Wretch 32 has called out Airbnb for allegedly stealing from him and cancelling his booking because of the host’s racist reluctance to allow him to stay in the accommodation he paid for.
Wretch took to Twitter to address the American owned holiday rental and vacation experience provider for mistreatment and theft. Wretch wrote, “Imagine Airbnb cancelled my booking, stole half my money because the host had an issue with “Coloured folk & felt uncomfortable”. I’ve heard of birthday beats but not birthday teefs.”
The artist celebrated his 34th birthday over the weekend and it appears that the rental was due to be a part of the festivities.
On Wretch 32’s tweets, Airbnb said in a statement given to The National Student, “We were concerned to hear about this experience and have reached out to Wretch 32 and his management to learn more. Discrimination has no place on Airbnb and goes against everything our community stands for.”
Airbnb also replied directly to Wretch’s tweets.
This is the latest addition to several stories and complaints from users that Airbnb property owners have cancelled their bookings in a discriminatory way.
In an attempt to combat the problem, Airbnb launched the Airbnb Community Commitment in 2016 and users must now indicate that they agree with the guideline, “I agree to treat everyone in the Airbnb community regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age—with respect, and without judgment or bias”, in order to book and post listings on the platform.
Failure to accept the statement causes the user’s account to be automatically terminated.