12 ms·
Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US
- edoceo 10y agoStunt or Stand? So much noise right now it's hard to tell. Hope Time demonstrates this as a genuine move. BigCo with lots of PR weight can really keep the story at the top (or push it over the top)
- nerfhammer 10y agoIt's not PR. PR would never be so controversial. This will inevitably stir heaps of outrage from Trump supporters and the Trump administration. It's as much a gesture to make themselves and their own employees feel good. With something on the order of 40% of tech workers born outside of the United States who may be really scared right now, they may actually genuinely care about their coworkers! And this has the potential to kind of kill the whole tech industry in the US.
- loceng 10y agoHow is this controversial for a company who wants to look good to everyone around the world? Perhaps it's controversial if you think Airbnb only cares about the U.S. market, however if you look more holistically then it's a tiny majority who might be bothered by this.
- jlardinois 10y agoLabeling something controversial isn't a value judgment, it's simply an observation that it's drawing or likely to draw a negative response from a large group of people. The President currently has a 30something percent approval rating. Companies generally try to avoid doing things that could potentially alienate a third of a market. I'm glad Airbnb is doing this, and I think in the future it will be seen as an important show of goodwill. But the company is certainly taking a risk.
- loceng 10y agoMy comment was to draw awareness to the larger picture, to a larger group of people, the whole world of people. If they can look good to the majority of the world market, and of the 30% of people who 'approve' of Trump - who hopefully aren't complete racists and just are thinking Trump's actions somehow prevent terrorism from occurring in the U.S. - hopefully only a small % of those are racists and the others will see Airbnb supporting people who may have trouble finding shelter. It really doesn't seem like a risk at all, and they'll write off the costs and not need to pay as much taxes on the profits they seem to now be claiming pre-IPO. Maybe there's an increased risk if Trump starts tweeting that Airbnb supports and hosts terrorists - however the rest of us will see the drivel that that is and Airbnb will gain further positive marketing exposure. Overall of course, at the surface, Airbnb's offer is good for the people affected by this and for helping the world feel united - however we don't really know to what extent Airbnb really will follow through with their announcement; is it a shallow or a deep offering? Call me skeptical: I've had ongoing issues as an Airbnb host and a guest and Airbnb by and far is only interested in keeping as much money for themselves as possible, obviously to help increase their perceived value until they IPO -- they take a relatively high % of booking fees compared to how helpful and caring they claim to be.
- tofu_icecream 10y agoHow many of that 30% do you actually think are in their market though. Airbnb hosts tend to be in urban areas and they have agreed to accept foreign guests in their home. Guests are probably at least semi frequent travelers and usually tech savvy.I don't think Airbnb is as ubiquitous as you seem to think.
- tofu_icecream 10y agoHow many of that 30% do you actually think are in their market though. Airbnb hosts tend to be in urban areas and they have agreed to accept foreign guests in their home. Guests are probably at least semi frequent travelers and usually tech savvy.I don't think Airbnb is as ubiquitous as you seem to think.
- petervandijck 10y agoLet me count the ways: 1. It is controversial to employees who support Trump. 2. It is controversial to investors who support Trump. 3. It is controversial to clients who support Trump, and now might stop using AirBnB. 4. They are taking public stance against the president of the US who is known to have a vindictive streak (and his businesses are their competition). How motivated will Trump be to sign legislation that hurts AirBnB? Do you think this is an easy decision?
- coldtea 10y agoIn a time when national agencies (like the Forrest Park department and NASA) are operating clandestine tweet accounts against Trump policies etc, it's not that controversial. Like gay rights in the 2010s (which no company would touch with a ten-feet pole in the seventies and eighties, but they make grandiose stands now that it's safe except in some backwater redneck communities), it's just the fashionable thing to do. It's not even like the Vietnam war protests in the 60s, when mostly the young and alternative press were in favor and it was an actual risk. Now you're on the side with mainstream press, corporate giants, most of Hollywood and show biz (even country acts), major TV channels, etc.
- AJ007 10y agoIt could be controversial to investors who are hoping for an IPO in the next 4 years. Is it controversial to anyone else? Even someone who supports Trump's executive order may consider it reasonable that refugees should be housed somewhere. What I consider controversial is backing a candidate who actively helped create the current Middle-East crises, supporting the first Iraq War and then the overthrow of the Syrian government.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- bogomipz 10y ago>"With something on the order of 40% of tech workers born outside of the United States who may be really scared right now." Every time I hear this, the number seems to go up. Please provide a citation for that number. You are saying all tech workers in the US? There's no way that is possible. You realize that there is a larger tech work force in the US than just Silicon Valley right?
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago> Hope time demonstrates this as a genuine move What's your metric? Doing the right thing can be great PR, and I wouldn't fault someone for considering both.
- baby 10y agoSo what? Aren't we voicing our opinions so that companies are forced to join us? That's what we did with security after Snowden, and now end-to-end encryption has become a marketing term, and it's good.
- automatwon 10y agoIt'd be great if Snowden got a pardon in the process, too.
- vayarajesh 10y agoEven if it is a Stunt, people are still getting help and that's what matters
- bogomipz 10y agoWhat help are refugees getting from AirBnB? The only details are: "Stayed tuned for more info"
- exodust 10y agoThe typo is odd. You'd think a piece of text as small as a tweet, and containing an unusual announcement, would be proof read before published. "Stayed tune for another tweet with correct grammar."
- chandsie 10y agoI'm an employee, so for what it's worth, this isn't something out of the blue. Airbnb has a disaster response program that gets activated all the time for natural disasters and other tragedies - https://www.airbnb.com/disaster-response https://www.airbnb.com/disaster-response We're choosing to activate it in response to the executive order because it goes directly against our company mission to let people belong anywhere. I'm sure PR was part of the decision but if it helps people, I'd take it at face value.
- cronjobber 10y agoStunt, then, as AirBNB isn't providing any free housing. You're just going to browbeat people who offered "housing to displaced neighbors and relief workers" to underwrite "your" provision of housing to people who are neither neighbors nor relief workers.
- ivan_gammel 10y agoYou make biased judgement without knowing how the service actually works. If you had a look at the disaster response page of Airbnb, as just did I, you'd find that the UX flow is different. You select the disaster first and then offer your housing, which means the hosts are informed about their potential guests.
- forgetsusername 10y ago>You select the disaster first and then offer your housing, which means the hosts are informed about their potential guests. Yes, you do. What is AirBnB's role besides providing the platform?
- ivan_gammel 10y agoThat's good itself because providing the platform is their core competence and they use it for public benefit. But if you think that it's not enough (for what?), they are also using their PR resources to spread the word and reach potential hosts who can participate.
- manmal 10y agoI don't want to downplay their contribution. It's awesome, period. If you squint your eyes though, it looks like a growth hack, similar to their original Craigslist indexing hack. Getting people who offer their homes in cases of emergencies to sign up might lead to them renting out their homes later on. Plus there's the free publicity. It's a win-win for everybody involved.
- mrtree 10y agoLOUD NOISES
- thilmo 10y agoAnyone not allowed in the US? Well shoot, there's a lot of people who should be taking them up on that offer of free accommodation. Not sure I'd be that keen on being an airbnb host in the near future, mind you.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- savvyraccoon 10y agoAirbnb's investors are happy :)
- wyager 10y agoAre they planning to force people on the platform to host refugees (paid, obviously)? I can see several practical problems with that; taking people from their home to a place where they do not speak the language or know the local culture and just dropping them off in standard residential housing can't end well for anybody. This also can't help AirBnB's case when it comes to NIMBYism.
- jlardinois 10y agoDo Airbnb hosts usually get a say on who signs up to stay in their dwellings?
- CardenB 10y agoYes. You contact the hosts and then they have to approve you. Hosts review their guests after each stay for future hosts to look at.
- mynameisvlad 10y agoNot 100% true, there are plenty of instant book properties on AirBnB which do not require any interaction between host and guest before the purchase.
- ivan_gammel 10y agoIt was the decision of hosts to list the properties for instant booking, so host controls who can stay anyway. In these cases it just does not matter for the host who are the guests.
- mynameisvlad 10y agoYes, that's true, and I never said it wasn't. I was just clarifying that, in some cases, you don't communicate with the host before you book.
- nollbit 10y ago
- Tulip68 10y agoExcellent news on an otherwise pretty terrible day. Brian Chesky and the entire Airbnb team are showing America at its very best: forward-looking, innovative, diverse, multicultural and. The contrast with the Trump-type people -- primarily angry, insular, bitter old people who are terrified of brown people and still live within 10 minutes of their high school -- could not be more striking.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- imron 10y agoYour post demonstrates you have no idea of what Trump supporters are like.
- lllllll 10y agoI dont think such generalizations will help much. You are displaying yourself as angry, insular and bitter. Consider the option of trying to understand ppl with different opinions, however disgusting Trump's speeches are - IMHO they are.
- exodust 10y agoSeems common lately for people to pursue point scoring with new ways to describe rotten intellect or lousy lifestyle of their opponents.
- lsmod 10y ago/r/hailcorporate Look at this account. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=peapod91 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=peapod91 https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=peapod91 https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=peapod91 Same here, https://www.reddit.com/user/watchdogsrox https://www.reddit.com/user/watchdogsrox
- mynameisvlad 10y agoYou mean the account of someone who clearly works in the tech industry and has stumbled on cool things companies have done once or twice? Because that's all I see from "[looking] at this account"
- dang 10y agoThat's a personal attack and will get your account banned if you do it again.
- flashman 10y agoAirbnb should run a promotion for free nights at hosts who live within a mile of a Trump property. He'd notice if someone was trying to take business off him, even nominally.
- forgetsusername 10y ago>Airbnb should run a promotion for free nights at hosts who live within a mile of a Trump property. How much longer do you think AirBnB's regulation flouting would last if they went to war with the President?
- kristianc 10y agoGiven that the benefits of renting ones house out on Airbnb accrue almost exclusively to coastal 'liberals' the regulation flouting is possibly not long for this world anyway.
- sorokod 10y agoWouldn't want to inadvertently contribute to Trump's wealth. Where can I find a list of his business interests?
- Alterlife 10y agoI don't think that would work. I mean, it might work if airbnb and trump properties share the same customer base... which they might. But then it's more likely to attract people looking for free accommodation rather than customers of Trump properties. Besides any of Trump's customers who want to make a statement have likely already taken their money elsewhere. But then again I'm not from the US and I know nothing of Trump or Airbnb, so maybe it would work. Eh... I have no idea why I started writing this comment :-/ .
- known 10y agoIllegal immigrant? http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/01/29/indian-american-who-inspired-swades-detained-questioned-about-i/ http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/01/29/indian-american-who-...
- akjainaj 10y agoIf you do this please then release the % of users who've been told "you've been chosen to host a Muslim refugee" and have accepted ;^} It's easy to pretend you're hospitable and generous when you're not paying the toll of your actions. You're not providing "free housing", the actual owners of the houses are. This is a unilateral announcement because you don't know if hosts will accept.
- icebraining 10y agoSo to be clear, Airbnb is helping volunteering hosts to provide their houses for free, right? If so, this tweet is misleading, from its wording I expected Airbnb was compensating the hosts.
- exodust 10y agoThey should take it a step further and pay the hosts double to accommodate refugees. After all, if any guests are the sort to hang around the house all day instead of seeing the sights, it's refugees. They don't have sight-seeing money, and they have more luggage than normal guests. They're kind of stressed out too, due to being refugees.
- ssijak 10y agoWhy have not you done that before for existing homeless people or other people in need? This just smells like ugly marketing scheme. I mean, it is good if someone in need is helped, but why now and why that wording and scope to only refugees?
- detaro 10y ago> other people in need they have done that before, e.g. during hurricane Mathew. "Airbnb is brokering free housing" probably would be a more accurate phrasing, since it is obviously the hosts providing the housing. Airbnb just provides their platform for free.
- PeterisP 10y agoQuantity of people and the time involved. This case is temporary, and hopefully short term - homeless people need a permanent, long term solution. Furthermore, for people like legal US residents who are temporarily locked away from their home, shelter generally solves their problems as they need just shelter; while for homeless people it wouldn't solve their root cause of homelessness which generally comes out to either unemployability, addictions or mental illness. This case also involves much, much less people that the homeless population. In essence, they're choosing to help a smaller problem where they could make a difference instead of a much larger issue that's intractable by those means.
- ivan_gammel 10y agoThat's dumb argument, sorry. Disaster relief is temporary and help is provided to people who suffer from external circumstances. Housing for homeless is a daily job for the government and it is different, significantly bigger problem, for which the solution is not affordable for any single private organization or person. Private organizations have limited resources and they have the right to choose whom to support first. Moreover, here the main support comes not from Airbnb, but from the hosts who offer their houses for free. Airbnb contribution here is to provide a web service for hosts and people in the need and not to take money for that.
- syshum 10y ago
- return0 10y agoUnfortunately this will look like a PR move. Why can't ordinary people step in to host the people affected for this short period?
- petervandijck 10y agoGood idea too, but that's harder to organize (on a practical level and at scale).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- camus2 10y agoAirbnb IS NOT providing free housing. Airbnb isn't paying for housing refugees. Potential hosts can offer free housing, which just makes Airbnb like Couchsurfing. So Airbnb isn't paying for anything here or even giving anything for free. People who really want to help can use CouchSurfing web site instead of promoting a for profit business. If Airbnb offered free housing it would mean they would actually pay the host to house refugees, they are not.
- devinplatt 10y agoBrian Chesky's tweet is disingenuous. It's aggregating when people use the suffering of others as an opportunity for self-promotion, regardless of whether their actions ultimately help anyone (especially if they take more credit than they deserve). Surprising fact, though! Couchsurfing.com is actually a for profit organization. Their business model, however, is not the same as AirBnB.
- exodust 10y agoHow do you know this?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- lllllll 10y agoI'm reading around here that Airbnb's contribution in this matter is limited to providing the infrastructure to volunteer hosts for free, which is still good. My question is: do they also provide insurance to these hosts? I mean if one of the volunteer hosts suffers damages in her/his property of 10'000$ hosting refugees, will airbnb cover it? Genuinely curious, not judging here.
- greggh 10y agoRight here: https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee The $1,000,000 Host Guarantee
- Dorothy1989 10y agoFor unemployed people who have lost their homes and live on the streets or for thousands of homeless poor Americans, AirBn(another Soros backed company) was never so sensitive. But for refugees who can afford the 1000+ $ trip to the States, Airbn is so humane. Please, my mind hurts.
- rhapsodic 10y agoThe tweet should have said, "Airbnb is helping people to provide free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US."
- Neliquat 10y agoNo they are not. Please correct the title.
- exodust 10y agoSurely the tweet means that Airbnb are paying the fee that otherwise would be paid by guests? We only have the tweet to go on, so what makes you think otherwise?
- icebraining 10y agoAn employee on this thread linked to their Disasters Program, where this even will appear, and which works like that.
- sokoloff 10y agoNo, it doesn't. Airbnb waives the airbnb fees, but does not pay the host for accommodations offered under the program. To me, that is not "Airbnb is providing free housing".
- icebraining 10y agoSorry, I wasn't clear. By "like that", I meant not paying the host :)
- coldtea 10y agoTranslation: "AirBnB looks for cheap positive publicity".
- 198oewdj929 10y agoAs usual, the voice of reason is downvoted while many people believe silly narratives. No one needs AirBnB to "facilitate" renting out a home to refugees etc. Refugees know and use Ebay classified ads, Craigslist and others. This whole thing is blatant Twitter populism, in fact the same thing that Trump is doing.
- paulsutter 10y agoAirBNB might want to adjust their offer since the majority of the world population are not allowed in the US. Visas are limited by country and can be an arduous process. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_St... Only visitors from the few countries in blue or green are permitted entry automatically: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visa_policy_of_the_USA.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visa_policy_of_the_USA.... I mention this without any advocacy for any position, but because some commenters seem to expect that borders are normally open. Every country has similar restrictions. Many countries don't admit US citizens without a visa. Edit: Rayiner, I'm in favor of more and easier travel generally, I'm referring to the wording of Brian's tweet.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 10y ago(Good point, misread your post.)
- exodust 10y agoI thought this too, but looking a bit further there's already refugees living in the US in motels and so on, burning through their 'welcome cash'. Not sure about numbers, I just looked at one example of a family from Afghanistan who arrived just before the ban. So the housing offered by Airbnb hosts in the US would be, I presume, for people like this who are living in motels currently. I wonder what these refugees who made it to the US typically do for housing once their motel money runs out? Are they on a waiting list for government housing or something? I guess they would receive welfare payments to cover rent, or just need to find work.
- rhapsodic 10y agoAll of the virtue signaling and moral feather preening surrounding this issue is something to behold. It seems we're entering a new era where businesses engage in political activism as well as simple commerce. If that's the case, it's only fair that other groups, whose politics may differ from the activist-businesses', start using politics to weaken those businesses and counter their influence. For example, it's well known that Airbnb operates under the radar of housing regulations in many localities. Perhaps people who disagree with Airbnb's politics should organize and bring about legislation that will eliminate or severely curtail Airbnb's ability to do business in their town, county or state. Or perhaps the Republicans, though new federal liability laws, should render Airbnb's business model non-viable at the national level. The left has been engaging in total war against the right for about a decade. They seek to impose social and economic penalties on those who hold political views different than their own. And they've done this, fairly secure in the knowledge that there would be few or no repercussions against them. But I have a feeling that's starting to change.
- acjohnson55 10y ago> The left has been engaging in total war against the right for about a decade. Funny, I see it as almost the exact opposite. The backlash against Obama was a weaponization of politics on a scale not seen since the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. I'd characterize the corporate response as businesses trying to operate in a cosmopolitan market, in a climate of nativist politics. And your viewpoint feels especially ironic when a common conservative/libertarian argument against government interventions to advance civil rights is that the market will work it out. It seems we see how serious folks actually are about that idea, in these rare instances when it plays itself out in reality. Because let's also not pretend that this represents some type of long-term investment in social justice. And is doubly ironic that you seem to be advocating that the government punish a private entity for stances that seem well within its rights.
- rhapsodic 10y ago> And is doubly ironic that you seem to be advocating that the government punish a private entity for stances that seem well within its rights. It is ironic, I'll admit. But in total war, there are no rules. You inflict suffering on your enemy by whatever means are available. The left gleefully destroyed a family-run pizza joint because of the answer one of the family members gave to a reporter. They made an example of this family for the rest of the country to learn from: "Publicly express a political opinion we disagree with, and run the risk of being destroyed." It's only fair that Ben Chesky and Airbnb incur a similar risk for their forays into the political arena. And they're very rich, powerful and well-connected people, who are backed by other rich, powerful and well-connected people. It would take something as powerful as a Republican-controlled federal government to do them some serious damage. And if that happens, I'm certainly not to rush to their defense.
- f137 10y agoNice test. I wonder how many of the people protesting the entry ban will offer their flats for free to the refugees?