As Los Angeles firefighters battled the five wildfires that spread throughout the county on Wednesday evening, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft were among the companies stepping in to offer immediate assistance to displaced residents.
On Wednesday Airbnb announced it was working with 211 LA, the non-profit organization that provides Los Angeles County residents with a variety of health, human and social services, to provide temporary housing free of charge to anyone who has been displaced by the fires, which have ravaged multiple communities throughout Los Angeles County and displaced approximately 180,000 people. Airbnb has been offering the service since 2012, when a Brooklyn host told the company she wanted to open her home to help people who had been displaced by Hurricane Sandy that year. In 2020 Airbnb.org was established as the non-profit arm of Airbnb.com to specifically assist with temporary housing for those affected by disasters around the world. Recent assistance for displaced residents through Airbnb.org has included people who needed to leave their homes due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which impacted the southeastern U.S. in September and October 2024, and the Maui wildfires of 2023.
“When we opened the program [to L.A. residents] yesterday, we had an absolute crush of applications, thousand and thousands,” Christoph Gorder, executive director of Airbnb.org, told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday afternoon, who added that there are no geographic limits on where a displaced resident can choose to stay. “They get to choose where they want to be, because perhaps they’ll want to travel far so they can be close to extended family. They also can choose a place that has wheelchair access or welcomes pets.”
Gorder said a complimentary stay for evacuees is good for seven days, but for anyone who has lost their home, a phase-two operation is implemented to provide housing for 30 days. “We start with [seven days] to just get people stabilized,” he explained. “After that we’re working with families who have lost their homes, and in that case it can become 30 days. I expect that’s where we are headed here.”
Airbnb waives all of its fees, while the hosts’ costs are subsidized via donations to Airbnb.org. “People around the world want to help people in L.A. today, and this is a great way to do that,” Gorder said. “100 percent of donations go to paying for stays for families in need, largely to cover the gaps of the expenses hosts must incur.” Since 2020, Airbnb.org has provided 1.6 million nights of free stays to more than 250,000 people across 134 countries, Gorder added.
Ride-share apps also are jumping in with assistance. For transportation to a local shelter, Uber is offering complimentary rides, up to $40, using the code WILDFIRE25, while Lyft has provided the promo code CAFIRERELIEF25, which is good for up to $25 for a ride to any local shelter.
Gorder said he is unsurprised by the outpouring of support seen this week for Los Angeles residents. “We started Airbnb.org because several years ago one of our hosts said to us, ‘I’ve got a free place, and someone shouldn’t be sleeping in their car,’” Gorder noted. “Altruism is something we all can relate to and understand; it’s a human desire for neighbors to help their fellow neighbors.”
This story may be updated as more information becomes available.
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