[rrrazdan]

I know your comment is for the majority but I have had meaningful connections with my hosts. Some I am still in touch years later.

If the host reached out to me on their own, I would probably help them. But to have Airbnb guilt trip people into donating is beyond me as well.

[malechimp]

I think we are mistaking Airbnb for couchsurf.

Even in the cases when I met my hosts the transaction was 100% monetary one. Not one of them, ever, offered me to stay some more free of charge - just because we got along well. And I did get along well with all of them. On the contrary, I have slept on the floor at a friends house a few nights because some of these hosts hanged me at the last moment (e.g. when they realized that my flight was coming in too late for them).

Don't take me wrong. I'm not venting here. It took me a while to realize it myself, that Airbnb is not couchsurfing. It is a market. And a hard one at that. That's fine by me but donations are not part of such markets.

[rrrazdan]

It is possible to have a decent caring relationship on top of a commercial one. I have restaurant owners who I have a really warm relationship with. I know about their family, they enquire about mine. They will not give me a free meal and neither do I expect one. Same with some shops that I frequent.

Airbnb is certainly a market. So are restaurants. You do see people supporting their local restaurants in this crisis don't you?

[sharkmerry]

> Airbnb is certainly a market. So are restaurants. You do see people supporting their local restaurants in this crisis don't you?

Yes, people are patrons of restaurants, because restaurants are still providing food.