We announced the $17 million Superhost Relief Fund on March 30th. Our goal with this fund is to help some of the hosts most affected by the impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry.
We have already awarded $7.4 million in grants and are working to get more grants out as swiftly as possible. We are still inviting more hosts to apply, reviewing applications, and awarding grants. Here are more details on our progress.
Who can apply
We’ve shared eligibility criteria that determine who qualifies for an invitation. We are limiting eligibility to hosts who have lost a significant percentage of their earnings due to COVID-19.
To make this assessment, we compare a host’s earnings from last year to their earnings this year. We look at the percentage of earnings loss, not the total value of losses. This helps ensure we invite hosts who earn at different rates.
How we send invitations
Among the hosts who qualify, we use additional criteria to prioritize invitations. We’re prioritizing hosts who have had Superhost status for a long time. People who have had Superhost status for 4 and 5 years are the first ones getting invited to apply. So far, the average tenure of hosts who have received grants is 4.5 years of hosting on Airbnb.
Who we’ve reached so far
We send a batch of invitations to apply every week. Each batch reaches about 5,000 people. Every host who applies gets a response within 2 weeks. We’ve already invited about 15,000 hosts to apply for a grant, and 68% of those hosts are outside the United States.
How much we’ve awarded
So far, nearly half the hosts who got invitations have applied; and the majority of hosts who applied received a grant. The grants range from $1,000 to $5,000. We’ve already awarded over $7.4 million in grants.
What’s next
We estimate we’ll invite about 20,000 hosts to apply for grants from the fund—that means not all Superhost will receive an invitation. The exact number will depend on how many hosts apply and receive grants. We’ll keep going until we grant the entire $17 million. We plan to send out all invitations by the end of May.
We want to thank all the hosts who have used their applications to share their stories with us. We know it’s a difficult time throughout the global community, and we’ll continue to look for ways to provide support. Looking ahead, we’ll be focusing on helping you get back to hosting. That means offering new ways for you to understand booking trends and prepare for guests as travel returns.