Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has committed to working for government efficiency. The Airbnb host is not happy about it.
Inman on Tour: Increase the volume of real estate success in Nashville! Connect with industry pioneers and top speakers, gain insights, cutting-edge strategies and valuable connectivity. Increase your business and achieve your most audacious goals – all with Music City Magic. Sign up now.
Airbnb hosts have been with President Trump dramatically cutting, cutting department budgets, eliminating agencies, eliminating agencies, and enacting large layoffs of large federal employees It is leaving the platform in protest of the decision to join co-founder Joe Gebbiaent of Government Efficiency, a controversial initiative to dramatically reduce government spending. Congress oversight.
Doge’s manager billionaire Elon Musk asked Gebbia to join the initiative in an unspecified role on Monday. Gebbia is no longer part of Airbnb’s daily work, but as the number of hosts on the platform increases, it plans to protest and pull listings from the site.
Virginia-based host Christa O’Donnell told the San Francisco Standard on Thursday that he had pulled his Alexandria home away from the platform. O’Donnell said Gebvier’s decision shocked her, pointing to her previous work on a platform that supports refugees in need of emergency housing.
“I was honored to be a part of it,” she said in 2021 about Stint’s housing, which lives with Afghan refugees.
Data analysts uncovered news from Washington, DC’s Housing Exodus, but O’Donnell is said to be firing thousands of employees at several major agencies, including the Bureau of Veterans Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control. The Department of Agriculture said it has already seen the impact of Doge’s decision. Another 77,000 employees reportedly accepted the so-called acquisition of Doge. This continues as a federal judge refused to suspend it again on February 12th.
“Being in the DC area and seeing the impact Doge has had on our community and the economy, I feel I can no longer be a sincere Airbnb host,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t want to be part of an organization that is making profits for those who are destroying governments and destroying my community.”
Kathleen Zelen, another North Carolina host, told the San Francisco publication that her listing is still on the site, but she has blocked reservations. Zelen said her Airbnb income is a key chunk of her retirement plans. But she can’t support co-founders and platforms that help “smash democracy.”
“if [Gebbia] It’s related to Doge, it’s part of Airbnb, and then I’m out of it,” she said. “He is not allowed to ruin our democracy and help us trade for money. I cannot support it. I don’t want to give him my money. .”
“I’m really stuck,” she added. “We all need income. We don’t know what to do right now.”
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky has not commented on Gebbia’s political moves. However, a corporate spokesperson told The Standard and Newsweek that they had broken the news about the host’s book of Exodus.
“Airbnb has always been more than just one person’s perspective,” the spokesman said. “Our community consists of millions of hosts and millions of guests from all walks of life.”
Email Marian McPherson