In the wake of the deadly fires that ravaged Southern California in January, Airbnb received heaps of praise for its voucher program that offered free stays for displaced victims. Local and national media outlets lauded the effort, directing thousands of refugees to apply.
But for many who needed the housing, reviews weren’t as glowing.
Some said they applied but never heard back. Others got a voucher but said it was essentially useless due to restrictions and a seven-day expiration date.
Plenty of victims have been helped by the program. Airbnb.org, a nonprofit funded by Airbnb that teamed with 211 L.A. to provide the free stays, said it received 34,000 applications and sent out roughly 11,000 vouchers. It’s unclear how many of those vouchers were used, but the nonprofit said more than 60,000 free nights have been booked by people affected by the fires.
Those not able to cash in, however, see the program as one of two things: a genuine offer hamstrung by excessive red tape, or a half-hollow gesture meant to rack up free PR in the midst of a historic disaster.
“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Todd Smoyer, who received a voucher after his house burned down in Altadena but wasn’t able to use it. “It just feels like a PR stunt.”
Smoyer was working in Hollywood when the Santa Ana winds started blowing on Jan. 7. Out of caution, his husband booked an Airbnb in Mid-City earlier that day just in case a fire started.
A few hours later, Eaton Canyon erupted.
Smoyer bolted home to grab food for their two dogs and fled the neighborhood around 8 p.m. On his way out, he called his parents, sobbing.
“I knew there was no chance the house would survive,” he said.
The next morning, his neighbor confirmed that there was nothing left but the brick fireplace.
He applied for the voucher the next day but didn’t hear back right away. They had the Mid-City Airbnb booked through Jan 10. and extended it to the 12th, despite the host jacking up the price from $200 per night to $330 per night.
Having heard nothing from Airbnb, the pair fled L.A. and booked a stay in Palm Springs from Jan. 13-24. Then, the voucher came through: Airbnb had awarded them $1,000 toward a booking.
Smoyer reached out to customer service asking if the credit could be used toward the stay he already booked. No, they said. In addition, the voucher expired in seven days, on Jan. 19.
Smoyer and his husband have since moved into a VRBO, where a compassionate host offered him a two-week stay for a total of $400.
“We spent over $8,000 on short-term rentals over three weeks, and we were just trying to recoup a little. We know they’re making so much money, so how hard would it be to apply the credit to a stay that’s already booked?” he said. “It left such a nasty taste in my mouth.”
The voucher program brought more than just positive PR for the short-term housing platform, which has come under scrutiny in recent years for illegal listings and eating into L.A.’s long-term housing stock. It also brought in business by pushing evacuees to book Airbnbs instead of alternatives such as hotels with the hope that they’d eventually be refunded.
Eleanor Green evacuated from her home in La Cañada Flintridge on Jan. 8., fleeing to Claremont with her family. She applied for the voucher that day but didn’t hear back and booked an Airbnb for two nights.
Evacuation orders were still active in her neighborhood at the end of her stay, so she booked a second Airbnb, spending a total of $1,500 between the two. On Jan. 12, she returned to her home, which had been spared.
That same day, she got approved for a $2,000 voucher.
“I felt so relieved,” she said. “It was this great light in the middle of a horrible experience.”
Green quickly connected with customer service, asking how to use it toward her stays that she already paid for, but was told it can only be used before you book a stay, not after.
She felt cheated.
“The first booking was made in panic, but the second I hoped might get some money back with the voucher, so we used Airbnb instead of a hotel,” she said. “Everyone who evacuated booked an Airbnb already, so what point is a voucher if it comes in days later?”
The experience made her angry: not that she couldn’t use the voucher, but because the company limited the scope of people they were able to help and got so much publicity out of something that wasn’t useful to many victims.
“I feel uncomfortable with how much praise they’ve gotten while championing themselves as a source of aid in a time of need,” Green said. “Meanwhile, they’re soliciting donations from people who think they’re helping wildfire victims, but most people can’t be helped by this program.”
Airbnb.org has solicited $9 million in donations from individuals and companies since the start of the fire. In addition, Airbnb committed $10 million and Chief Executive Brian Chesky committed $6 million.
Christoph Gorder, executive director for Airbnb.org, said the company is committed to offer up to 40,000 more free nights through the voucher program, above the 60,000 already used. In addition, Airbnb waived all fees for those stays.
The free housing program never claimed the vouchers would work on retroactive stays or ones already booked — nor did the promotion campaign mention that they wouldn’t. That was left to customer service representatives. Gorder said there’s no simple way to make that work, since money for bookings goes to the host, not the company.
“From a logistical and practical point of view, we don’t have a way to do retroactive voucher applications. We’re looking into it for the future, but we don’t have that capacity right now,” Gorder said.
He added that the demand overwhelmed their system in the first 48 hours.
Gorder said the seven-day expiration is a result of trying to get credits into the hands of people who need to book emergency housing quickly and said those with expired vouchers can contact customer support to apply for extensions.
The Times spoke to a Pacific Palisades evacuee who was able to obtain a $2,000 voucher after initially being denied. The person complained to customer service, eventually got the voucher and used it toward a $20,000 stay for a month in Santa Monica.
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” the person said, asking to remain anonymous because they didn’t want to jeopardize their stay by speaking to the media.
Others weren’t so lucky.
Some took their frustrations to social media. One Reddit user wrote that they received a $1,000 credit and successfully booked a stay. However, the expiration policy requires users to check into the Airbnb within seven days, not just book within seven days. By the time the booking came, the credit had expired, and they owed an extra $1,000 for the rental.
Graham Fortier fled his Altadena home on Jan. 7 with his wife and two daughters hours before it burned. He applied for the credit a day later, and the next day booked a three-week stay in a Pasadena Airbnb for $6,897 using donations raised through a GoFundMe.
The stay was set to begin on Jan. 18, since he already had hotels booked until then. His $1,300-credit came through on Jan. 13. Like the others, it couldn’t be applied to his rental.
In the meantime, Fortier found a more permanent housing solution through a family friend and no longer needed the Airbnb. He tried to cancel the $6,897 stay, but the host said he wouldn’t refund him since the two-day cancellation period had already passed.
For their part, Airbnb refunded the $797 he paid in fees. But since the host refused to cancel the booking, Fortier lost $6,100.
“Your house burns down, you lose everything, and the host still can’t sympathize with our situation,” Fortier said. “They might have a home in Pasadena, but they’re not a Pasadenan. An actual Pasadenan wouldn’t do this.”
Fortier said he’s sure people got the credit and used it to help their family in a time of need, which adds to his frustration because it shows that the program could have been more effective.
“I just wish they would’ve designed the program in a way that helps more people,” he said. “Our community is destroyed, and we need all the help we can get.”
