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Airbnb adds to the list of tech companies halting its operations in Russia and Belarus after the former launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine last Thursday. The company also confirmed it is waiving fees for bookings made to lodgings in Ukraine.
Airbnb users from different parts of the world have found another noble way to help people in Ukraine. Following an idea from Tommy Marcus, widely known on social media platforms as Quentin Quarantino, people are booking short-term lodges based in Ukraine. Guests do not intend to visit for obvious reasons, but they are telling Airbnb hosts that they hope the earnings from these bookings will give them some financial aid.
Yesterday I shared an idea to support Ukraine by booking rooms for rent on AirBNB. 24 hours later, 100's of people are booking AirBnBs in Ukraine as a way to send immediate monetary assistance to people in hard-hit areas. The messages in response from the hosts are so moving pic.twitter.com/ai2Je8VKCt
— IG: @quentin.quarantino (@quentquarantino) March 3, 2022
Several posts on Twitter include screenshots of conversations between Airbnb guests and grateful hosts. The efforts have been praised by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky as well.
Airbnb did its part by announcing it will waive guest and host fees for bookings made to Ukraine-based lodgings. This was later corroborated by users, who said they have booked places in Ukraine and did not find the online marketplace’s usual fees included in the payment breakdown.
We can confirm we are waiving all guest and Host fees on all bookings in Ukraine at this time.
— Airbnb Help (@AirbnbHelp) March 3, 2022
Waiving the fees means guests will pay less than the usual amount of booking a place in Ukraine under normal circumstances. This also means Ukraine-based hosts will get the full proceeds of these transactions, without Airbnb collecting its cut.
Others have also suggested helping people in Ukraine through other online marketplaces even though orders cannot be delivered. One Twitter user suggested placing orders to Ukrainian businesses through Etsy. Another user recommended hiring freelancers through Fiverr so they can receive the payments.
A few hours after Chesky shared these efforts by Airbnb guests, the CEO announced on Twitter that the company is “suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus.”
As of this writing, people can still search for places to stay in Moscow. But once they click the Reserve button, Airbnb displays the message, “It looks like the listing's calendar is blocked and they aren't accepting bookings right now. Sorry about that. You'll need to go back and search for a different place to stay.”
Photo by Stocks Catalog / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
