Airbnb is offering free housing to LA wildfire victims

Airbnb says it offers free temporary housing To residents of the Los Angeles area affected by the wildfires currently raging in Southern California. The company partners with 211 LA, a nonprofit hotline that offers local information services in multiple languages. Currently, Airbnb says it is focused on helping residents of Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Pasadena, Santa Monica and Sylmar. The company can expand to support other areas and encourages locals to do so follow his blog for updates.

Airbnb will work with 211 LA to identify residents in need of temporary housing and connect them with accommodations offered through the company’s nonprofit arm, Airbnb.org. . The company said it provided more than 1.6 million nights of emergency stays to about 250,000 people.

The home-sharing platform has come under some criticism after a user posted on Twitter/X that he was on Airbnb refused to book it again to new habitats further away from the forest fire. The company told Gizmodo that the woman made the reservation on the afternoon of Jan. 7, after the wildfires had started, so she initially refused a refund. Airbnb has since rectified the situation as a goodwill gesture.

Other guests with ongoing reservations in the affected areas of Southern California are eligible to end their trip early under Airbnb’s Major Catastrophic Events Policy and will receive a refund for the remaining nights of their stay. If their stay has not yet started, users can cancel for a full refund. Hosts may cancel stays in affected areas without penalty.

Thanks Airbnb pic.twitter.com/4BeL26L8Yj

— Ana Mostarac (@anammostarac) January 8, 2025

Until now, at least two deaths At least 1,000 structures are reported to have been destroyed as three major fires continue to burn in the Los Angeles area. Videos on social media depict the devastating landscape of the affluent area, including Pacific Palisades, which is in ruins.

This is madness. Pacific Palisades looks like a war zone. Thousands of hectares of land were destroyed in one day. We hope the fire will be extinguished soon pic.twitter.com/1PnZOqnxCk

— litquidity (@litcapital) January 8, 2025