Our Generous Community of Frontline Stays Hosts

Community is at the core of Airbnb and hosts have banded together to help their neighbors in times of need. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we heard from countless hosts around the world who wanted to provide a comforting home to first responders and frontline workers. 

In March we launched Frontline Stays, a global initiative to provide free and subsidized stays for health care professionals, relief workers, and first responders. We partnered with our incredible host community, nonprofit partners, government agencies, and others to offer convenient stays that allow frontline responders to be close to their patients and safely distanced from their families.

Since the start of the program, frontline responders and health care workers have booked more than 220,000 nights via the Frontline Stays program. All of this would not be possible without the generosity of our hosts. These are some of their stories. 

Glasgow generosity 

When Patrick became a host on Airbnb in 2017, he instantly enjoyed meeting new people, learning their stories and welcoming them to his Glasgow home. In March, he and other hosts on Airbnb banded together to offer NHS and other frontline medical staff free places to stay while they carried out their critical work. 

“I decided to sign up for the Frontline stays program to help out our NHS staff who are working timelessly around the clock helping patients. They are putting their own lives at risk to help others. These staff members also have families who may be vulnerable and they wanted to keep their families safe especially after working on the front line.”

Patrick, Airbnb Superhost

His home’s proximity to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and motorway links provided a convenient way for frontline staff to access the city center and medical facilities. He opened his home to frontline workers from Edinburgh, Inverness, England and those who lived in the same city but needed a safe place to social distance from their families. From medical staff working night shifts to help COVID-19 patients to those taking care of young patients at the local children’s hospital, Patrick’s offered these frontline heroes a comfortable place to call home while they worked hard to save lives.

“Society is coming together. People are helping one another, like purchasing food for neighbors who struggle,” he says. “We still have a long way to go and if everyone works together we will get past this.

An open door 

Frontline Stays builds on the generosity of our Open Homes program which began in 2012 by providing free, temporary stays to people impacted by natural disasters. Over the years, the program expanded to support other community needs in times of crisis, including relief workers, refugees, and asylum seekers, and most recently frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19.

Cinde, an entrepreneur in Sacramento, has stepped up to support her community in different times of need. She first became an Open Homes host in 2018 during the Camp Fire—the most destructive fire in California’s history. Cinde wanted to go all-in to help and she became an Open Homes host for the first time, offering to share her home with a pregnant woman and her family who fled their home in Paradise, California because of the fire.

When Cinde heard of health care staff and first responders who needed to isolate from their families while they worked on the front lines of COVID-19 pandemic, she knew just what to do to help. Cinde opened her home to Margy, an ER nurse in need of a place to stay. 

“Margy told me that every minute on her job, she has to make moral decisions. And this was one moral decision that she didn’t have to make once she decided to come to a house that would be safe for her family. I felt really good about giving Margy a safe place to be so that she can take care of people, and that’s what it’s all about.” 

Cinde, Airbnb Superhost

Cinde’s support of Margy demonstrates the importance of community during this difficult time. 

To learn more about Airbnb’s Frontline Stays program, visit www.airbnb.com/frontlinestays.