Airbnb hosts are offering free rooms to people fleeing Hurricane Florence

With Hurricane Florence rapidly approaching the southeastern seaboard, many are leaving the area and seeking accommodation inland. Hopefully people have shelter lined up, but for a handful of those that don’t, Airbnb hosts are offering their spare rooms for free.

Well over 300 hosts from Pennsylvania to Alabama are participating in Airbnb’s Disaster Response Program, by which they can easily offer their room or spare unit to people on the run from Mother Nature, free of charge. They don’t get anything out of it except presumably the satisfaction of helping someone in need.

The units available are listed here, and you can (and should) activate your own spot by logging in and finding the “urgent accommodation” option. Technically you can opt to charge instead of be free, but that would be a bit rotten in this situation.

You’ll need an account, of course, if you’re looking for a place to stay. You’ll have to work out with your host how long it’s possible to stick around for free. And anyone who takes advantage of this to fake out a generous host and go sightseeing on the back of a natural disaster is a scumbag. Don’t even think about it.

300 spare rooms might not make a big dent in the thousands upon thousands looking for a place to stay, but it’s a nice example of a platform making it easy to generate a little social good. Airbnb has done this for lots of other disasters but not everyone knows about it, so if you’re new to the system, consider signing up.

from www.tech-life.in