REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
The big news coming out of the Olympics is how Sochi, Russia, is failing at being a polite host to the thousands of people who have been flooding the town this week in anticipation of the event.
Journalists who've been arriving in Sochi have taken to Twitter to complain about the accommodations - or lack of accommodations - using the hash tag #SochiProblems.
And that's where Airbnb stepped in, offering up more than 400 rentals (at the time of this writing).
But the company didn't just wait for people to use it as an alternative. It instead took to Twitter to try to help solve people's problems directly, with the help of ad agency Pereira & O'Dell, according to SF Gate.
It started out with this:
Having #SochiProblems? Hotel lacking water? Floors? 500+ Airbnb listings in #Sochi are ready to welcome guests http://t.co/YHlvMS4jVU
- Airbnb (@Airbnb) February 7, 2014
But it then soon started sending tweets directly to some of the journalists, like this one, to National Post sports columnist Bruce Arthur:
.@bruce_arthur We found your hot water & it has new friends: a heated towel rack & a cozy apartment http://t.co/0GvxjnF7aX #SochiProblems
- Airbnb (@Airbnb) February 7, 2014
No word yet on whether any of the journalists decided to use Airbnb as an alternative. But judging by some of the pictures of what they're dealing with, it doesn't seem like that bad of an idea.