CHARLOTTE – On Wednesday, Airbnb removed a Charlotte host after he made several racial remarks to a guest
This week, a Northwestern University business student was trying to book a room with the home-sharing website for job training in Charlotte.
When the host, Todd Warner, realized the guest was an African-American woman, he canceled her reservation which was followed by a series of racial slurs. In one message, Warner calls her the n-word and said "This is the South darling. Find another place to rest your head."
We talked with one of her classmates on the phone who wants to remain anonymous. He said he's simply shocked by what happened to her.
"Our classmate was just trying to find a place to lay her head so she could go to work and her safety was compromised. Her dignity was absolutely compromised by this situation,” said the classmate.
Similar stories of discrimination were shared on social media with the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. Last year, a Harvard University study found that airbnb hosts are less likely to rent to guests with "black" sounding names..
On Wednesday afternoon, Airbnb’s CEO and co-founder, Brian Chesky, tweeted "The incident in NC was disturbing and unacceptable. Racism and discrimination have no place on Airbnb. We have permanently banned this host.”
Airbnb officials said they're also offering unconscious bias training for their all hosts through webnairs and even some in-person training sessions. But her the guest’s classmate said that's not enough.
"What is stopping Todd from creating another email account or getting another phone number and simply rejoining the community? Are there other ways they can verify users to make sure to make sure these discriminatory comments don't take place?”
Despite what happened, her classmate said she's holding up well.
This isn't the first time Airbnb has faced claims of discrimination. Last month, Gregory Selden, an African-American man from Virginia filed a lawsuit against the startup.
Selden claims an Airbnb host denied him accommodations when he made the reservation with his personal profile, which included a profile picture. His request was accepted when he applied with fake profiles of white men.