Tens of thousands of people all around the world have been booking Airbnbs in Ukraine, though they have no intention of going to the war-torn nation. The reason: It’s a fast way to get cash donations to Ukrainian locals.
The grassroots movement started on the platform last week. Yesterday Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tweeted about the trend: “In 48 hours, 61,402 nights have been booked in Ukraine. That’s $1.9M going to hosts in need,” he wrote. “Such a cool idea from our community. Thank you.”
During the 48-hour period from March 2 to March 3, Airbnb users from different countries booked more than 61,000 nights, at a booking value topping nearly $2 million. More than half — 34,000 nights — were booked by Airbnb users in the United States. Over the same period, more than 8,000 nights were booked by users in the United Kingdom and nearly 3,000 nights were booked by Canadians, according to Airbnb.
A quick perusal on Airbnb reveals that many Ukraine listings are already booked solid into the summer, be it an entire home in the countryside outside of Kyiv ($10 a night), a studio apartment in Odessa’s Troitska Street ($15 a night) or newly renovated apartment in the center of Kyiv ($20).
A company spokesperson said that Airbnb is also focused on raising awareness about how people in countries neighboring Ukraine can sign up to provide temporary housing for Ukrainian refugees, noting that people do not need to be a current Airbnb host to sign up...
forbes.com
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