A Lee woman has been banned from using the popular room rental website Airbnb after ties emerged between her and a known white supremacist in Maine. 

Kathie Greear, who owns the Loon’s Nest Lodge at Silver Lake, has been banned from the site because of her association with Christopher Alan Pohlhaus, a known neo-Nazi and white supremacist, according to Airbnb spokesperson Elle Wye. 

“Following our investigation into the various allegations, we determined that a neo-Nazi group leader stayed and did work at this property while Airbnb guests were present,” Wye said. “As a result, we've removed the associated listings from the platform in line with our policies.” 

Greear did not respond to a request for comment from Spectrum News. 

As first reported by the Bangor Daily News, the ban came weeks after Greear posted a letter to the editor of the Lincoln News defending Pohlhaus and his use of the swastika. 

Activists on social media have posted photos from the lodge’s Facebook page, which has since been taken down, featuring Pohlhaus pressing cider on the lodge’s property. 

Pohlhaus has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “neo-Nazi” who, starting in 2023, began work on creating what the center called “a white supremacist enclave” in Maine, including purchasing property and going on a recruiting drive.  

The center also alleged Pohlhaus has ties to the Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131), a white supremacist group that organized a march through the streets of Portland in April, sparking outrage and counter-protests. 

Airbnb’s standards, according to its website, forbid, among other things, “discriminatory behavior or hate speech.” 

Airbnb has taken stances against hate speech in the past, dating back to 2017 when the site banned users from using it to book rooms in the Charlottesville, Va. area for the Unite the Right rally. The site also banned more than 60 more people nationwide from using the site in 2019 once hackers exposed data linking the people in question to hate groups. 

Airbnb also confirmed that Pohlhaus himself had been banned from using the site “several years ago.”