AIrbnb has set aside $250 million to pay hosts impacted by its coronavirus policy, the company announced Monday.Airbnb will pay hosts 25% of what they normally would have received through their own cancellation policies for trips with check-in dates between March 14 and May 31.Hosts had expressed outrage after Airbnb overrode their policies by allowing travelers to cancel reservations and get full refunds, leaving hosts bearing most of the financial burden."We have heard from you and we know we could have been better partners," CEO Brian Chesky wrote in a letter to hosts.Airbnb also announced other coronavirus-related efforts, including donations from its founders, enabling guests to financially support hosts, and enlisting hosts to house healthcare workers.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Airbnb announced Monday that it had set aside $250 million to help hosts regain some of the income they lose as a result of the company's coronavirus policy, which allows travelers to cancel trips and receive a full refund.

"When a guest cancels a reservation due to a COVID-19 related circumstance, with a check-in between March 14 and May 31, we will pay you 25% of what you would normally receive through your cancellation policy. This applies retroactively to all COVID-19 related cancellations during this period," CEO Brian Chesky wrote in a letter sent to hosts Monday. 

Chesky said Airbnb would begin issuing the payments in April and that guests who had booked trips on or before March 14 can still cancel and receive a "standard refund or travel credit equivalent for 100% of what they paid."

With few people traveling or plannings trips at all at the moment, it's unclear how many cancellations hosts will see during the time the policy is in effect, but an Airbnb spokesperson said the company expects that $250 million will be enough to cover any that are made.

The announcement comes after hosts expressed outrage at Airbnb for overriding their cancellation policies — which often only offer partial refunds for guests who cancel more than a few days after making the reservation — by allowing guests to receive full refunds for any coronavirus-related cancellations. 

While Airbnb's decision to allow full refunds likely pleased guests, hosts said they were unhappy about having to bear the vast majority of the cost of those refunds despite not having a say in the decision. Airbnb typically takes around a 12% cut from the amount guests pay, and when guests cancel, the company refunds those fees to them — meaning about 88% of the money being returned to travelers comes out of hosts' pockets.

"I believe we did the right thing in prioritizing health and safety," Chesky wrote in defense of the policy, before apologizing for making the decision without input from hosts. "We have heard from you and we know we could have been better partners," he said.

The company also announced several other coronavirus-related efforts, including: $9 million contributed by its founders and $1 million by employees to support its top hosts who may be struggling to cover rent and mortgage payments; building a tool for guests to donate money to hosts they've previously stayed with; and enlisting hosts to house healthcare workers for free or at a discounted rate — Airbnb said 40,000 hosts so far had commited to that service.

The company has been hit hard by the economic fallout of the coronavirus as travel has ground to a halt around the world. Airbnb has also been walking a tightrope as it tries to balance the interests of hosts, guests, employees, and investors — all amid plans to go public this year (though investors are concerned that those plans could be delayed amid tough market conditions).

As it tries to navigate an unprecedented and unexpected threat to its business, Airbnb has reportedly been listening to pitches from outside investors and has asked Congress for help by urging it to pass a collection of tax relief and loan measures that would specifically benefit its network of hosts.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

As the coronavirus closes schools and workplaces, people are increasingly turning to Zoom video calls.Some public Zoom calls have dealt with trolls joining and sharing graphic images, and online classes have faced people hijacking a meeting, called "Zoom bombing."Zoom has a setting called waiting room that lets an administrator screen people before allowing them into meetings. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, has closed schools and workplaces around the US as it becomes the hardest-hit country in the world.

In response, schools have turned to tools like Zoom for remote learning, even for children as young as two years old. As Zoom becomes central to daily life, "Zoom bombing," or trolls taking over an online meeting without permission and bombarding the meeting with pornographic images, has increased. The FBI reportedly noted two recent incidents in Massachussetts schools. 

 Zoom has a hidden tool to prevent Zoom bombing, called waiting room. The setting lets a meeting administrator screen who can enter the call, preventing uninvited guests from taking over. Here's how to enable it.

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

It's possible to post highlights of your Instagram Stories to preserve a selection of your stories, which usually disappear after 24 hours. 

After you post Instagram Stories, they'll be saved in a private Stories Archive in your account. You can turn any of these stories into "Highlights," which will appear publicly on your profile page. 

Each highlight has a cover photo, and the default cover option is the first photo or video within that highlight. But it's easy to change the highlight cover to another image so it looks exactly the way you want on your profile. 

Here's how to do it. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $899.99 at Best Buy)

How to make Instagram highlight covers

1. Launch the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android phone. 

2. Tap the profile icon on the far right of the bottom menu. 

3. Find your highlights under your profile bio and select the one you want to edit the cover of. 

Tap the highlight you want to change the cover for. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

4. In the bottom right-hand corner, tap the three horizontal dots above the word "More" — this will access the highlights menu. 

Tap More. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

5. Select Edit Highlight from the pop-up menu. 

Select Edit Highlight. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

6. Under Edit Highlight, tap Edit Cover. 

Select Edit Cover. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

7. Toggle through your highlights to find the photo you want to use as the cover. If the photo you want to use as the highlight's cover is not already in your highlights, you must add it. 

8. Resize it to your liking. 

Once you've selected and resized your cover photo, tap Done. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

9. Tap Done in the upper right-hand corner, and once more to save your changes.

Your highlight cover will now reflect the changes. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

Original author: Meira Gebel

You can sell items on eBay in a few steps, but you'll first need to have an eBay account.You should include as many details as you can on your item listing, including photos, condition, and brand. 
You can choose to auction your item to the highest bidder or sell it immediately to someone at a fixed price using the "Buy It Now" option. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Many of us are guilty of buying way too much stuff that we never end up using. While it's great to donate unwanted clothes, shoes, and other items to charities when possible, for items that are newer or of higher value, it might be worth making a few extra bucks by listing them for sale on eBay. 

Listing items for sale on eBay is a straightforward process. Once you create a listing, you can even customize it to best suit how you want to sell.

Here's how to get started so you can start raking in some extra cash. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $469.99 at Walmart)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

How to sell items on eBay by listing them on the site

1. Log into your eBay account at https://www.ebay.com on your Mac or PC or make an account if you don't already have one. 

2. Click "Sell" in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

3. On the next page, begin by entering information on the item you're selling. This will help eBay determine which category your item should be listed in. 

Original author: Jennifer Still

Top Disney executives, including Bob Iger and CEO Bob Chapek, are taking pay cuts as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the media giant's stock and impede its operations globally. Iger will forgo his full salary, the company announced on Monday in a memo to employees.Iger's base salary was $3 million last fiscal year, and he made $47.5 million in total compensation.Chapek, who became CEO in February, will take a 50% salary cut.The cost-saving measures will start on April 5 and remain "until we foresee a substantive recovery in our business," Chapek said.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Disney's top executives, including executive chairman Bob Iger and chief executive Bob Chapek, are taking pay cuts as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the media giant's stock and impede its operations globally. 

The pay cuts will start on April 5 and remain in place "until we foresee a substantive recovery in our business," Chapek wrote in the memo to Disney employees that was reported by multiple outlets on Monday.

Iger, who has been criticized by Disney heiress Abigail Disney in the past for his "insane" pay, is forgoing his full salary. His base salary was $3 million last fiscal year, and he made $47.5 million in total compensation including stock options and awards and bonuses.

Chapek, who became CEO in February, will reduce his salary by half. 

Other execs will take pay cuts too:

Vice president salaries will be reduced by 20%Senior vice president salaries by 25%Executive vice president salaries by 30%

The cost-savings measure comes after Disney lost nearly one-third of its market value in the past month, as the coronavirus pandemic dragged on the stock market as a whole. 

Disney is one of media companies hit hardest by the pandemic, which impeded its operations around the world. The company was forced to shutter its theme-park operations globally, including closing its profitable US parks and hotels indefinitely. Its film releases have been delayed, and TV and movie productions have been halted. The loss of live sports has also hamstrung its cable network ESPN.

"The pandemic is also having a devastating impact on the global and US economies, and it's hitting businesses like ours particularly hard," Chapek wrote in the memo, published by Deadline. "In a matter of weeks, we've experienced widespread disruption across our company."

Disney has said it will continue paying the cast members who work at its domestic parks through April 18. 

The key factors analysts are watching at 5 major media companies including Disney and Fox to help determine whether their stock will keep falling or rebound: Combined, Disney, Fox, ViacomCBS, Discovery, and AMC Networks lost $92 billion in market value since the last market high on Feb. 19, largely thanks to Disney.Disney has closed its US parks 'until further notice' and risks losing $1.5 billion in revenue per month they are shut, analysts say: Disney is extending "until further notice" its closures of its US theme parks, Disney World and Disneyland, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company announced on March 27. Analysts lay out the financial damage each of Disney's businesses could face, as it closes parks 'until further notice' and delays films: Disney is one of the media companies most exposed the impact of the coronavirus because of its large theme park and theatrical businesses.Why analysts say Disney and Discovery are the media giants most threatened by the coronavirus, but Comcast could fare better: Companies that generate significant shares of their revenue from theme parks, films, and advertising are most sensitive to the pandemic, and a potential economic downturn it could ignite.Why Netflix's business could take a hit from the coronavirus, despite reports that 'stay at home' stocks could benefit: Much of Netflix's revenue growth is international, including markets like Europe and Asia, which are especially vulnerable to the virus.Disney's surprise CEO change makes sense because of the coronavirus' growing impact on its business, according to a Wall Street analyst: The day-to-day pressures of the Disney CEO may mount if the coronavirus continues to spread outside of China, drawing former chief Bob Iger's focus at a crucial creative moment.

Original author: Ashley Rodriguez

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Original author: Antonio Villas-Boas

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told Business Insider that the coronavirus pandemic and the new, work-from-home reality is forcing a lot of companies to accelerate their digital transformation plans.Slack has experienced a huge influx of new customers and that's creating novel hiring challenges for the company, Butterfield said.It's clear that engineering talent is needed to ensure the product can support all the new users. But, Butterfield said, the company is still thinking about how to hire in other areas like sales and recruiting given that everyone is now working from home.Slack is also working on an integration with its rival Microsoft Teams video calling feature, to support customers who need video conferencing tools right now. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Slack, the six-year old workplace chat app, has been thrust into the spotlight in the last few weeks. As most of the world has to work from home to stop the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, tools that enable remote work have spiked in popularity. 

Though Slack wasn't built specifically to be a tool for remote work, its chat and collaboration features make it perfect for this situation. And although initially Slack said it was mainly seeing usage for the free version of the product, it appears to be benefiting from a huge increase in paid customers as well — adding 9,000 new paid customers since the beginning of February.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told Business Insider the company is still grappling with how to deal with the influx of new business, while taking into account the current economic climate. 

The question Butterfield is considering is: "Do we want to be more conservative than we initially planned this year or do we want to be more aggressive because we're going to be in a good competitive position for recruiting?" 

It's a double edged sword. He, and other CEOs in his position, expect fewer people to leave their current jobs because people will be more conservative. That also means it might be harder to hire and recruit new talent because people are less willing to take a risk and leave their jobs at a time like this. Additionally, all job interviews for the foreseeable future are online, which changes the hiring process and how new employees are onboarded.

"So it's going to take us a while to figure out what that new reality is like and whether we're even able to hit the hiring targets that we wanted," Butterfield said in an interview with Business Insider. "It's just another area of uncertainty and you know, there's places where we know that we will hire absolutely as quickly as possible, that's in any area that's to support the ongoing growth because that's not optional," 

Handing a surge of new users

New teams of users are joining Slack at a record pace, Butterfield explained. Before, it might have taken a few months for a new organization to start using Slack and then eventually make the decision to pay for a more advanced version. That's now happening in days and existing teams are upgrading faster than before. 

So Slack needs to hire people who can support that growth. 

One of those areas is engineering, Butterfield said. In order to support the magnitude of new users using Slack, the back-end infrastructure that Slack runs on has to work even harder. In order to do that, the company needs more engineers.

"It's a big complicated system and we are continuing to scale, and both on the leadership side and regular old engineers. We really want to grow," Butterfield said. 

It's not quite as simple in other parts of the business, like sales, marketing, and recruiting. On the one hand not having to travel could make it simpler for salespeople to close deals, but on the other hand it could be harder to close deals when you're not face to face. The same goes with recruiting roles. Roles such as field marketing will have lower demand, because there aren't any upcoming field marketing events to attend. 

Those are areas Slack was planning to hire in where they might now hire less than planned, Butterfield said. 

But navigating the economic climate right now is difficult, even for those who were in the workforce during the 2008 Great Recession. "It's unlike anything that happened in my lifetime,and I worked through 2008. I worked through the dot com crash. This is just totally different," Butterfield said. 

It's got Butterfield a bit skeptical about if its surge in growth will last, which he acknowledged in a series of tweets last week.

Despite that, Slack is really focused on how valuable its product can be right now, during this situation, he added.

Competition with Microsoft

While Slack provides a chat and collaboration tool, the other tool that newly remote companies need now is video conferencing. While Slack has some basic video calling features, it's not building those out. Instead it's focusing on building integrations with the numerous existing video conferencing tools that already exist, like Zoom and Cisco's WebEx. 

And recently Butterfield also said that Slack is looking to build an integration with its largest rival Microsoft Teams, though he told Business Insider, all the details aren't quite ironed out yet. He said 70 percent of Slack's customers are also Microsoft customers and use its suite of productivity tools. The main use case they've seen for Microsoft Teams is video calling. 

"So just like we already integrate with Zoom, we already integrate with Cisco WebEx, we want to make an integration with those Teams calling functionalities so people can answer calls," he said. "It's basically bringing Teams to parity with the other voice and video calling services."

While this might be confusing to some because Slack and Microsoft Teams often compete for customers, Butterfield said people are misunderstanding how often they actually compete. 

"I think we don't really compete as much with customers. That's not to say that we don't ever, because four of the five biggest enterprise deals we did last quarter were head to head Teams vs Slack. But I think much more of the time, it's Slack versus email," he said. 

By that, Butterfield means, organizations choosing to use Slack for internal communication rather than email, despite the fact that they might also have access to Teams. And the longer we're all forced to work from home, the more companies will turn to chat and collaboration tools like Slack, Butterfield said.

So long term, software companies could see a positive impact, because so many companies are actually in the early stages of digital transformation. Right now, most companies just have emails and meetings as tools to get work done, but they're being pushed to find other ways to solve problems, he added. 

"Companies that were really resistant to technological change or, you know, were in the bottom 50 percentile in terms of digital transformation, they all just got a mandatory 'Use more software' command that they can't ignore," said Butterfield.

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Original author: Paayal Zaveri

A creative group of Boulder entrepreneurs, led by Vikas Reddy and Kyle Judah and inspired by San Franciso entrepreneurs/investors Frank Barbieri and Ryan Sarver have created and put into action a program that supports both frontline health workers and local independent restaurants.

They’ve created a program called Feed the Frontlines Boulder that lets the community donate meals from local restaurants to health workers on the frontlines. Health workers get a nourishing meal, and local restaurants get badly needed business to keep running and keep staff employed.

Feed the Frontlines Boulder was conceived and implemented in a week. We have one month of meals paid for through an initial contribution of $200,000 from me and Amy Batchelor, Dan and Cindy Caruso, John Goldsmith, and an anonymous donor.

We are now looking to raise another $200,000 for month two of Feed the Frontlines Boulder.

100% of the money goes to local restaurants. The first restaurants participating are Salt, Big Red F Restaurant Group, Kitchen Next Door, Japango, Blackbelly/Santo, and Community Kitchen Table. The food services partner at the hospital, BCH Food Services, has generously offered their trained staff and facilities to help receive, distribute, and store the meals delivered by the restaurants.

I’m blown away by the generosity and execution around this. I love that we are doing something to take care of our frontline hospital workers at BCH who are putting in an incredible effort around the Covid crisis that I expect to be extremely intense in April. And, I’m psyched that we are buying meals from local Boulder restaurants.

Following are three links in case you want to contribute in some way:

Contribute financially to the Feed the Frontlines Boulder FundAre a restaurant in Boulder County and want to participateWant to Feed the Frontlines in your city

We depend on our frontline hospital workers right now. And, we all want to see our local restaurants survive this crisis, especially the short-term shut down of their businesses. If you have the resources or the interest, please help any way you can.

Original author: Brad Feld

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana_Mitra

Original author: jyotsna popuri

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Paul Morigi / Stringer / Getty Images

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway can afford almost any of America's public companies following the coronavirus sell-off.The billionaire investor's conglomerate held $125 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of December.Berkshire's cash pile exceeds the market capitalizations of more than 450 companies in the S&P 500, more than 80 in the Nasdaq 100, and 11 in the Dow 30.Ignoring all other factors, Berkshire could afford McDonald's ($125 billion), Boeing ($102 billion), Tesla ($97 billion), or Starbucks ($82 billion).Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway can afford to buy almost any of America's public companies after coronavirus fears decimated their market capitalizations in recent weeks.

The famed investor's conglomerate boasted $125 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments in US Treasuries at the end of December. Assuming that figure hasn't changed, and looking purely at market caps — ignoring whether a purchase would be feasible, sensible, or even legal — Berkshire could buy one of more than 450 companies in the S&P 500, more than 80 in the Nasdaq 100, and 11 in the Dow 30 without needing a loan, as of the close of trading on March 27.

For example, Berkshire could afford McDonald's ($125 billion) or PayPal ($118 billion) in the S&P 500. On the Dow, it could snap up Boeing ($102 billion), IBM ($100 billion), or Goldman Sachs ($57 billion) without blowing its budget. In the Nasdaq 100, neither Tesla ($97 billion) nor Starbucks ($82 billion) would break the bank.

True, Buffett prizes financial security and has vowed to never exhaust Berkshire's cash pile.

"We consider a portion of that stash to be untouchable, having pledged to always hold at least $20 billion in cash equivalents to guard against external calamities," he said in his 2018 letter to shareholders.

Read more: A notorious market bear says stocks are still historically expensive after tumbling on coronavirus — and warns a plunge 'of about 50% from here' is still coming

Moreover, shareholders of a company on the auction block typically demand a premium to its current market cap to reflect its future earnings potential.

Assuming Berkshire wouldn't spend more than $105 billion in total, and had to pay a 20% premium, it could still afford the industrials titan 3M ($78 billion), T-Mobile US ($73 billion), United Parcel Service ($86 billion), or General Electric ($71 billion). It could even buy Target ($48 billion) and have enough cash left over to buy General Motors ($32 billion).

As a cautious investor, Buffett would undoubtedly snub many of these businesses. However, the raft of possible acquisitions in his price range highlights both the scale of the recent sell-off and the rich potential of Berkshire's huge cash pile.

Buffett is on the hunt for an "elephant-sized acquisition," and his choice of elephants has grown substantially.

Read more: Bill Miller's fund crushed the market for a record 15 straight years. He told us his strategy for the coronavirus meltdown, calling it 'one of the 5 great buying opportunities of my lifetime.'

Here's a chart showing how several blue-chip companies have fallen into Buffett's price range:

Business Insider

Original author: Theron Mohamed

As major movie-theater chains close in the US due to the coronavirus, studios are releasing movies early to video-on-demand.They include Warner Bros.' "Birds of Prey," Sony's "Bloodshot," and Universal's "The Invisible Man."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

This story was originally published on March 17 and will be updated as more movies become available on digital early.

As theaters across the US close due to the coronavirus pandemic, movies that were recently on the big screen are arriving early on digital rental or streaming for audiences to watch at home. 

Major theater chains like AMC Theatres and Regal have shut down all US locations in accordance with national guidelines to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. 

In an unprecedented move, Universal Pictures was the first to announce that it would make four of its movies available on video-on-demand. More studios followed.

Below is every movie coming early to digital and streaming:

Original author: Travis Clark

Netflix recently introduced daily top lists of the most popular titles on the service.Streaming search engine Reelgood keeps track of the lists and provides Business Insider with a rundown of the week's most popular movies on Netflix.This week, it includes Spanish-language thriller "The Platform" and disaster flick "2012."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix recently introduced daily top 10 lists of its most popular movies and TV shows.

Netflix counts a view if an account watches at least two minutes of a movie or TV show. This is how it calculates the daily top 10 lists and the lists are updated each morning to reflect the previous day.

Every week, the streaming search engine Reelgood compiles for Business Insider a list of which movies have been most prominent on the streamer's daily lists over the previous week.

This week, they include Netflix's new Spanish-language thriller "The Platform" and the disaster movie "2012."

And "Spenser Confidential," Netflix's critically reviled original movie starring Mark Wahlberg, retains the top spot.

Below are Netflix's 7 most popular movies of the week in the US:

Original author: Travis Clark

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

Hulu; Alyssa Powell/Business Insider For $5.99 a month (ad-supported) or $11.99 a month (ad-free), you'll gain access to Hulu's entire streaming catalog of TV shows, original series, and movies.While movies often aren't the main draw of Hulu, its collection of over 2,500 titles is nothing to sneeze at.Standout new releases include "Booksmart", "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," and "A Quiet Place."Classics like "Vacation", "When Harry Met Sally," and "Good Will Hunting," also make our list of top picks.If you're looking for a reliable device to stream Hulu on, check out our guides to the best 4K TVs and the best streaming players.

 

Though Hulu originally launched as a platform aimed at bringing TV series to streamers, over the years it's built a sizable movie catalog, with over 2,500 titles across genres. I've often viewed it as a nice supplement to my Hulu subscription rather than what drives me to the platform, which is still its collection of my favorite shows and its host of original content. 

But as I was browsing their film selection, I kept finding myself saying, "I didn't know Hulu had this," and adding it to my watch list. It's become clear to me that I have to turn my attention away from watching "30 Rock" over and over again and start streaming some of Hulu's vast movie collection. Clearly, I have a lot of content to catch up on.

If you don't yet have a Hulu subscription, the ad-supported option remains one of the most affordable streaming services on the market at $5.99 a month, or you can upgrade to the ad-free option — which I think is well worth it — for $11.99 a month. For those who want even more content, the ad-supported Hulu is also available as a bundle with Disney Plus and ESPN+ for $12.99 a month ($5/month less than buying each separately). 

Each tier gives you access to Hulu's entire movie catalog as well as the platform's entire collection of shows and Hulu Originals. And it couldn't be easier to stream. The Hulu app already comes installed on most smart TVs, so all you have to do is log in and start streaming. If you don't have a smart TV, any streaming box or stick will have Hulu available as an app as well. Or you can always stream on your phone or laptop.

Once you get set up, here's our list of the best movies available for streaming on Hulu. Our selection features a mix of recent releases and classic titles across multiple genres, ensuring that all viewing needs are accounted for. All of the movies we've selected are categorized as fresh by critics and audience members on the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. 

Updated on 03/20/2020 by Steven Cohen: Removed films no longer available on Hulu and added new picks that you can stream right now. Updated formatting and added links to related guides and services to provide more home entertainment recommendations in light of current events. 

Original author: Jen Gushue and Steven Cohen