‘Chinese and Malays only’ - Airbnb host allegedly cancels customer’s booking
A woman’s Twitter post about an incident where a homestay listing on Airbnb allegedly declined to accept a booking from her Indian boyfriend has gone viral on social media.
The woman, who declined to be named, said her boyfriend and his family had wanted to make a booking at a homestay in Bentong, Pahang for their annual Christmas trip together.
“I called the host, who is supposedly...
A woman’s Twitter post about an incident where a homestay listing on Airbnb allegedly declined to accept a booking from her Indian boyfriend has gone viral on social media.
The woman, who declined to be named, said her boyfriend and his family had wanted to make a booking at a homestay in Bentong, Pahang for their annual Christmas trip together.
“I called the host, who is supposedly one of the property agents. We spoke in Mandarin, and I clarified some questions about the property before we decided to book.
“It went well, and my boyfriend proceeded to book the place on Airbnb,” she recounted in her postings.
However, confusion ensued when the agent reached out to her boyfriend to ask about his race.
After questioning the agent why that would matter, the woman said the agent told them they only rent the place to “Chinese and Malays” and proceeded to cancel their booking.
“He claimed the company’s reasoning for this is that they have rented the property out to a group of Indian people and they didn’t follow the rules.
“Just because one group of people from a certain race left the place dirty makes it okay for you to assume every single person from that race is dirty?
“Why do they have to impose such discrimination on something that could be solved with a penalty fee? If anyone who rents your property damages it, doesn’t matter what colour their skin is, just impose a penalty fee,” she said.
She then questioned whether the homestay would make the same decision not to rent to all Chinese people if the people who had not followed their rules previously were Chinese.
Viral post
Her original posting received widespread attention, with over 5,000 retweets and 10,000 likes at the time of writing.
Airbnb also responded to her tweet, saying that they do not condone discrimination in any way and referred her to their non-discrimination policy.
The company then urged her to send them a message so they can follow up on this matter.
The woman later told Malaysiakini that Airbnb had taken down the listing under the agent they contacted.
“However, there’s another host of the same property who also declined our request to book due to race and their listing is still up.
“Basically, this property has multiple agents, and they all don’t allow Indians to book,” she said.
While Airbnb had removed the original listing, she noted that the website is just a platform for the homestay.
“The owners and their management team need to do better. I believe the agents are just the messengers. The decision-makers shouldn’t have imposed this ridiculous requirement,” she said.
Malaysiakini had also contacted one of the agents from the homestay to respond to this issue.
The agent, however, declined to comment, saying that they are waiting for their lawyer’s advice on this matter.
Many of the netizens’ comments under the woman’s Twitter postings also appear to be supportive of the homestay’s decision, citing it is the business’ prerogative to serve whoever they want.
Malaysianhasnt signed ICERD. Being a racist bigot is 100% legal
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