Airbnb host who offered stay in ‘peaceful WHITE neighborhood’ is slapped with lawsuit for rejecting black guest

An Airbnb host, who advertised his sprawling mansion as a stay in a ‘peaceful white neighborhood’ in Georgia, faces a federal lawsuit for allegedly rejecting a black guest.

Sharona Stewart claims she was ‘intentionally discriminated’ against by George Yu Shihfang, a so-called ‘superhost’ on the rental platform, along with two other unnamed defendants, and Airbnb itself.

Stewart alleges that after Shihfang learned she was a black woman, he cancelled her reservation for his six-bed, six-bath property in the leafy suburb of Dunwoody, about 16 miles north of Atlanta. 

Stewart, who is in her mid-30s, accused the host of asking ‘racially based questions,’ which she claims led to a change in ‘conduct toward the Plaintiff’, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday and obtained by the Independent.

After she was allegedly ignored by the host and ghosted by two other property managers, the complaint says she looked more closely at the listing’s ‘Neighborhood Highlights’ when she noticed the description: ‘Peaceful white neighborhood.’

‘The estate is on 2 1/2 acres in a private oasis. No neighbors around,’ read the description. 

The filing noted that Stewart reported her experience to Airbnb, but claimed that the company ‘closed [her] complaint, refused to take action, and allowed the discriminatory advertisement to remain.’

In an email, an Airbnb spokesperson told the Daily Mail, ‘Discrimination has no place on Airbnb, and we removed the host from the platform.’ The Daily Mail has reached out to Airbnb for comment.

The lawsuit claimed that before the listing was removed, the property was described as ‘Complete with a tennis court, pool, and jacuzzi. Home to 1 out of 30 Giant Meta Sequoia in the southeast [sic].’

‘Native to the Pacific West Coast, the 250+ year old tree is what this unique Mansard Roof Home was built around in 1965.’

The lawsuit accused Airbnb of maintaining ‘policies, practices, customs or discretionary systems permitting race discrimination against African-American customers and/or other racial minorities.’

The lawsuit claimed that ‘similarly situated white applicants were treated more favorably.’

‘Defendant Airbnb knew or should have known that discriminatory practices were occurring on its platform,’ the filing noted. 

The filing also alleged that Airbnb ‘failed to adequately prevent, investigate, monitor or remedy discriminatory conduct,’ despite ‘notice, complaints, prior incidents, public reporting, [and] internal data.’

‘Airbnb materially participated in the transaction by controlling listings, communications, payment processing, platform access, ratings, booking approvals, dispute procedures, and enforcement mechanisms,’ reads the complaint.

‘Defendants’ conduct was intentional, malicious, reckless, willful, wanton, and in conscious disregard of Plaintiff’s federally protected rights.’

 According to the complaint, Stewart alleged that Shihfang and the two John Does used ‘disparate standards’ during the tenant screening process and violated her civil rights.

She also claimed violations of the US Fair Housing Act, Georgia’s Fair Housing Act, two federal civil rights statutes, and negligence.

According to the lawsuit, Stewart suffered emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, inconvenience, loss of housing opportunity, as well as other issues.

Stewart is seeking general, compensatory, special, incidental, consequential, and actual damages to be determined by a jury, as well as attorneys’ fees and court costs, according to the outlet.

Attorney Bataski Bailey, who is representing Stewart, has been asked for comment.  The Daily Mail was unable to locate an attorney for Shihfang, whose Airbnb profile, before it was removed, described him as a real estate developer who lives in Mexico, according to The Independent.