Airbnb removes ‘slave cabin’ stay in Mississippi and apologizes after TikTok finds it
Airbnb is apologizing and pledging to update its policies after a listing promoting a stay at a “slave cabin” caused outcry.
Wynton Yates took to his TikTok to point out the listing in Greenville, Mississippi, which was described by its host as an “1830s slave cabin” refurbished into a “bed and breakfast.”
“I was just dumbfounded when I looked at it at first, I was like this can’t be real,” Yates, a New Orleans attorney, told NBC News.
The inside of the structure, listed as the Panther Burn Cottage on the Belmont Plantation property, had been modernized for vacationers, with Yates pointing out the clawfoot bathtub, lighting fixtures and new furniture.
“The history of slavery in this country is constantly denied. And now it’s being mocked by being turned into a luxurious vacation spot,” Yates said in the video.
The video garnered 2.7 million views as of Aug. 3. Days later, Airbnb removed the cabin listing.
“Properties that formerly housed the enslaved have no place on Airbnb,” the company said in a statement to McClatchy News. “We apologize for any trauma or grief created by the presence of this listing, and others like it, and that we did not act sooner to address this issue.”
Brad Hauser, who owns the Greenville property, also apologized. He told The Washington Post in a statement that the cabin had been a doctor’s office and not slave quarters, but that it was “the previous owner’s decision” to market it as such.
“I intend to do all I can to right a terrible wrong and, hopefully, regain advertising on Airbnb so The Belmont can contribute to the most urgent demand for truth telling about the history of the not only the South but the entire nation,” Hauser said in the statement.
Airbnb said it plans to pull other listings that include former slave quarters and is working to “develop new policies that address other properties associated with slavery.”
Greenville is located near the Arkansas border, about 120 miles northwest of Jackson, Mississippi.
This story was originally published August 3, 2022 at 2:17 PM.