While many were helped, some fire victims say Airbnb’s free vouchers are useless
LA TimesDisplaced fire victims who applied for Airbnb’s free housing program say the vouchers aren’t as useful as they seem. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Todd Smoyer, who received a voucher after his house burned down in Altadena but wasn’t able to use it. We know they’re making so much money, so how hard would it be to apply the credit to a stay that’s already booked?” he said. “The first booking was made in panic, but the second I hoped might get some money back with the voucher, so we used Airbnb instead of a hotel,” she said. “Everyone who evacuated booked an Airbnb already, so what point is a voucher if it comes in days later?” The experience made her angry: not that she couldn’t use the voucher, but because the company limited the scope of people they were able to help and got so much publicity out of something that wasn’t useful to many victims.
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