Two men claim they were evicted from their Airbnb rental after the property owner learned they were gay.
Jonathan Wang and his partner Brent (pictured) were in Galveston, TX for a wedding. They booked a two-night stay at the properly for $140 per night.
“This home was very gorgeous,” Wang told ABC13 News.
Their host, however, was anything but.
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After unpacking their bags and settling in, the couple headed off to the wedding reception. When they returned later that evening, they ran into the property owner, Heather.
“Heather asked me where my wife was. Who is this person?” Wang recounted to ABC13 News. “I said it was my significant other, Brent.”
The host replied by saying she thought he was bringing his wife.
“I didn’t say that specifically,” Wang reminded her.
And that’s when she told the men to get out, saying they made her “uncomfortable” and that it was “not OK.”
Related: B&B Owners Who Denied Gay Couple A Room Lose Yet Again
When the couple tried finding another place to stay, every hotel in the area was booked.
“Everyone was full for the weekend,” he said.
After a long and stressful search, they were finally able to locate a room for themselves. Afterwards, Wang went back to look at the Airbnb listing. That’s when he discovered a tiny mention towards the bottom of the page that read: “BTW FYI we are ‘straight friendly’ hosts.”
In a phone interview, Heather told ABC13: “I’m completely of my legal realms and morals.”
When asked if she discriminates against gay people, she replied, “That’s none of your business. That’s my private home.”
And that’s when Airbnb stepped in. The company immediately removed Heather’s listing from its website, then issued the following statement:
“We have a zero tolerance policy for discrimination on Airbnb. The host in question has been removed from the site. Airbnb has clear guidelines that a host or a guest may not promote hate or bigotry.”
Airbnb also issued Wang a complete refund and paid for the one night hotel stay he was forced to book at the last minute.
As for Heather, we’re sure it’s only a matter of time before she launches her inevitable GoFundMe campaign.
Related: Sorry, Christians, GoFundMe Is Cracking Down On Your Hate Campaigns
Captain Obvious
What about orgies?
linuxman
Thats okay AirBNB just gave all that money and more back to “Christian” Bob Rowling owner of Omni Hotels.Omni hotels does not offer domestic partnership benefits to most of its hotel employees and Air BNB chairman, Joe Gebbbia, recently spoke Growco in Nashville at the Omni Hotel Nashville.
Charli Girl
^^^^^^ uh oh
linuxman
sorry …..Joe Gebbia is the CPO and co-founder of Airbnb, not the chairman.
Here is a link at the Tennessean.
http://www.tennessean.com/videos/money/2015/04/08/25476145/
Captain Obvious
@linuxman: Don’t worry, AirBNB will lose a ton of revenue once word continues to spread even harder about the house that was destroyed during a drug fueled orgy.
The whole idea of renting out your house to total strangers without proper background checks, protection, and legal documents makes no sense. AirBNB will die faster than it was going to now.
Dwight
I’m assuming that Heather professes herself to be a “Christian” to justify her bigotry yet here is a “Christian” literally telling someone there’s no room at the Inn. Wonder if she can draw any parallels from that?
CCTR
With the policy they claim to have, it’s surprising Airbnb hadn’t flagged her listing and allowed and ok’d her “straight friendly” post…sadly ironic that the couple would miss that part of the listing. Good to know that Heather and her discrimination were removed from the site.
Daveliam
I’m not making any excuses for “Heather” because she sucks and got what she deserved.
But I hope that this is a welcome call for Jonathan. If it specifically said it was a “straight friendly” listing, that should have been a warning sign right there. The fact that he didn’t read the whole listing and only found that after the fact is kind of telling.
Jonty Coppersmith
Why does being straight
-friendly automatically mean being gay-unfiendly? Can’t one be friendly to both?
Avery Alvarez
This “Heather” sounds like a miserable excuse for a human.
And “straight friendly” is garbage.
It’s like she was trying to find a market friendly way of saying “stay away homos”
Kevin White
Good
Bill Eastridge
Hear! Hear!!
Shellie Carlson
throwslikeagirl
Great outcome. Thank you, Air B&B!
Daveliam
@Avery Alvarez: Exactly. The only reason why any place would advertise as ‘straight friendly’ is to suggest that those are the only people they are friendly to. It’s not like gay-friendly in the fact that there are a ton of places that aren’t gay-friendly so a business might want to demonstrate that they are different by indicating that they are gay-friendly. Every business ever is straight friendly. It’s like the people who bring up ‘straight pride’. It’s used to be a signal for their homophobia. I’d never want to be a patron to a place that advertises itself as ‘straight friendly’.
linuxman
you guys, the homo-jihadist, have no guts . you will go after little people like heather but not big wealthy people like Robert Rowling of Omni Hotels http://www.omnihotels.com. typical behaviour for sissies!
robho3
Hard to understand that there are still people like this around in the year 2015— but it’s the south what do you expect.
northwest
Another bigot bites the dust.
ShaunNJ
If I saw the term “straight-friendly” I might assume this is a gay accommodation. Axel Hotels, for example, uses the term “heterofriendly” in their advertising. In any case, Heather can’t claim this is a private home while running a public accommodation. She has a right to her privacy and not having gay people in it – if she’s of this narrow mind – private means no AirBNB or other business which gay people might patronize. As for being a Christian – her behavior is anything but.
auntsharon
“I’m completely of my legal realms and morals.” WTF?
Chris
People do stuff all the time that is completely legal and falls within their morality. However, that doesn’t mean that their actions are socially acceptable, good for business or even ethical for that matter.
And for those who are making excuses based on this woman’s small type: the company’s non-discrimination policy trumps that small type and it should make it un-necessary for folk to look for such small-print from small-minded bigots.
blondeboyz
When I read her notice “BTW FYI we are ‘straight friendly’ hosts”, how does she expect normal people to interpret that? Any businesses or groups that say they are “gay friendly” have a certain meaning to people, so I interpret her notice to mean the owners are a gay couple who will rent to straights as well.
Realitycheck
Kudos to AirBNB, another sign of how far we have come and finally
bigots discrimination is no longer seen as normal.
DCFarmboi
“Omni hotels does not offer domestic partnership benefits to most of its hotel employees”
Omni, like most of the rest of the hotel industry, only has domestic partner benefits when its employees have a union.
onthemark
If a host is “pet friendly,” that doesn’t mean you get turned away if you don’t bring a pet with you.
@Captain Obvious: I hadn’t heard of that “drug-fueled orgy” in Calgary (!) until you mentioned it, but now the news is getting around.
“Airbnb has a $1 million host damage guarantee. The company has offered cleaning services and accommodations to the Kings while their home is being restored.” That sounds like AirBnB will get a handle on the situation. The surprise is that anyone would have a drug-fueled orgy in Calgary of all places, but maybe there’s nothing else to do there, eh?
Canary Marty
Well done Airbnb, from the little I saw of the document photo, it appears that they are intolerant of the most simple normal behaviours: e.g. “If you must” smoke etc” …….. and “please no standing, climbing, sitting or leaning on the balconies/porches……. what are you supposed to do “hovver!!”. I do not know why they are even in the hospitality business in the first place.
footwork61
@Captain Obvious: Yes, please. Just bring your own sheets.
Angie O Plasty
Ironically, the large gay soccer league I’m a part of says we’re “straight friendly” as well. THAT’s what “straight friendly” actually means, you stupid b****! Of course, now our league is like 60% straight now! LOL
linuxman
@DCFarmboi: That my friend is simply a lie. Marriott for one offers them to all.
check out the HRC equality index.
seaguy
Good ole Texas always reliable for some homophobia and hate when you visit. Glad Airbnb did the right thing in this situation. I doubt there are any state laws that protected the gay couple, or gave them any legal recourse.
Billysees
@Dwight:
“…yet here is a…literally telling someone there’s no room at the Inn. Wonder if she can draw any parallels from that?”
Interesting connection.
sherieb53
My girlfriend and I are very close to losing our house! I have a fourteen year old daughter, a bunch of kitties, and three chihuahuas, and we don’t want to be homeless.
Thank you to anyone who is willing to help us save our house!
http://www.gofundme.com/kjo6ow
stranded
How you doin’ boyfriend Brent?
EvonCook
Sounds all nice and cozy, but beware. AirBnB is still a mostly illegal company in some of the places they like to advertise the most: New York City and Paris. All very well to do it in your private house and independent standing home, if the neighbors and local ordinances permit, BUT in multi unit dwellings most co-ops and condos strictly forbid such short time rentals and all regulated apartments in New York are not allowed to rent out their apartments for a few extra bucks for security, use control reasons and putting their neighbors at risk for security and exposed to strangers. Further, unscrupulous landlords are keeping living properties off the limited market preventing residents from getting a place to live so that the landlord can make bigger bucks by renting short term with AirBnB. Paris has even stricter laws to protect their own residents. The AirBnB scheme is trying to operate a kind of hotel business without abiding by the legal provisions that protect both guests and the service business. Bad if easy idea people , so be very careful.