Apparently There Is an Airbnb Gala

This morning, one of my colleagues came across photos of celebrities who attended Airbnb.org’s inaugural gala in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. 

There was Serena Williams, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Jimmy Kimmel, and even a closing set from my fave Charli XCX , including her song “Apple,” which she introduced to the crowd as a song “about generational trauma.” 

Besides the concept that celebrities seem to just show up to any publicity event, why Airbnb, a hospitality company operating an online market for homestays, had a gala in the first place amused me. But then I noticed the “.org” part of the name—isn’t Airbnb a “.com?”

Turns out the company launched a nonprofit organization called Airbnb.org in 2020 and announced an expansion on Wednesday. The “.org” website says it “connects people to emergency housing in times of crisis” with a “community of more than 60,000 hosts” on Airbnb.com’s platform. The temporary housing is free and appears to be focused on disasters, and the website lists the Norte fire that started about two weeks ago in Orange County and the August 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Flores in Indonesia. 

In its Wednesday announcement, Airbnb said it would commit $500 million over the next five years to expand its services to “support families traveling for medical care, survivors fleeing domestic violence and exploitation, and more.”

Affordable housing advocates have long criticized Airbnb, which reported $12.2 billion in revenue in 2025, for reducing the number of available lower-cost residential homes by shifting long-term properties into short-term rentals. Cities like New York City and San Francisco have implemented restrictions on Airbnb and other short-term rentals to combat a shrinking housing supply and rising rents.

Whether Airbnb’s expanded financial commitment results in a net benefit remains an open question, especially as the company is the subject of an active Los Angeles lawsuit for allegedly permitting price gouging of at least 2,000 rental properties during the series of massive wildfires in the state last year, where more than 200,000 people lost their homes.