Airbnb Sets Aside 9.2 Million Shares for a Host Endowment (October 2020)

From the record. This is a look back at October 2020. The desk wrote it on 11 October 2026 from sources published at the time; Stay Gazette opened in July 2026 and did not report this as it happened.

On 30 October 2020, Airbnb co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky wrote to the company's hosts that it would create an Airbnb Host Endowment, a fund seeded with 9.2 million Airbnb shares. The note, which Airbnb published the same day, said the company would start to invest the fund in the host community once it was worth more than $1 billion.

Chesky also promised a Host Advisory Board, a group of hosts that would meet the company every month and carry hosts' ideas to its leadership. The announcement came as Airbnb prepared a stock market listing that the Associated Press reported was expected before the end of 2020. The plan did not give hosts shares of their own.

What Airbnb promised

The note set out the fund in a few sentences. It would support hosts in areas including education and financial resources, and nothing would be invested until its value passed $1 billion.

Control stayed with the company. Chesky wrote: “Funds from the endowment will be allocated by Airbnb, with input from you.” That input was to reach Airbnb's leadership team through the new board when the team made funding decisions.

The Associated Press reported examples Airbnb gave of what the money could pay for: repairs after a hurricane, education, or annual payouts to outstanding hosts. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Airbnb said it might add more stock to the fund over time.

The advisory board

Chesky's note said the Host Advisory Board would present ideas from the host community for how the endowment was invested and suggest improvements to Airbnb. It would meet Airbnb every month and share updates from those meetings with hosts. He wrote that the board would be as diverse as the host community, of which 85 percent lived outside the United States and 55 percent were women, and that Airbnb would introduce its members before the end of 2020.

The note gave no number of seats. The Associated Press and the trade paper ShortTermRentalz reported a board of 15 members. The Chronicle reported 10 to 15. The Associated Press said members would serve for one year and that the first board would decide how later members were chosen. The Chronicle reported that the first members would be drawn from Community Leaders, hosts who organize other local hosts.

On who decided the spending, the Associated Press wrote that the board would decide which projects to fund. Airbnb's own text said the company would allocate the money.

Why it came in October 2020

Chesky tied the plan to a break with hosts that had opened earlier in the year. When travel stopped in the pandemic, he wrote, Airbnb made the decision to refund guests in full. He said he believed that was right, that it had a significant impact on hosts' bookings, and that some hosts were frustrated the company had not consulted them first. He wrote: “Your frustration made me see the gap that had grown between us – we needed to get more connected to you.”

The note said Airbnb set up a Host Community team in July 2020 and held meetings with more than 3,000 hosts around the world. Chesky wrote that hosts told the company three things: they wanted to be treated as partners, they wanted more control over how they host, and they wanted the tools to grow. He listed changes already made: extended Superhost status for hosts who struggled to meet the cancellation or booking criteria, an extenuating circumstances policy updated to restrict when guests could cancel and get a full refund, and house rules made more visible to guests.

The Associated Press described the refund decision as the point at which hosts revolted, and recalled that Airbnb later promised $250 million to hosts to help make up the shortfall. The Chronicle reported that many hosts had complained publicly that the refund policies for canceled stays favored visitors over hosts.

The other pressure was the listing. Chesky wrote that as Airbnb prepared to become a public company, it wanted to write its commitment to hosting, and its investment in hosts, into how the company was set up. The Chronicle reported that Airbnb had said in August 2020 that it had filed confidential papers to go public.

What the shares were worth

Airbnb's note gave no dollar value for the 9.2 million shares. The Chronicle put the figure at $320.9 million, a sum it based on a Bloomberg report that Airbnb shares were valued at $34.88 each as of 30 September 2020, after a stock split. The valuation was the Chronicle's, built on Bloomberg's report.

On that number, the fund started well short of the $1 billion at which Airbnb said it would begin to invest. The note gave no date by which the company expected the fund to reach that level.

Hosts' place in the listing was limited by law, the Chronicle reported. Securities rules restricted stock compensation to employees, directors and consultants, and Airbnb and some gig companies had asked regulators to change that. The paper added that share grants would be a problem for the 85% of hosts outside the United States, and that Airbnb had not said it had ruled out grants for US hosts. The Associated Press reported that Airbnb called the endowment only one effort to include hosts in the listing, and that the company would not comment on other possible plans, including rewarding hosts with shares.

The Chronicle pointed to how two other companies had handled the same limit. When Uber and Lyft went public in 2019, it reported, they gave their most active drivers cash bonuses that the drivers could keep or use to buy stock at the opening price.

How it was read

Skift's Dennis Schaal wrote that the fund was an effort to mend host relations and to assure hosts that the listing would benefit more people than investors and employees with stock options. The summary at the top of his report said the endowment would not turn hosts into investors in the listing, and concluded: “It's a clever and creative move by Airbnb, but more fundamental host issues remain.”

The Chronicle's report opened on the same point: Airbnb wanted to reward hosts' loyalty, but that would not be as simple as giving them shares in the company. The Associated Press, Chronicle and ShortTermRentalz reports carried no comment from a host on the plan.

The Gazette Verdict, looking back

The Host Endowment was a promise tied to Airbnb's share price, and a host in October 2020 was right to count none of it as income. A fund of 9.2 million shares, which the Chronicle valued at $320.9 million, would invest nothing until it passed $1 billion, and Airbnb would allocate the money. The board could advise once a month. It could not decide. Airbnb got an answer to its host problem before its listing and funded it with stock. Hosts, who by Chesky's own account took the hit to their bookings when guests were refunded in full, got a channel to management and a fund with no payout date. A host should take one thing from it: treat a platform's goodwill fund as a bonus that may come, and run the business on the rules that set what you are paid, starting with the cancellation and refund policy.

The other side

The best case for Airbnb is that a one-time share grant could not reach most hosts and a standing fund could. The Chronicle reported that securities rules limited stock compensation to employees, directors and consultants, and that grants would be a problem for the 85% of hosts outside the United States. A fund built to last could support hosts in every country for as long as the company existed. The board gave hosts a monthly meeting with a company that, by Chesky's account, had not consulted them before the refund decision. And the listening sessions had already produced a tighter extenuating circumstances policy, a rule that bears directly on what a host is paid when a guest cancels.

What it meant for hosts

For a host running rentals in October 2020, the announcement changed nothing in the month's accounts. The note described nothing to apply for and no payment to expect. Airbnb said it would start to invest only after the fund was worth more than $1 billion.

The practical items were smaller and nearer. Airbnb said it would introduce the advisory board's members before the end of 2020, and the Associated Press reported that hosts would be able to share ideas with the board.

The changes that touched income were the ones Chesky listed as already made: the extended Superhost status and the tighter rule on when guests could cancel and get a full refund. He also wrote that Airbnb would hold guests accountable for honoring house rules. Those were the terms a host could plan around while the endowment waited to reach $1 billion.

Sources

Airbnb Newsroom, An Important Announcement from Airbnb (30 October 2020).
Associated Press (published by Yahoo Finance), Airbnb sets up endowment, council for hosts ahead of IPO (30 October 2020).
San Francisco Chronicle, Airbnb plans ‘endowment’ to aid hosts after IPO (30 October 2020).
Skift, Airbnb's New Endowment Fund Seeks to Give Hosts a Piece of the IPO Action (30 October 2020).
ShortTermRentalz, Airbnb announces creation of host advisory board (31 October 2020).

Airbnb Sets Aside 9.2 Million Shares for a Host Endowment