Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by wyager on Sunday January 29, 2017 @03:05AM (#13512937)

Are 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.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by nollbit on Sunday January 29, 2017 @04:06AM (#13513203)

Why would it be more of a problem with refugees than other, paying guests?

Afaik, most US citizens staying at Japanese AirBnB's (for example) do not speak Japanese nor know the local culture. Do you think that's a problem as well? When I stayed at an AirBnB in Italy I knew nothing about the local culture nor spoke the language, nobody thought that was an issue.

Or is this just, you know, racism?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by ordinary on Sunday January 29, 2017 @05:00AM (#13513410)

Tourists do not commonly suffer from PTSD and a host of other mental problems. There are real, valid reasons why you don't just dump them in a random suburb and let them fend for themselves.

Incidentally, insulting people is not conducive to healthy debate. Please consider whether calling your opponent (or their actions) racist will increase our ability to persuade them to change their position, or just make them entrench their position (even against more persuasive arguments).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by jabgrabdthrow on Sunday January 29, 2017 @10:46AM (#13514593)

> Why would it be more of a problem with refugees than other, paying guests?

How are war refugees different from tourists on vacation. Amazing. You just personally contributed to wearing out the word "racist" and growing the new right wing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by wyager on Sunday January 29, 2017 @11:10AM (#13514765)

> Why would it be more of a problem with refugees than other, paying guests?

Most AirBnB guests are financially secure, have a vested interest in not damaging your property, and aren't likely to be scared/stressed/traumatized.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by ahoka on Sunday January 29, 2017 @07:20AM (#13513802)

Muslim is not a race.

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Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by chandsie on Sunday January 29, 2017 @05:07AM (#13513435)

(I'm an employee) We have a disaster response program through which we solicit hosts to volunteer their homes for emergencies. More information here - https://www.airbnb.com/disaster-response (We're still working on figuring out the logistics of this event so it's not on that page.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by cronjobber on Sunday January 29, 2017 @05:56AM (#13513576)

So AirBNB isn't providing any free housing. Seems you'll try to browbeat/hoodwinkle people who volunteered to offer "housing to displaced neighbors and relief workers" into providing free housing to people who are neither neighbors nor relief workers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by chandsie on Sunday January 29, 2017 @03:47PM (#13516537)

Not true - there is no "browbeat/hoodwinkle"ing happening. You choose to volunteer your home for any of the causes. The team has been working overnight and still hammering away to create an easy way for people to volunteer their homes specifically for this issue.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by jlardinois on Sunday January 29, 2017 @03:19AM (#13512995)

Do Airbnb hosts usually get a say on who signs up to stay in their dwellings?

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Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by CardenB on Sunday January 29, 2017 @03:27AM (#13513020)

Yes. You contact the hosts and then they have to approve you. Hosts review their guests after each stay for future hosts to look at.

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Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by mynameisvlad on Sunday January 29, 2017 @05:09AM (#13513442)

Not 100% true, there are plenty of instant book properties on AirBnB which do not require any interaction between host and guest before the purchase.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by ivan_gammel on Sunday January 29, 2017 @06:19AM (#13513644)

It 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.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone n... by mynameisvlad on Sunday January 29, 2017 @01:40PM (#13515790)

Yes, 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.

[ Parent | on HN ]