The Email That Changed Everything

It all started in 2012. Shell Martinez, an Airbnb host in Brooklyn was witnessing the destruction Hurricane Sandy was causing around her. She wrote an email to Airbnb HQ and asked if she could list her apartment for free, for anyone who was displaced from the storm. Unfortunately at the time, the technology did not exist to list a home for free on the platform. So, when an Airbnb employee received that email, she spread the word, and immediately the Airbnb employees coded what was necessary to bring Shell’s idea to life. Just a couple days later, the first Hurricane Sandy victims knocked on her door and the mission was born. Eight years later, on December 7, 2020, Airbnb.org was launched. What’s remarkable about this film, is that it’s a true story. An amazing example of a host who had a brilliant idea, and a mass of Airbnb employees who made the technology possible for people to stay for free. Today, more than 75,000 people have been hosted due to natural disasters, refugee crises, Covid-19 and beyond. 100,000 people have already offered their homes as a place of refuge. This is just the beginning.