Racist Airbnb host kicked off website after video shows her refer to black guests as ‘monkeys’

An Airbnb host has had her account removed from the housing platform after she was filmed referring to a group of black men who had booked her home, as "monkeys".

The host, who is an Asian woman identified only as 'Kate' can be seen asking her black guests, “Which monkey is going to sleep on the couch?” prompting shock from the men and inciting anger from people online.

Two men involved in the incident, including chef Meshach Cisero and Brandon Perez, posted a number of videos on Instagram and Twitter of the exchange, and what happened afterwards.

The host appeared to be annoyed after the men arrived with five guests instead of four, and she began arguing about where the fifth person would sleep. It was at this point she used the racial slur to suggest one of them would sleep on the couch.

In a video outlining what went down, Cisero, owner and executive chef of The Cage Bird in Washington D.C, said: “Just encountered a racist Airbnb host.

We entered the Airbnb this evening all coming in from different parts of the country to have a good time in New York City and our Airbnb host treated us very disrespectfully.

She complained unnecessarily about our noise, she racially profiled us. Called us criminals. She used racial slurs such as ‘monkeys’ to describe us.

She said that she felt threatened by our presence there. Mind you we are five educated degreed, well-mannered professional men and I believe that this is a targeted attack on us.

Cisero went on to say that he and his friends were kicked out by the host at 2am on Saturday, and wrote on Instagram: “We arrived to our @Airbnb, and we were harassed several times before being thrown out at 2 am.

“Her reasonings [sic] were because she felt unsafe, we were going to steal and destroy her property, and then told us to ‘Get the f**k out of her house immediately!’ We cooperated and began to pack our things to leave.”

As we were packing, she busts in the door with a camera. We asked her to at least respect our privacy while packing since someone had gotten out of the shower. She yells ‘No, it’s my house. Get the f**k out! You are all criminals! I don’t feel safe in my home!’ She later asked us ‘Which monkey is sleeping on the couch?’ She became so angry, rude, and disrespectful that we had to call @NYPD because we weren’t sure if she’d attack us while trying to leave.

We eventually found a hotel, and had somewhere to crash for the night, but PLEASE share and repost this story/video. Our hope is that someone else doesn’t have to encounter a racist Airbnb hosts like Kate.

In response, Airbnb removed the host from its platform, and a spokesperson told the Washington Post in a statement: “The language used in this video is unacceptable and has no place in the Airbnb community.”

We have a strict nondiscrimination policy, which we are enforcing to remove the host from our platform. We are supporting Mr. Cisero and his friends in getting them a new place to stay through our Open Doors policy. We’re thankful to them for bringing this to our attention so we could take action.

The incident quickly went viral online.

And Noirbnb, an organisation that offers accommodation specifically catering to the "African diaspora", offered its services to the men

Others launched a discussion about racism and anti-blackness among people of colour.

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