Hollywood’s Hottest New Event: the Airbnb.org Gala?

A hot new gala has entered the Hollywood events scene, from a slightly unexpected source.

Airbnb.org — the nonprofit arm of Airbnb that offers free, temporary housing to people in need — threw its first-ever gala on Wednesday night, featuring a top-tier guest list at Los Angeles’ Milk Studios. Jimmy Kimmel hosted the evening as A-listers including Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Zoe Saldaña, Cynthia Erivo, Charli xcx, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, Sienna Miller, Greta Lee, Serena Williams, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Alba, Tracee Ellis Ross, Paul Bettany, Joshua Jackson, Ava DuVernay and Demi Lovato were all in attendance.

The event was timed to Airbnb.org’s new initiative where Airbnb will donate a portion of its revenue from every stay to its nonprofit, which will help provide $500 million to Airbnb.org over the next five years. This is all towards the goal of providing 1 million nights of free housing annually and expanding its support beyond disaster response to families traveling for medical care, survivors fleeing domestic violence and more. Since its founding in 2020, Airbnb.org has provided 1.6 million nights of free emergency housing worldwide and responded to more than 200 disasters in 2026 alone.

“We wanted to do a celebration, a gala to really get the word out and let people know that we’re here to help and we want to be able to keep housing more people,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said of arranging the big night, teasing that with the star-studded group of guests, “we mostly do housing but we have a really good team that can get a good turnout together.”

Kimmel got the evening going with some classic Airbnb humor, teasing that at the event “we have some ground rules. Quiet hours start at 10 p.m.; if you use dishes, please bring them to the sink. No pets are allowed unless they’re service animals, which we know none of them really are. And no sitting naked on the furniture or on Chef José Andrés,” who curated the gala’s dinner menu.

The host also joked, “At the end of the show, you’ll have 14 days to post a review of your experience tonight. Please be generous, I hope it’s positive.” Theron made a brief appearance on stage to speak about the domestic violence element of the housing initiative, noting, “if you’ve ever sat down with a survivor of domestic violence, you’ll know that somewhere to stay isn’t just a small thing, it’s actually everything. Because one of the hardest parts of leaving is not just deciding to leave, it’s having somewhere to go,” adding, “the key to a door is not charity, it is the foundation that everything else is built on.”

Many of the stars spent the evening mingling in between dinner courses, and the event closed out with a surprise performance from Charli xcx, with Greta Lee, will.i.am and Jaden Smith all spotted dancing in front of the stage. Among the gala’s additional guests: Kelly Rowland, Katie Couric, Charli D’Amelio, Chloe Grace Moretz, Madelyn Cline, La La Anthony, Adéla, Emily Bader and Megan Rapinoe.