As you may know, solidarity in order to help people in need of temporary housing, sharing supporting videos, applause for healthcare staff, crafting masks, grocery services for isolated people etc... is organizing everywhere to help in our way fighting against COVID-19. On our side, we are very proud to highlight & support some of those great programs in the vacation rental industry and give you the key information if you wish to participate.

How can I join the help?

• A new Airbnb OpenHomes & First Responders App in our BookingSync App Center
  

The “Open Homes” program available since 2017 is made to offer a place to stay topeople in need of temporary housing (refugees looking for shelter, people receiving treatment, people evacuated or relief workers). For the time being, this program is currently available only inFrance and Italy, and all stays going through this program are offered for free.

The “First Responders” program is part of Open Homes and is  designed toprovide accommodation to healthcare staff and first responders in order to allow them to be close to their patients– and safely distanced from their own families. Please note that for now this program is only eligible in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain and France. You can choose to offer your rentals for free (by default), at a discounted rate or at full price.

Guests will be able to request to book on Airbnb, after which you will be able to accept those requests from your Airbnb account. When accepting such booking requests, Airbnb willblock your calendar for the 72h following the check out of that booking, to allow enough time for adeep cleaning. The booking will be synced, however the 72h blocked period will not be synced to your BookingSync calendar, and we recommendmanually blocking the time needed for cleaning after the check out on your BookingSync calendar.

• To Guests, with Love

We all miss the guests. Their brilliant smiles, providing grand hospitality, new experiences, and especially new friendships. Whilst we are all waiting for travel to resume, the To Guest, with Love organisation wanted to give property managers and travel lovers everywhere a reason to smile. 

To Guests, With Love is a collaboration between vacation rental industry leaders across the globe, creating a video montage of hosts, owners, and managers patiently and responsibly waiting to welcome guests again. To Guests, With Love is a video project montage of dozens of brief video clips of you—vacation rental professionals. 

On our side, the BookingSync team already took part in this project, and we hope that If you are reading this, you might be happy to help with your participation! 

How can I help share love and show the world we are ready to welcome them back!? We need people to record a short video—simple and fun, showing you doing your choice of activity, and we will add the upbeat music and editing to tie it all together. For more details on the video and how to submit, check out the official To Guests, With Love website.

Of course, if you happen to know anyone involved in the vacation rental industry who also wants to participate, please share this blog post. Let's show the world we are stronger together!

• Les Logements Solidaires "Solidarity housing" (only available in France)

“Charles Osborn” property manager in Sète, south of France, decided with over 40 volunteers to create the platform www.les-logements-solidaires.com, a non-profit association. This organization was created in order to connect healthcare staff looking for accommodation close to hospitals and homeowners or property managers, so they can find shelter for free.
They already managed to build a large community of supportive landlords, but appeal to your generosity in order to fullfil the huge need that is still present.
Each homeowner or property manager registers for free their property for a fixed period on the platform. The organization “Les Logements Solidaires” does not charge any commission or financial compensation. Each person envolved with this solidarity project will allow our caregivers to no longer be afraid to return home and endanger their loved ones. They are counting on you to help them build this ecosystem of solidarity.