How Airbnb.org mobilised hosts and community to house Ukrainian refugees

Executive overview

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky faced a familiar question: how can we help? Airbnb.org — built originally for disaster relief after Hurricane Sandy — committed to housing 100,000 Ukrainian refugees for free via its host network.

Separately, an organic grassroots movement emerged: hosts worldwide began booking Ukrainian Airbnb listings with no intention to stay, sending money directly to hosts in harm's way. Total direct giving reached $15 million across 165 countries.

The core insight: every company has a superpower; the opportunity is finding where that superpower intersects with the world's greatest needs.

Origins of Airbnb.org

• The nonprofit began after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when a Brooklyn host emailed offering free rooms to displaced New Yorkers.
• That suggestion triggered platform changes enabling free listings in crises — now used to house 130,000+ people displaced by disasters, medical emergencies, or conflict.
• Afghan refugee response in 2021 committed housing for 20,000 people; Ukraine scaled that to 100,000.
• The three co-founders (Gebbia, Chesky, Blisarczyk) donated $10 million personally; neither of them hesitated.
• Brian Chesky raised the idea of giving back in an email to co-founders on August 1, 2008 — before the company even launched.

How the refugee housing programme works

• Airbnb.org provides free stays to refugees; hosts either donate their space or Airbnb funds the stay.
• Matching is done by vetted resettlement partners (e.g. UN's International Organization for Migration), not Airbnb directly.
• Field agents search and match family needs (number of bedrooms, children, elderly) with available listings.
• Existing Airbnb hosts are not required — anyone with spare space can sign up in minutes.
• Hosts receive 24/7 support, AirCover host damage protection, and $1M liability insurance at no cost.
• Countries with greatest need: Poland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia.

The grassroots $15M booking campaign

• Sarah Brown, a Salt Lake City host, booked a Kyiv listing she never intended to use — purely to send money to a Ukrainian host.
• She shared the idea on a Facebook group; it spread across 165 countries.
• Airbnb immediately waived all transaction fees and has continued to do so.
• The Ukrainian host Katarina described the inbound funds as "not just money — it's support and encouragement."
• One Kyiv host used donations to fund a volunteer team delivering food, medicine, and warm clothes to elderly and children.
• Gebbia: none of them would have predicted this use of the platform.

Joe Gebbia's personal commitment to refugees

• A 2015 proposal from a software engineer included a slide projecting global displacement rising from 70 million to 300 million people by 2044 — roughly the entire US population.
• A Malala-sponsored trip to refugee camps in Kenya and Rwanda deepened his conviction.
• In a camp in Rwanda, a Burundian refugee told him her mud hut was the first place she could fall asleep feeling safe after weeks of flight through conflict.
• That moment reframed refugee housing as a basic human right, not a charitable add-on.

Doing good as a business model

• Gebbia's framework: find the Venn diagram of what your company does best and what the world needs most.
• Airbnb.org serves as the "conscience" of Airbnb — a reminder that the company operates within communities, not just markets.
• Doing good also has business benefits: brand trust, government relationships, new host acquisition.
• His generational read: millennials and Gen Z increasingly choose businesses that align with their values — they're looking for "the Patagonia of blank."
• Decision test used by the founders: "If we looked back in 10 years, would we be proud of how we showed up?"
• Tent.org (a partner organisation) lists hundreds of companies of all sizes that have committed to refugee support.