Airbnb is removing a highly offensive rental property off their website following backlash from social media.
A historic slave cottage called “The Panther Burn Cottage at Belmont Plantation” was opened for rent in Greenville, Mississippi and was listed as a “bed and breakfast”. The cabin sits next to an 1857 9,000 sq ft-mansion that is described as the “last remaining antebellum mansion.” Wynton Yates, a New Orleans-based lawyer, discovered the property on the website and quickly took to TikTok to express his anger over the distasteful listing.
“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 on his original TikTok.
The owner of the cottage, Brad Hauser, says that he recently acquired the property last month and is strictly opposed to how the former property owner advertised the cabin. He claims that nobody lived on the property during slavery, but it was used as a plantation doctor’s office. He hopes that now he can use the cabin as a way to teach people about the history of the nation.
“I am not interested in making money off slavery,” said Hauser in a statement. “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 not only the South but the entire nation.
Airbnb quickly got wind of the property and announced today that they are removing it from their website and any other property that formerly housed slaves.
“Properties that formerly housed the enslaved have no place on Airbnb,” Airbnb spokesman Ben Breit said in a statement. “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.”
SMH. I can’t believe people actually felt comfortable staying in the property. Are we surprised?
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