PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Avi Lebovic booked an overnight stay in Ukraine — but he has no plans to leave Penn Valley.
He’s joining hundreds of thousands of people across the world in booking an Airbnb in Ukraine as a way to send money directly to Ukrainians in need.
Airbnb has become the go-to spot for people to give a donation to Ukraine. Earlier this month, the home rental site suspended operations in Russia and Belarus and also announced free short-term housing for up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine.
On March 2 and 3, more than 61,000 nights were booked in Ukraine from around the world — 34,000 of them booked by Americans, Airbnb said. A week later, that number rose to 434,000 bookings, totaling $15 million.
Seeing the struggle in Ukraine made Lebovic want to do something to help, even if it was just a small gesture.
“I saw social media posts about an alternative way to donate directly to citizens of Ukraine. Airbnb was waiving all the fees,” he recalled.
Lebovic was looking to rent from an individual who didn’t have multiple properties listed. He wanted the money to go directly to someone local.
“This one was $20 a day with a two-night minimum stay,” he said. “He just had a room available with a sofa bed.”
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He accompanied the booking with a message: “I basically said I don’t plan on staying there. I feel really bad about what’s going on and I’d like you to use the money however you see fit. And if you have enough money, then please help someone else out locally over there.”
Lebovic said the Airbnb host thanked him and shared some of his struggles.
“His home is OK, his office was hit but he’s doing OK. He said he personally has enough money but he has a friend who has a child that’s sick and needs special medicine that’s hard to get and she was looking for money, so he was gonna reach out to her and pass the money along to her.”
