Durban - Businessman Wandile Mthiyane, who founded a diversity, equity and inclusion start-up called the Anti Racist Hotdog after a ‘discriminatory’ encounter at a beachfront restaurant, was told by the owner of a Durban Airbnb that her dog is ‘racist.’
Mthiyane, 28, who is from Durban, booked the Airbnb for a month, which included use of wi-fi and a pool, as he wanted to focus on work.
He said after he returned from Johannesburg on Wednesday, where he hosted the Obama Foundation Leaders gathering, he booked into the establishment.
According to Mthiyane shortly after he settled in, the owner, a white woman, told him that they need to do “some housekeeping.” He described the establishment as a giant building with three different houses connected.
He said the owner came to his room and told him that there were some rules.
“Basically, there was one rule, and she said, ‘you can't just come over onto my side, you have to call me and that's because I have a racist dog that hates black people’,” he said.
Mthiyane said the owner then devised a plan that would allow both he and the dog access to the yard.
He said the situation started getting weird and that even though the woman said she was just trying to be upfront, she had not disclosed when she advertised the accommodation that she had a dog.
Mthiyane decided to contact the Airbnb head office in the US to ask for assistance to be booked into another Airbnb.
He asked the owner how the dog became “racist”, to which she responded that the dog had been rescued from a township and she assumed that a black person had hurt the dog.
He took to Twitter and informed his followers about the incident.
“All jokes aside, I don’t feel safe here. If by any chance, my schedule gets mixed up with the pitbull mixed dog, I may get bitten. But I can not do anything unless I get assurance from @Airbnb that they’ll protect me and get me out,” he tweeted.
By the following day, Mthiyane said he had made over 20 calls to Airbnb to relocate and refund him. He was told the matter had been escalated and a team was working on a solution.
Mthiyane said even his friends in the US were trying to assist by calling Airbnb.
Hello, we saw your tweet! Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way. You can view our Nondiscrimination Policy here: https://t.co/ueHywQm2GG. Please meet us via DM with the email address associated with the Airbnb profile, and we'll follow up. Thank you. https://t.co/WCQEFGIlXC
— Airbnb Help (@AirbnbHelp) October 5, 2022
He also posted a response from Airbnb on Twitter in which they thanked him and advised that they take these reports seriously.
“Our team will investigate this matter and follow up with your host. This could mean warning them, suspending them or removing their account. We are committed to fighting discrimination and ensuring that the Airbnb community is open and accessible to everyone and will not tolerate any form of bias or prejudice without taking steps to investigate and action appropriately,” said Airbnb.
Day 2 of @AirbnbHelp virtue signaling customer gymnastics. I’ve told you for over 12 hours that I want to move! pic.twitter.com/dAp31X6FTk
— Wandile Mthiyane (@wandileubuntu) October 6, 2022
Mthiyane said when he saw nothing was being done by the international company to help him leave the accommodation safely, he quietly left.
“I escaped, I texted the lady when I was out of the yard and told her that I would come back with an Uber to collect my stuff,” he said.
He said he expected Airbnb to remove him from the situation before contacting the owner to investigate, as the situation could have escalated.
He said he is now safely at another Airbnb.
Airbnb was contacted but did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing.