SolarCity will give Airbnb users a rebate on solar panels
Both guests and hosts can get $1000 back for signing up.
Airbnb has had a tough time touting its happy userbase while it doggedly fights citywide bans and its own racist hosts. One of their promotional tacks has been the environmental benefits of choosing home rentals, as the company did two years ago when a study they funded found that using private residences to host guests was greener than traditional hotels. Today, they're announcing a different climate-conscious deal with clean energy company SolarCity: Airbnb guests and hosts get a $1000 rebate if they load up their homes with solar panels.
That rate drops to $750 back come April 2017 and expires completely by the end of next year, though users must apply for the deal through their site here. Existing SolarCity customers who become Airbnb hosts get a $100 coupon for the service, which is enough to snag at least a single night out in most cities.
The deal is an odd startup partnership on its own, but especially so after Tesla and SolarCity announced their $2.6 billion merger at the beginning of August. But all details on what solar cell setups qualify for the $1000 rebate are hidden behind the energy company's application page. In other words, no idea whether Airbnb customers will be able to get their own Elon Musk-certified roof made of solar panels.
