Airbnb won't stand for discrimination against Eagles fans
Airbnb doesn't want angry Minneapolis hosts to leave Eagles fans in the cold for the Super Bowl.
The Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings last weekend in Philadelphia to secure a spot in the big game on Feb. 4 in Minneapolis. Things got violent, with Eagles fans reportedly pushing a Vikings fan to the ground and punching him.
A few days later, this post appeared on Reddit. It was purportedly a message from an Airbnb host in Minneapolis that claimed their housing board was trying to preemptively curb any violence by forcing them to cancel short-term rentals while the Super Bowl was in town. That didn't go over well with Eagles fans, especially as Vikings fans encouraged each other to cancel the Airbnb reservations of people from Philly.
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Airbnb assured people that cancellations aren't widespread and this was a unique case that wasn't targeting Eagles fans. In fact, reservations from Philadelphia-area guests are way up in Minneapolis, according to the company. As the game approaches, those bookings are expected to keep climbing, especially in a city like Minneapolis where hotel rooms are hard to come by.
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In a phone call, Airbnb made clear that anything that resembles discrimination -- even football discrimination --- would not be tolerated. So if the company sees a rash of what look like Super Bowl-related cancellations, it said they'd kick those hosts off the platform.
The company has dealt with discrimination issues in the past based on race, but now football-fueled antics could push the company to step in.
And for those Eagles fans with nowhere to stay? We have a feeling they'd sleep in the freezing streets to watch their team take a shot at Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Topics Super Bowl Airbnb
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
