Racist Airbnb Host Makes Unbelievable Cancelation: ‘Lay Your N***er Head To Rest Elsewhere’
Airbnb has been under scrutiny lately for the way it allows hosts to racially discriminate against clients by canceling or refusing to book them based on their ethnicity.
Most of the complaints about Airbnb hosts being racist have focused on microaggressive behavior. For instance, when dates mysteriously remained open after one African-American guest was told they were unavailable, or when another man changed his profile picture to one which did not reveal that he was black and was suddenly able to book a room much more easily.
While suspicious, these instances of potential Airbnb discrimination have nothing on how one woman was recently treated by a potential host in North Carolina. After making a reservation, a friend of Shani Taylor, who posted the exchange to social media, received a cancelation with a shocking rejection. Her host didn’t want her to stay there because he “didn’t like n***ers.”
Shortly after the Airbnb host’s racist behavior was uploaded, the company responded that they had located the offending reservation and terminated the associated account. Later, in a prepared statement to USA Today, spokesman Nick Papas assured the public that such discriminatory action was completely against both the cancelation policy and Airbnb’s own ethics.
“We were horrified when we read these messages. The language and conduct are unacceptable and violate both our policies and everything we believe in. This host has been removed from Airbnb and we’ve reached out to the guest to offer our full and complete support, including ensuring the guest has a safe place to stay.”
@shanictaylor @Airbnb this is foul. The host needs to be removed from airbnb, to keep him would render your discrimination policy worthless.
— Allison (@alliJsaurus) June 1, 2016
Racial bias has also been a pernicious issue elsewhere in the company’s accommodation offerings. A study from Harvard Business School found that people with African-American names were 15 percent less likely to get a response.
AirBnB user Quirtina Crittenden started the hashtag #AirBnBWhileBlack after noticing this kind of discrimination in her personal experience on the site. It immediately began trending, with experiences reflecting the kind she shared with NPR.
“The hosts would always come up with excuses like, oh, someone actually just booked it, or, oh, some of my regulars are coming in town, and they’re going stay there; I just haven’t updated my calendar. But I got suspicious when I would check back, like, days later and see that those dates were still available.”
Aside from issues of racism, Airbnb has faced many of the same hurdles as sharing economy brother Uber. Some governments around the globe have sought to bring more regulation to their business models, a move that has shut down operations altogether in some instances.
In the German capital Berlin, city authorities banned the renting of entire apartments on Airbnb in order to keep housing prices low. As a result, nearly 40 percent of listing were gone when the law went into effect. One renter, who spoke with English-language daily the Local under an anonymous name, was especially chilled by the request for those who found others violating the new law to report them to authorities.
“In Germany, of all places, maybe we should reconsider this kind of thing.”
How do you think Airbnb should have responded to the racist host’s cancelation?
[Image via I AM NIKOM/Shutterstock.com]
