Curtis Kimberlin, Jr. and his partner, Jonathan, were seeking a room to rent in Dallas, Texas where they would be attending a wedding.
According to a screenshot shared on Twitter of an exchange between Jonathan and the Airbnb host, Jonathan explained to the host that he and his partner was going to be in Dallas for the weekend as was in need of a room.
After Kimberlin's tweet went viral, a user asked him if he could cancel the booking. Kimberlin replied, “He luckily denied us before we could cancel, but it still doesn’t feel great.”
After Airbnb was made aware of the situation, the company said it was investigating the host for violating its nondiscrimination policy, which prohibits discrimination because of sexual orientation.
"Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has no place on Airbnb, and we take reports of violations of our nondiscrimination policy incredibly seriously,” an Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement. “We suspended this listing and host from the platform as we investigate further, and we have reached out to our impacted guests to offer our support.”
Despite Airbnb's policies, many users replied to Kimberlin's tweet with stories of their own about how they were discriminated against. Take a look at some of the comments below.
Even the billion dollar hotel chain Hilton replied to Kimberlin’s tweet, letting it be known they are LGBTQ-friendly by tweeting: “Curtis — if you and your partner still need help with a stay, we got you! Please meet us in the DMs!”
Many users sympathized with the couple for having to deal with this, however, there were many users who felt that the host had every right to deny the couple.
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