Major wildfires in Los Angeles County continued to burn on Friday, January 10, 2025, prompting evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of residents displaced from their homes. If you evacuated as a result of Los Angeles fires, you may be eligible for free housing through Airbnb or a discounted hotel stay. Here’s what to know.
Airbnb.org—an independent nonprofit organization founded by Airbnb in 2020 to offer temporary housing for those affected by humanitarian crises—announced a partnership with local nonprofit 211 LA on Wednesday to provide shelter for those affected by the wildfires.
Displaced residents can complete a form with information including their full name; permanent address; total number of adults, children, and pets requiring shelter; and whether or not they are a first responder. Airbnb.org and 211 LA are working as quickly as possible to approve all parties. At this time, there is not have an estimated timeline available for when applications will be approved.
“The need is overwhelming,” Christoph Gorder, the Executive Director of Airbnb.org, tells Condé Nast Traveler. “Thousands of people have applied for this program within the first few hours of it launching yesterday.”
Once their application is approved, guests will find available credits in their profile in the Airbnb app. “Credits are based on the number of people [in each party] for what we estimate to be about seven days,” says Gorder. This means bigger families can expect more credits to find the right property than, say, someone applying solo. In order to make homes as affordable as possible, hosts located in safe areas nearby are being asked to discount their listings and Airbnb has waived all extra fees. Crowdsourced donations to Airbnb.org are used to help cover any leftover cost.
Airbnb expects more residents to be able to return to their homes within the next seven days, Gordon says, after which the organization will reevaluate who requires additional credits to extend their stay.
If you’ve already booked an Airbnb in LA and are rerouting your travel because of the fires, check your Trips page in the Airbnb app or website to see if the property you’ve booked is eligible for a full refund upon cancellation. Currently, there are a variety of impacted areas in Southern California where Airbnb’s Major Disruptive Events policy is in effect, covering evacuation zones as well as areas with travel restrictions and large-scale outages of essential utilities (such as electricity), an Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement.
In these cases, hosts and guests can cancel eligible stays without consequence and receive full refunds (or partial refunds for trips that have already started and require guests to evacuate before their official check-out time). Airbnb’s customer service team is available for help rebooking stays.
Discounted hotel stays
Many hotels in and around Los Angeles are currently offering discounted rates for LA fire evacuees. As of 8:30 a.m. on January 10, 2025, there are over 160 properties that still have availability for those displaced by the fires. Click here for the full list of hotels, courtesy of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles. “Many of our hotels are providing guests with discounted rates and the necessities they may have left behind in their evacuation, including toiletries,” HALA said in a statement on January 8, 2025, noting that many hotels are also accepting pets. Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt brands are all participating, as are several IHG Hotels & Resorts-branded hotels.
