Airbnb Pledges Temporary Stays for 20,000 Afghan Refugees and Asks Hosts to Help (August 2021)

From the record. This is a look back at August 2021. 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 24 August 2021, Airbnb and the nonprofit Airbnb.org announced that Airbnb.org would provide temporary housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees worldwide. The company said the cost was funded through contributions to Airbnb.org from Airbnb and from its chief executive, Brian Chesky, and by donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund.

Chesky also announced it on Twitter. CNBC's report, published by NBC News, carried his tweet saying that, starting that day, Airbnb would begin housing 20,000 Afghan refugees globally for free. In another tweet dated 24 August, reproduced by NPR, he said who the plan depended on: “While we will be paying for these stays, we could not do this without the generosity of our Hosts.”

Two days later, on 26 August, Airbnb told hosts how to sign up and said it waived all its fees on refugee stays.

What Airbnb pledged

The commitment was made in the name of Airbnb.org, which the announcement described as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit that arranged temporary stays for people in moments of crisis. A note at the foot of the post said Airbnb did not charge service fees on stays that Airbnb.org supported.

The posts were clear about who would pay and silent about how much. The housing would be free to the refugees. Airbnb.org would cover the cost, with the funds coming from Airbnb, from Chesky and from donors to the Refugee Fund. CNBC reported on the day that Chesky did not specify how much Airbnb planned to spend or how long the refugees would be housed. Neither of Airbnb's two newsroom posts that week put a dollar figure on the 20,000 stays or said how long a stay would last.

The pledge built on work already started. Airbnb said that in the week before the announcement, Airbnb.org gave emergency funding and support to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), HIAS and Church World Service to provide immediate temporary stays through the Airbnb platform for up to 1,000 arriving Afghan refugees. It said that over the weekend before the announcement, Airbnb.org worked with partners to place 165 refugees in housing shortly after they landed in the US.

Those were the announcement's only two numbers for its work with Afghan refugees up to that day, and only the 165 counted people placed. The 20,000 was a commitment, and Airbnb said Airbnb.org would adjust the initiative as necessary, working closely with resettlement agencies and partners.

Why Airbnb said it acted

Airbnb's post said the previous week had shown that the displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees, in the United States and elsewhere, amounted to a significant humanitarian crisis. CBS News reported the pledge as coming while the US and its allies looked for ways to house thousands of people fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover.

CNBC reported that the US had said on Monday 23 August that it had evacuated roughly 48,000 people from Afghanistan over the preceding days, and that the Taliban had set 31 August as the deadline for the airlift. NBC News ran the report with an AFP photograph whose caption said it showed refugees from Afghanistan being escorted to a bus after arriving and being processed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on 23 August.

The announcement carried a statement from David Miliband, president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee: “As the IRC helps to welcome and resettle Afghans in the U.S., accessible housing is urgently needed and essential.”

What hosts were asked to do

On the day of the pledge, the post gave hosts no instructions. It said Airbnb and Airbnb.org planned to share details in the coming days on how hosts and the wider community could help. CNBC reported that Chesky urged hosts to reach out to him if they wanted to host a refugee family, and that he promised to connect them with the right people at the company.

The instructions came on 26 August, in a second newsroom post. Airbnb said it had received enormous interest since the announcement, in many cases from people who wanted to offer their space free of charge. It set out two ways to take part.

Host a refugee. The offer was open beyond Airbnb's own hosts: “Existing Airbnb Hosts and anyone with available space to offer can sign up to provide free or discounted stays to Afghan refugees.” Airbnb said it waived all its fees on all refugee stays.
Donate. People who could not open their homes but wanted to support housing for Afghan refugees were pointed to donations to Airbnb.org.

The post sent readers to Airbnb.org/refugees for details. Airbnb and Airbnb.org were covering the cost of 20,000 stays, it said, and with the community's help they could do more. Hosts' free or discounted homes and donations to the Refugee Fund would be used to build on that initial commitment.

The post named Airbnb.org's partners as including the International Rescue Committee, HIAS and Church World Service, among others. It added that Airbnb.org and Airbnb were also extending support to the federal government, and to states and cities that had expressed interest in receiving refugees, to help provide stays as needed.

The program behind the pledge

Airbnb.org's description of itself, printed with both posts, traced its inspiration to 2012, when a single host opened her home to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. It said hosts had since helped provide accommodation to 75,000 people in times of need. ShortTermRentalz, a trade paper, pointed on 24 August to Airbnb's Open Homes initiative, launched in 2017, which let hosts offer their homes for free to people affected by disasters or fleeing conflict.

Airbnb said that over the previous four years it and Airbnb.org had connected approximately 25,000 refugees to temporary housing, and that Airbnb.org had announced the creation of a $25 million Refugee Fund earlier in 2021.

How it was read at the time

The reports cited here mostly restated the pledge. CNBC's was the most skeptical. It pointed out the missing budget and time limit, put Airbnb's value at around $92 billion, and observed as a general matter that companies of all sizes hurry to show support for victims in a major crisis, which lets them be charitable and improve their public relations at once.

Airbnb's account of the response, in its 26 August post, was that it had been overwhelming. The post gave no number of hosts who had signed up. None of the reports cited here quotes a host, a resettlement agency or a public official objecting to the plan.

The Gazette Verdict, looking back

Airbnb made a pledge worth making, and it was plain about the part that mattered most to hosts: the 20,000 stays were to be paid for, through contributions to Airbnb.org from the company, from Brian Chesky and from donors to the Refugee Fund. What it did not give was a figure. CNBC reported on the day that Chesky named neither a budget nor a time limit, and the two newsroom posts did not fill the gap. The only counts in the sources cited here were Airbnb's own, dated 24 August 2021: 165 refugees placed over one weekend and funding for up to 1,000 immediate stays. Airbnb said it waived its fees. Hosts were asked for free or discounted nights on top. The lesson for a host: treat a platform's pledge as an invitation, and settle what you can afford to give before you sign up.

The other side

The strongest case against that view is that the missing figure was the whole story. A promise with no budget and no end date cannot be checked, and CNBC noted on the day that a crisis pledge lets a company be charitable and improve its public relations at once. Airbnb, which CNBC said was valued at around $92 billion, could have published what it and its chief executive were contributing. Instead the number that traveled was 20,000, and within two days the company was asking hosts and donors to add nights and money of their own. On that reading the goodwill arrived at once and the cost stayed undisclosed.

What it meant for hosts

For a host in late August 2021, the pledge was an invitation: neither post set a deadline or required anything of a host. The reported facts gave a host this much:

From 26 August, an existing host, or anyone with available space, could sign up to offer a stay to Afghan refugees, free or at a discount. Airbnb pointed to Airbnb.org/refugees for the details.
Airbnb said it waived all its fees on refugee stays.
A host who could not offer a home could donate to Airbnb.org instead.
The housing was described as temporary. Neither post said how long a stay would last, so a host deciding how many nights to give had no figure from Airbnb to plan against.

The sources cited here gave a host no measure of how far the pledge had gone beyond the 165 placements and the funding for up to 1,000 immediate stays that Airbnb reported on 24 August.

Sources

Airbnb Newsroom, The Airbnb community’s support for Afghan refugees (24 August 2021).
Airbnb Newsroom, How to support housing needs for Afghan refugees (26 August 2021).
CNBC (published by NBC News), Airbnb says it plans to temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees (24 August 2021).
CBS News, Airbnb says it will temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees to help with "humanitarian crisis" (24 August 2021).
NPR, Airbnb Will Provide Housing To 20,000 Afghan Refugees Around The World For Free (24 August 2021).
ShortTermRentalz, Airbnb pledges to house 20,000 Afghan refugees (24 August 2021).

Airbnb Pledges Temporary Stays for 20,000 Afghan Refugees and Asks Hosts to Help