Airbnb host banned after rejecting someone for wearing a Hijab

Airbnb has banned a host after they told a student that they “wouldn’t fit into their neighbourhood” because they were wearing a Hijab.

25-year-old Nurjahan Saleque is a British neuroscience student currently completing her PhD in Hamburg, Germany. She recently started looking for an apartment closer to to the city center on Airbnb.

After coming across one that seemed perfect, she applied and sent the host a message.

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A few days later, Saleque had received no response – yet her application had been denied. Confused, she sent the host another message to double check if the apartment was available. She was shocked at the host’s reply.

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Luckily, the student was not stranded, as she still had her old apartment to live in, according to Buzzfeed News.

“Fortunately, I was not stranded because I still had the current flat I was staying in and simply was doing a search to move from here from December onwards,” she said.

Saleque told Buzzfeed News that she had to re-read the response – and after getting advice from friends, sent a reply to the host expressing her disappointment and citing the Airbnb policy.

“I had to re-read it as I thought I was mistaken,” she said.

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Saleque’s friends took to social media in outrage, using the hashtags #racistairbnb and #JusticeForNurjahan.

This person should be removed as a host – this will never be okay 😒#RacistAirBnb @Airbnb https://t.co/HCl5uc302p
— عزة azza (@3zoooz__) September 20, 2018

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Airbnb’s first response was to make the property unavailable – and respond to users via Twitter as the story went viral. Saleque, however, didn’t hear from Airbnb until much later.

Her friends said they received replies first.

“They weren’t responding anywhere other than Twitter,” Saleque told Buzzfeed News.

“As the word started getting out and this started to become viral, the first response by Airbnb was that the listing had become unavailable.

“My friends notified me of this and I confirmed but I still hadn’t heard from Airbnb directly until 12:30am.”

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Saleque’s case was passed on to an Airbnb customer service specialist, who apologised and offered personal support and financial help to find a suitable Airbnb property.

The host has also been banned from Airbnb.

In a statement, Airbnb told Buzzfeed News they had removed the host and completely supported Saleque.

“As soon as we learned about this terrible incident, we removed the host from our community and offered the guest our full support,” a spokesperson said.

“All Airbnb users must sign on to our Community Commitment and treat everyone in the Airbnb community with respect and without judgement or bias.

“Our mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere and we are always working to improve our policies and procedures. We will continue to work with our community and representatives from civil rights groups to ensure we are doing all we can to fight discrimination and bias and achieve our mission.”

Saleque ended up getting a flatshare, as she was unable to find another property on Airbnb.

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#JusticeForNurjahan airbnb banned host racistairbnb