for Migration, the UN Migration agency, to connect people fleeing from Ukraine to free, short-term housing in Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. In addition, the Utah Jazz Foundation is now working with Airbnb.org to provide more than 32,200 nights of temporary housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine. 

About #Unterkunft-Ukraine

#Unterkunft-Ukraine (www.unterkunft-ukraine.de/) is an alliance of mission-driven organizations started on day 1 of the Ukraine war by Lukas Kunert and Falk Zientz. Led by the charitable gut.org gAG, it has activated 280,000 offers for free, private accommodation for refugees. Gut.org is a group of digital social enterprises including Germany’s largest crowd giving platform, betterplace.org. #Unterkunft Ukraine is supported by several pro-bono Partners.
Read more about: City Portal, 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. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

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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