Would you prefer to stay in a hotel or a refugee shelter? That's what this campaign says to me at the gut level. Might be nice and altruistic, but it's kind of lousy brand marketing.
Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
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Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#22I'm honestly not a fan of this, despite how well intentioned it may seem (road to hell?) AirBnB is honestly trying too hard with this PR move, it boggles my mind that shareholders don't reign in corporate stunts like this.
What are they actually doing? Asking their customers to temporarily house refugees. Seems like it won’t cost them much, and there are probably enough seasonal homes that go unused in off season to make this viable.
Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#23Wouldn't it be easier to make Afghanistan a 51st state? And let 'em keep their culture and religion locally instead of repossessing them?
Are you implying that the US has rights over Afghanistan?
Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#24I think there are about 500K Homeless in America, would it make sense to first offer about 20K of them some free housing?
The Airbnb is a solution to a temporary problem, which is that there is a lot of Afghan coming to America and need temporary shelter while they find something else. The homelessness problem needs a more long-term solution than 25k shelters for a limited time. You can read about Toronto leasing hotels for the homeless if you want to read more about some solutions that are being worked on, for example.
Good solutions to the housing problem described in this article. Both Vienna and Singapore have good housing policy.
https://www.shareable.net/public-housing-works-lessons-from-...
Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#25I think there are about 500K Homeless in America, would it make sense to first offer about 20K of them some free housing?
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Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#26They haven't specified for how long & where, so this is just PR speak.
Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#27I'm honestly not a fan of this, despite how well intentioned it may seem (road to hell?) AirBnB is honestly trying too hard with this PR move, it boggles my mind that shareholders don't reign in corporate stunts like this.
Who cares? People are getting shelter, if even for a little bit. This is honestly the most boring kind of cynicism because you've offered no real critique and no consideration of the people who have been forcefully displaced and can now have a place to stay.
Agree! Even if AirBnB didn't do it for the right reason (which I have no reason to believe they did - why always so cynical!?) the people in desperate immediate and "short term" need get help! (this is also why it's different to the homelessness issue, which seems more like a systemic issue that the cities and countries should honestly be ashamed of).
Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#28Now if we can just figure out how to get more of them out of there. Edited: clarity
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Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#29I think there are about 500K Homeless in America, would it make sense to first offer about 20K of them some free housing?
If you think this is some gotcha (you can't help with Afghan refugees during a crisis until you've solved homelessness ?) then you never cared about the homeless in the first place, and are using them as a pawn when it's useful to dunk on the middle east.
Isn’t it kind of a gotcha to accuse someone of not caring about the homeless on the grounds that they… brought up homelessness? I did not see the word solved appear in the comment you’re responding to.
I personally read it as a general comment about housing supply.
Edit: To clarify, I’m happy about what AirBNB is doing here and support it fully. I think it’s possible to be concerned about housing from multiple angles at the same time though.
I genuinely think it’s a stretch to assume that a person advocating for an additional large group of units literally translates to someone that wants more people on the street. Furthermore I find that reason to be far more convoluted than what would constitute an easy “gotcha.”
“You said you want to help a problem and therefore you don’t want that problem helped. My proof is that you brought up the problem in the first place.” is something I have difficulty digesting.
Re: Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20k Afghan refugees
#30I'm honestly not a fan of this, despite how well intentioned it may seem (road to hell?) AirBnB is honestly trying too hard with this PR move, it boggles my mind that shareholders don't reign in corporate stunts like this.
What boggles my mind is that someone who in all likelihood has done absolutely nothing to help Afghan refugees feels the need to chime in and criticize AirBnb for pulling a publicity stunt.