Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 145 posts

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#51

Post by zzalpha »

giantwolf2017 wrote: post #18

This is an interesting article. It makes no mention of the controversy leading up to these comments. People generally aren't racist when it comes to money. The host was triggered into a racist tirade after being informed the renter was bringing 2 extra people and 2 extra dogs. The guest informed her hosts while on route in a snowstorm. It's well within the hosts rights to declare the contractual reservation null and…

She was not denied the rental because the host is a racist.

Ignoring the veracity if your claims for a moment, let's consider: Rather than taking the host's comments at face value regarding the reason they cancelled the reservation, you chose an alternative interpretation that you manufactured very nearly from whole cloth.

Why?

This looks like a textbook example of confirmation bias to me.

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#52

Post by rhcom2 »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #38
giantwolf2017 wrote: post #18

This is an interesting article. It makes no mention of the controversy leading up to these comments. People generally aren't racist when it comes to money. The host was triggered into a racist tirade after being informed the renter was bringing 2 extra people and 2 extra dogs. The guest informed her hosts while on route in a snowstorm. It's well within the hosts rights to declare the contractual reservation null and…

People generally aren't racist when it comes to money. This is just untrue to such an astonishing degree.

See: Redlining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#53

Post by [deleted] »

giantwolf2017 wrote: post #18

This is an interesting article. It makes no mention of the controversy leading up to these comments. People generally aren't racist when it comes to money. The host was triggered into a racist tirade after being informed the renter was bringing 2 extra people and 2 extra dogs. The guest informed her hosts while on route in a snowstorm. It's well within the hosts rights to declare the contractual reservation null and…

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#54

Post by mabbo »

bluetidepro wrote: post #22

The host deserves a larger fine for her stupidity alone. She told the women who reserved straight up that she "wouldn't rent to an Asian." Why not just deny the request, and keep your bigotry comments to yourself about the "why." It's one thing that the host was racist, but if she would have just kept that to herself, it probably wouldn't have got her a fine. So not only is the host a racist, but she is clearly an id…

> Why not just deny the request, and keep your bigotry comments to yourself

I don't want you to think that I'm saying this is as simple as "blame Trump". It's not that simple. But it seems related to me.

It used to be that you could be a bigot like this and so long as you didn't make it public, loud, obvious, no one really cared that much. No one liked it, but no one cared. Now we're in a time when America has elected a President who is pretty openly bigoted in a number of ways.

There's a good question there about cause vs effect. Did people being more openly bigoted lead to Trump being elected, or did the President being pretty bigoted lead to people feeling more comfortable with their closed-minded beliefs? Or maybe there's a mutual cause to both things. But it sure does seem related.

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#55

Post by throwaway993829 »

Anyone know why this does not fall under the exemptions in the Fair Housing Act? Does CA have a stricter law on the books?

edit: Though the article doesn't mention it, I suppose the land lord could also own more properties than what the exemptions allow for.

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#56

Post by djtriptych »

whatok wrote: post #13

I do not see what forcing a class on someone like this (especially at their age) will accomplish. Does anyone really think a semester long course is going to make her go "well, gee whiz, guess I shouldn't discriminate against those Asians anymore"?

And yet, education is the best antidote to racism.

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#57

Post by msie »

giantwolf2017 wrote: post #18

This is an interesting article. It makes no mention of the controversy leading up to these comments. People generally aren't racist when it comes to money. The host was triggered into a racist tirade after being informed the renter was bringing 2 extra people and 2 extra dogs. The guest informed her hosts while on route in a snowstorm. It's well within the hosts rights to declare the contractual reservation null and…

Sometimes you can't take a comment at face value so I dug deeper:

(http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-airbnb-disc...)

"According to local media reports, Dyne Suh, a law student in Riverside, said she and her fiance had been looking forward to a short vacation over Presidents Day weekend in Big Bear Lake, a popular ski getaway about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles.

About a month before their trip, Suh booked a mountain cabin on Airbnb listed as a "Tree House Loft and Private Bathroom" in Running Springs, Calif. Suh said she later messaged the host to ask if she could add two friends to the reservation and was told it would not be a problem."

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#58

Post by savvyraccoon »

Stupid of the host to act like that and inexcusable, got what she deserved etc, but....

This is one sided reporting. First of all Barker accepted the booking knowing who the guest would be, from her name, profile etc.

Then there were frequent polite comms where the booking was changed, renegotiated. Two extra guests were added. Then the guest asked to bring a small dog, and the host said no because they have a pitbull in the house. Guest persisted and eventually the hosts agreed to remove their own dog from the house to accommodate the dog.

Messages on the day of arrival have been withheld by the guest, but relationship broke down and became hostile, with the guest delaying arrival until 2AM-3AM. The host lost patience.

So I think the reason they cancelled is because the guest really did mess them about, but still really stupid to use those words in doing so. Tami Barker had the opportunity to refuse the booking long before, and didn't, then went out of her way to accommodate the guests. Of course, nobody is interested in that.

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#59

Post by whatok »

eric_h wrote: post #25
whatok wrote: post #13

I do not see what forcing a class on someone like this (especially at their age) will accomplish. Does anyone really think a semester long course is going to make her go "well, gee whiz, guess I shouldn't discriminate against those Asians anymore"?

Honestly I think it's better than nothing. Discrimination like this is usually based on complete ignorance/lack of exposure to different cultures. A course on Asian cultures may actually have some effect of humanizing the asian people for this particular bigot.

I'd agree with the ignorance description but argue that "One word says it all. Asian" was definitely influenced by some sort of exposure to different cultures.

I'm not a social scientist but I'd bet good money that someone who is ignorantly informed by their personal experiences like that will probably not find great value in something abstract like a class.

Also is the purpose to prevent further illegal discrimination or change her viewpoint? If it's to prevent further illegal discrimination, a larger punitive fine will hammer that point in. If it's to change her viewpoint, being racist is not illegal in the US, at least not yet.

Re: Airbnb host must pay $5,000 for canceling reservation based on race

#60

Post by mtmail »

ka4eli wrote: post #30
wedowhatwedo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the host should be allowed to treat others that way?

Why do you ask such a silly question? Of course this is really shit, if it's true. The point is I don't know whether this situation took place in real world or just anti-trump pr action. How do you know? Why the hell trump is in article about shitty host ?

What makes you think it didn't happen in the real world? The first paragraph links to an official document (PDF) by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. And the article is quoting the text message that woman wrote.
Post reply on HN