As Ukraine continues to suffer both attacks from Russian forces and a rapidly-deteriorating refugee crisis, many in countries around the world are trying to help however they can.
For some, that has taken the form of booking Airbnb (ABNB) homes in which they have no intention of staying.
Who Is Using Airbnb To Help Ukraine?
Over the last week, Airbnb hosts in the Eastern European nation have received a flood of bookings from Americans and other people around the globe.
As the country is currently facing shelling in multiple cities, the gesture is not meant to book accommodation but offer help to individuals rather than large charities like the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.
The short-term rental company confirmed that, on March 2 and 3 alone, people booked 61,000 nights in Ukraine. By Tuesday, Airbnb also confirmed that it had waived host and guest fees so that people could have one less barrier to do this (or, in case someone on the ground needs accommodation, book stays.)
Airbnb had previously committed to housing 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in neighboring countries such as Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania.
By Tuesday, the company said that over 30,000 hosts took up its call and signed up to open their homes to Ukrainians displaced by the war.
To continue these efforts, Airbnb partnered with United Nations migration agency International Organization for Migration.
It has also gathered $1.2 million in direct donations from 14,000 individual donors.
Hollywood couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, who was born in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi, also launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise $30 million for Airbnb and other organizations that are housing Ukrainian refugees.
In just a few days, they reached nearly two-thirds of that goal.
Is The Book-A-Stay Trick Working?
While any war opens up the possibility for scams and online profiteering, the Airbnb trick largely seems to be working as many of the people who booked stayed reported extreme gratitude and heartbreaking stories from the hosts.
"We will be glad to see you in the peaceful city of Kyiv and hug," Airbnb host Olga Zviryanskaya wrote to New York's New School lecturer Anne Margaret Daniel after she booked a stay.
Out of the 61,000 stays booked at the start of March, 34,000 came from Americans, 3,000 from Canadians and 8,000 from the U.K.
"At first I was sceptical about the @Airbnb initiative to help Ukrainians by renting apartments," Kateryna Yuschenko, an American professor who is married to a former president of Ukraine, wrote on Twitter (TWTR).
"But today a friend in Lviv said he received $15 000 over the past week for his apartments, bought medicines, including insulin for diabetics, and will be driving them to Kyiv today."
