I'm a black man and here is what happened when I used Airbnb

https://medium.com/stay-woke/i-read...ng-rejected-on-airbnb-f36dd3ab0375#.ncjsq569e




Rohan Gilkes2 days ago5 min read

I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb.



This is a story of an AIRBNB experience I recently went through. I met this awesome lady Crissie in my Facebook Group. Super nice lady, successful business owner, beautiful family, and they live in a small town in Idaho.

Crissie would post these amazing videos of the land and the snow, and the mountains and trees, and I told her one day I would come visit.

It‘s so absolutely beautiful there!





The view from Crissie’s home: Mountains as far as the eye can see!




Crissie and her family at the lake and riding their ATV’s
This place looks majestic! Like something you would see in a movie. After working like crazy on a new product launch, I felt like I needed a bit of a break. I hit up Crissie and told her I’m finally coming through to visit! : -)

I like my space when I travel and thought it would be fun to find a cool cabin



Oh and here’s me with my new beard



So my beard looks a little bit spotty now but it’s going to come in, I promise. I know it will…I really hope it does. Pray for me y’all. Okay okay, onto the story

Crissie was super happy I was finally coming, and hilarious as usual! LOL



And I was hyped too!



I booked this place on AirBNB for 5 days, July 1st to July 5th



Crissie even drew me up this hilarious picture based on the locations of the airbnb spot vs her home. 2 miles. Perfect!!!



Everything was set! As usual, I included a bit of info about myself on the airbnb listing to put the host at ease



I’m actually going by myself, but I figured I would just add the possibility of another person so it wouldn’t feel extra weird

1st response: Dang! No luck, even though the dates were available all of a sudden, the host said she was going to use the place.



No biggie, I’m really flexible, Crissie told me late June is good as well, so I rebooked for June.



CANCELLED! Well daymn. So it wasn’t really the dates, the host cancelled my new request and ignored all future messages.



So I had a white friend book for my same dates and all of a sudden her plans changed back hahaha. Approved immediately! LOL



Moral of the story: Last time I’ll be using AirBnB until they fix this widespread issue (they said they are addressing it and will come up with a solution). But this one ignoramus isn’t stopping anything. I WILL be going to Idaho. And I WILL have an amazing time with Crissie and her fam. And I WILL ride ATVs and eat good Idaho food (potatoes?) lol, and I WILL be fine.

Just felt like telling my story.

Here’s another guy with the exact same experience but with another host



And more reading: Airbnb has a discrimination problem. Ask anyone who's tried to #Airbnbwhileblack.As an Interracial Couple, We Know What Can Happen When You #AirbnbWhileBlack

Bonus: How I imagine I’m going to be on the ATV!



What reality will most likely be like! LOL



Edit to add: BTW, this isn’t a knock on Idaho, this host actually lives in California and runs the property (and a few others), so I’m not sure she’s actually from Idaho. Every other person from Idaho I’ve talked to after this has been nothing but amazing. After posting this on Facebook, I got so many offers of places to stay in Idaho and super well wishes, it has been nothing short of incredible! Just wanted to add this.

For folks that are going to say, “well people have the right to refuse rentals in their homes”. True. To an extent. There are Fair Housing laws that may apply under certain circumstances (Number of homes they have for rent, etc.). Either way, if they have the right of refusal, I also have the right to tell my story.

Thanks for reading.

 

Will fix pics later, just link for now

 

sad

 

Yes,it is sad indeed.

 

Wow, wonder what type of BS excuse they'll make to justify this discrimination.

 

LOL.

Airbnb is cool.
It just ain't for Black folk.:smt073

 

You quite rightly point out one of the deficiencies is this whole "gig" economy, where market actors use the greater freedom to discriminate. I haven't had a bad experience with Air B'NB yet, but I've only used it once so far. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

Maybe it's because I would never want to stay at some stranger's nasty-ass house, but I kinda agree with the above.

If people don't want you in their homes, not much you can do about that & not much you should want to do about that.

I remember a long time ago some newspaper ran a story about black people causing a stink because a swingers club didn't want to admit them. :mrgreen:

I'm thinking -- look, you can't have everything. I sure as hell would be veeery selective as to I let stay at my home if I were desperate enough to do some airbnb shit. E.g. no men, period.

Use a hotel instead. If you can't afford that, you're not ready to travel. Fuck airbnb.

On the other hand, kudos to all the people pointing this kinda shit out. I'm not saying stay silent about your experiences, I'm just saying it's much ado about nothing.

And p.s. -- all airbnb has to do is allow user to select the kinda people they will allow to stay with them by categories, eg. gender, ethnicity, religion etc. -AND- make it such that if you register as a person in one those categories you WON'T EVEN SEE the listings that exclude you.

I think the insult is more fucked up than the fact that someone would exclude me. I'm a big, gruff looking guy. Even I might exclude me if I didn't know me.

 

A northwestern MBA student originally from tried to book and was accepted but the guy thought it was the other girl in the profile pic and cancelled and at least this guy from North Carolina was honest as to why he canceled.

 

what a sicko. All of which could've been avoided by letting him just choose what kinda people he will accept, by adding a simple option to the form. (Then the only downside is the sicko chaining up "honey" in his basement. :mrgreen

With a simple fix to the software, no harm, no foul.

 

Stay at hotels and keep it moving.

 

This.

Relying on RANDOM White people to do the right thing and treat you like a human being is a sketchy at best.

Some days I'm still shocked in 2016 how deeply racist parts of this country still are.

Part of me thinks White men feel personally threatened by the presence of BM on a level they never did before.

And the crazy part of my brain thinks part of that is due to porn.:smt006:smt068

 

Exactly.

 

This is the unfortunate byproduct of our modern day tribalism. That and generally feeling threatened in the face of perceived negative change.

As far as how porn relates I think it's a chicken vs egg scenario. My $0.02

 

It's the principal of it. It's borderline segregation, where we're forced to take our business elsewhere because they don't welcome us. But anyone else can freely use w/e overnight stay they want, whether it be airbnb or a hotel because they aren't black.

I'm glad people are airing these companies out for their BS, post-racial society my ass.

 

Since when?

 

Since Obama was elected and racism officially ended

 

None of this is surprising

 

"Officially ended."

LOL

 

"White men fear Black men because they know the BM can replace him in the bedroom and the boardroom"....Dr Julia Hare