Airbnb Unveils A Million Dollar Initiative That Attempts To Bring ‘Goodwill’ – Urges Patrons To Spend On Strangers

Perhaps to quell the public scrutiny over safety, Airbnb has just unveiled an initiative that intends to spread the goodwill into the community. The company intends to spend about a million dollars just so that its users could kick-start the year on an altruistic note.

Airbnb, the platform enjoying both immense popularity and facing heavy criticism at the same time unveiled a $1 million initiative that will see 100,000 Airbnb hosts receiving $10 each. While the gift-money can be spent at the discretion of the receiver, Airbnb expects it be spent on the community. The campaign is apparently a challenge to use the small gift towards a gesture that makes the world a smaller place, explained chief marketing officer Jonathan Mildenhall.

“Our vision has always been to put our host community front and center, and this is just our way of putting that rhetoric into practice. We’re excited to see what they come up with.”

Mildenhall added that the hosts have been chosen at random and expect them to spend the $10 on items that can benefit the society. Hosts who have received the funds from Airbnb are encouraged to share details about their good deed on the social media using #OneLessStranger hashtag.

While on one hand Airbnb is enjoying huge patronage and its users have discovered the revenue potential of their dwelling, on the other, the company has come under fire from local governments who don’t seem to be earning from the rental arrangements. Regulators have always cribbed how Airbnb allows apartment owners to extend their dwellings to strangers. Moreover, the service has hugely disrupted the rental market, but the service hasn’t been without its fair share of troubles and cases of user abuse.

It is this bad publicity that Airbnb wants to curb and the most basic of tasks is to get on the good side of people, shared Mildenhall.

“Despite the boom in sharing-economy companies, we still have a great fear of people we don’t know. I suppose an Airbnb host can use the funds to do something nice for a guest, but we’d really like to see it used on strangers. Admittedly, the whole thing is an experiment.”

Airbnb seems to have launched the initiative right around the corner of its busiest night of the year. Last New Year’s Eve, 350,000 people made their overnight arrangements via Airbnb’s global network of 1 million homes, apartments and rooms. This year the company expects over 600,000 customers to use its service to find temporary accommodations. As per data shared by the company, over 16 million people have already used their service and ensured Airbnb is currently valued at $13 billion.

[Image Credit | Airbnb]