Airbnb’s next big bet: 1 million free nights a year for people in crisis

CEO Brian Chesky explains why he’s committing $500 million over five years to dramatically expand its nonprofit’s housing efforts.

Susan Bailey still vividly remembers the first time she hosted a family in need of emergency housing. It was 2017, and she had just renovated a property near her home in Colorado with the idea of adding it to her growing portfolio of Airbnb rentals. One evening, she got a call out of the blue from someone at Airbnb Open Homes, as Airbnb’s program for housing people in crisis was then known. 

“It was eight o’clock on a Thursday night,” Bailey says. Airbnb asked if she would be........

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