I should start this story with a confessional: Prior to recently sitting down with Airbnb.org executive director Christoph Gorder, I never knew the organization existed—let alone that it was affiliated with the Airbnb I’ve covered at close range for several years. It goes to show even the most knowledgeable, seasoned journalists never stop learning things.
As it turns out, Airbnb.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, replete with its own board of directors, whose mission it is to “unlock the power of sharing space, resources, and support in times of need.” Take a cursory glance at the organization’s homepage and you’ll notice it dominated by a call to action for supporting those who’ve been affected by Hurricane Helene. As its origin story is told on its website, Airbnb.org’s beginnings trace back to 2012, following Hurricane Sandy’s thorough pummeling of New York City. As a result of the disaster, an Airbnb host in Brooklyn named Shell got ahold of Airbnb and asked if she could list her home free of charge for those seeking refuge; the company agreed, working “extremely long hours” in order to make Shell’s place open for evacuees.
More than a thousand hosts eventually would follow suit.
Airbnb.org wouldn’t be formally established until December 2020, in culmination of the hard work done by Open Homes, announced two years earlier, to support families during times of crisis. Airbnb.org was instituted with the intention of “[focusing] on helping people share housing and resources with each other in times of crisis.”
In our interview, Gorder explained Airbnb.org has helped about 240,000 people spanning 134 countries since its inception. The organization’s work has “run the gamut” globally, he said, with the team helping survivors of of natural disasters like the aforementioned hurricanes. Airbnb.org has been involved in assisting refugees in Ukraine as the country’s war with Russia continues to wage on and on.
Gorder helpfully clarified that, yes, his organization and the canonical Airbnb are markedly different entities. His group is, again, a nonprofit who sees Airbnb “cover all our expenses” and is a “big donor” to the nonprofit, as it has access to Airbnb’s sprawling network of 9 million listings. The 5 million hosts on Airbnb, Gorder said, all are “huge supporters” of the humanitarian work done by the nonprofit.
My conversation with Gorder was coincident with the Paralympics Games happening in Paris. He said Airbnb—the “parent company,” if you will—was an official sponsor of the Games, with Airbnb.org being around to support Paralympian refugees find housing. One of those people was Vanderson Chaves. A 30-year-old Brazilian, Chaves is a fencing para-athlete and part of the group, called Grêmio Náutico União, who traveled to Paris for this year’s Paralympics. It was Chaves’ third trip to the Games, having also gone to Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. He said Airbnb.org’s support of him “helped a lot” and added he was one of the people affected by the floods in Porto Alegre, which rendered him homeless. But he was committed to competing, telling me he “had to stay focused” on finding a way to competitions and ultimately the Paralympics. That Airbnb.org helped him proved instrumental, as Chaves said the nonprofit’s assistance “really meant a lot to me.”
In the end, Chaves enjoyed his time in the French capital.
“I really liked Paris,” Chaves said. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t be too much of a tourist, I couldn’t go to the tower and everything else. I didn’t see the [Eiffel Tower] up close, but the location of our competition was past [it], so I was able to look, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get around the way I would have liked. But the city is very beautiful.”
Gorder said Airbnb.org was “devastated” when it learned about Chaves’ plight and swooped in to try to help him recover and, as Chaves said, maintain focus on making the Games in Paris. The floods in Brazil, Gorder told me, displaced a staggering 600,000 people and prompted Airbnb.org to activate a response. Chaves “lost everything,” his wheelchairs included, and he’s a big deal being a world-class Paralympian. Airbnb.org worked tirelessly to stabilize him as much as possible, with Gorder saying “we’ll continue to support him” as Chaves continues the recovery process. The devastation n Chaves’ home country lives on an “epic scale, according to Gorder, and the Airbnb.org team felt “inspired” to stand behind someone who’s such a role model to so many.
Chaves had a “very positive” experience being in Paris, telling me he enjoyed it thoroughly and is looking forward to traveling to Los Angeles come 2028. He hopes to medal then, resolute in “[training] hard [and] stay 100% focused so that, God willing, I can go to another Paralympics.”
Chaves continued: “All of us athletes had a lot of fans in Paris. The crowd was sensational! Everything was very beautiful!”
As to Airbnb.org, Gorder told me the feedback on the organization’s work has been similarly positive. He described it as a “life-changing experience” to be able to settle in with a host and feel secure, not to mention have the host offer guidance on how to acquire essentials like food and so forth. The nonprofit’s long-term ambition is to become the standard bearer for emergency shelter during crises, adding that a huge competitive advantage is they do have unfettered access to Airbnb’s platform and cadre of resources. Since efficiency is the name of the game during such traumatic events, Airbnb.org is fortunate to be able to move quickly in helping people literally get roofs over their heads and feel safe.
“There’s more potential out there,” Gorder said. “There’s certainly no shortage of need, but if we can leverage what’s special about Airbnb and bring it to this particular application, it’d help even more people.”