Greeks Join Ukraine Airbnb Support Initiative

The Greek Property Managers Association (PASIDA) has joined a global Airbnb initiative to raise funds for people impacted by the Russian invasion through symbolic bookings made for properties in Ukraine.

People worldwide have been booking Airbnbs in Ukraine without planning to go or stay raising more than 2 million dollars while the San Francisco-based company has offered free housing to some 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing their homes.

People are booking Airbnbs in Ukraine they don’t intend to stay in just to help Hosts https://t.co/L6B11ioSXb

— Brian Chesky 🇺🇦 (@bchesky) March 3, 2022

In this direction, Airbnb also said that it has temporarily waived guest and host fees on Ukraine bookings and that it would be working with neighboring European countries to provide long-term accommodation.

The company said the initiative had triggered an “overwhelming response” with more than 260,000 people visiting a page where it is possible sign up to be a host or donate.

2 million refugees.

We’re trying to house as many of them as possible. We need more Hosts.

We need help getting the word out: https://t.co/uscuy1rKX7 https://t.co/Qy3yYNjaIk

— Brian Chesky 🇺🇦 (@bchesky) March 8, 2022

Users from the US, UK and Canada accounted for nearly three-quarters of total reservations.

POMIDA, which represents homeowners renting out their properties short term, said it too encouraged members of the 80,000+ member Facebook Airbnb Superhosts Group to book short-term rentals in Ukraine and also offer support to affected colleagues in the country.

In the meantime, Airbnb Chief Executive and Co-founder Brian Chesky said the property rental platform was considering whether to continue its operations in Russia.

Chesky said Russia was not one of the company’s major markets and that Airbnb was “absolutely revisiting” its business relationship with the country.

Airbnb is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus

— Brian Chesky 🇺🇦 (@bchesky) March 4, 2022

According to Chesky, Airbnb has provided free housing to some 54,000 refugees worldwide in cooperation with its hosts.

“In a global humanitarian crisis like this, I think everyone should ask the question: How can we help,” he said.