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Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US

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Re: Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US

#4
post #2

Stunt or Stand? So much noise right now it's hard to tell. Hope Time demonstrates this as a genuine move. BigCo with lots of PR weight can really keep the story at the top (or push it over the top)

It's not PR. PR would never be so controversial. This will inevitably stir heaps of outrage from Trump supporters and the Trump administration.

It's as much a gesture to make themselves and their own employees feel good. With something on the order of 40% of tech workers born outside of the United States who may be really scared right now, they may actually genuinely care about their coworkers! And this has the potential to kind of kill the whole tech industry in the US.

Re: Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US

#6
post #2

Stunt or Stand? So much noise right now it's hard to tell. Hope Time demonstrates this as a genuine move. BigCo with lots of PR weight can really keep the story at the top (or push it over the top)

> Hope time demonstrates this as a genuine move

What's your metric? Doing the right thing can be great PR, and I wouldn't fault someone for considering both.

Re: Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US

#9
post #2

Stunt or Stand? So much noise right now it's hard to tell. Hope Time demonstrates this as a genuine move. BigCo with lots of PR weight can really keep the story at the top (or push it over the top)

It's not PR. PR would never be so controversial. This will inevitably stir heaps of outrage from Trump supporters and the Trump administration. It's as much a gesture to make themselves and their own employees feel good. With something on the order of 40% of tech workers born outside of the United States who may be really scared right now, they may actually genuinely care about their coworkers! And this has the poten…

How is this controversial for a company who wants to look good to everyone around the world? Perhaps it's controversial if you think Airbnb only cares about the U.S. market, however if you look more holistically then it's a tiny majority who might be bothered by this.

Re: Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US

#10
Are they planning to force people on the platform to host refugees (paid, obviously)? I can see several practical problems with that; taking people from their home to a place where they do not speak the language or know the local culture and just dropping them off in standard residential housing can't end well for anybody. This also can't help AirBnB's case when it comes to NIMBYism.
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