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Airbnb hosts are leaving the platform in protest of co-founder Joe Gebbia’s decision to join the Department of Government Efficiency, a controversial initiative created by President Trump to dramatically reduce government spending by cutting department budgets, eliminating agencies and enacting mass layoffs of federal employees without Congressional oversight.
DOGE’s manager, billionaire Elon Musk, asked Gebbia on Monday to join the initiative in an unspecified role. Although Gebbia is no longer part of Airbnb’s day-to-day operations, a growing number of hosts on the platform said they plan to pull their listings off the site in protest.
Virginia-based host Krista O’Donnell told The San Francisco Standard on Thursday that she’s pulled her Alexandria home off the platform — ending a 10-year relationship with Airbnb. O’Donnell said Gebbia’s decision shocked her, pointing out the platform’s previous work supporting refugees who needed emergency housing.
“I was just honored to be a part of that,” she said of her stint housing Afghan refugees in 2021. “How could a company that did that now work with the Trump administration that has no respect for refugees?”
Although data analysts have debunked news of a housing exodus in Washington, D.C., O’Donnell said she’s already seeing the impacts of DOGE’s decision to lay off thousands of employees at several key agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Agriculture. Another 77,000 employees have reportedly accepted DOGE’s so-called buyout, which will continue as a federal judge declined to pause it again on Feb. 12.
“Being in the D.C. area and seeing the impact that DOGE has had on our community and economy, I just feel like I can no longer be an Airbnb host in good faith,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t want to be a part of an organization that’s generating profit for someone that’s destroying the government and destroying my community.”
Another host in North Carolina, Kathleen Zeren, told the San Francisco publication her listing is still on the site, although she’s blocked booking. Zeren said her Airbnb income is a crucial chunk of her retirement plan; however, she can’t support a platform with a co-founder who’s helping “ruin democracy.”
“If [Gebbia] is associated with DOGE and still a part of Airbnb, then I’m out of it,” she said. “He’s not allowed to help ruin our democracy and trade for money — I can’t support that. I don’t want to give him any of my money.”
“I’m really kind of stuck,” she added. “We all need our incomes. I don’t know what to do right now.”
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky hasn’t commented on Gebbia’s political moves; however, a company spokesperson told The Standard and Newsweek, both of which broke news about hosts’ exodus, that Gebbia’s decision doesn’t reflect the company.
“Airbnb has always been about more than the viewpoint of any one person,” the spokesperson said. “Our community is made up of millions of hosts and hundreds of millions of guests from all walks of life.”
