People are booking Airbnb rentals in Ukraine — not to stay, but to donate directly to hosts
CBSN
People have found a direct way to help individual Ukrainians: booking their Airbnbs. A whopping 61,000 nights were booked in Ukraine on March 2 and 3, because people know the money will go directly to the hosts, whose lives have been upended as their country is being invaded by Russia.
The home rental company is temporarily waiving guest and host fees on bookings in Ukraine at this time, a spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. That means Airbnb will not profit from these bookings. On March 2 and 3 the total gross booking value to Ukraine was nearly $2 million.
More than 34,000 nights were booked by U.S. guests, more than 8,000 nights were booked by U.K. guests and nearly 3,000 nights booked by Canadian guests.
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