A small cabin in Greenville, Mississippi, surrounded by greenery and tranquillity, an average rating of 4.97 stars, the owner rated “Super Host”, warm water, beautiful tile floors – what sounds like a great vacation is what accommodation platform Airbnb is planning brought everyone great trouble. The accommodation was advertised as a former “slave hut”, a small house in addition to the main house on Panther Burns Plantation, where in the 19th century people were still owned by other people and subjected to hard labour, often tortured and treated inhumanely.
All of this seemed to prevent few visitors from having a good time there – until the lawyer Wynton Yates, who was busy on the Tiktok platform, took up the matter and made the offer known worldwide. In a one-and-a-half minute video, Yates asked, among other things, how anyone could think that was okay. 2.7 million people watched the video.
For Airbnb, the whole thing is a marketing meltdown. And not just because the debate about racism, which is deeply rooted in society, and the lack of awareness of the history of Black people in the USA is currently being conducted more bitterly than it has been for decades. The approach taken by the rental platform was primarily to change its orientation – away from just “air mattress and breakfast”, which the letters originally stood for, towards more experiences and events and particularly unusual accommodation. In contrast to the past, you can search for yurts, boats and islands right on the start page. The fact that “the main thing is unusual” as a principle may have been taken a little too far seems to underline this offer.
Wordy apologies
A few days later, the offer can no longer be found, and Airbnb apologized profusely. Noisy Washington Post the corporation has also blocked other offers that may have been former slave shelters. The owner has also followed suit, explaining, among other things, that he had only acquired the site a month earlier.
On the other hand, less remorseful reactions are to be expected from previous visitors. As one of the Tiktok users comments under the lawyer’s post: “Everyone is talking about Airbnb and the host. I wonder about the responsibility of the people who stayed there. They are the real problem.” An evaluation of the hut, which lawyer Yates particularly criticizes, shows that there is little awareness of historical connections on the consumer side: “We enjoyed everything about our stay, the hut, the history, the tour, the breakfast…” wrote one user . The only other explanation besides gaps in knowledge could be the phenomenon of “dark tourism”, which drives people to places where others have suffered.
One thing is certain: as long as there is demand, such offers will appear again. Excuse me, no regrets, a few clicks further you will find a former plantation on the same platform as an ideal location for weddings.