‘You’re harbouring terrorists’: Hotels to Airbnb. ‘Fear-mongering won’t help,’ Airbnb to hotels
The travel startup is at loggerheads with the Hotel Association of New York City.
A 30-second video launches an attack on the startup, saying that terrorists are using the short-stay home-rental service. Except it’s more interested in regaining business for hotels than in keeping people safe – it’s partly funded by a New York hotel group.
The uses images and quotes from the Daily Express on the Manchester terror attack earlier in the year linking an Airbnb rental to the attacker, Salman Abedi. According to the The New York Daily News, the Hotel Association of New York City spent roughly $500,000 on the 30-second ad, which began running on various cable networks during prime time in New York from July 31.
To drive its point home, the advertisement avers that Airbnb will not reveal the names of people who actually rent the 40,000-and-odd places listed in New York, although it does so in other US cities. “Who’s in your building?” the ad asks.
In response, Airbnb has released a statement. “Your ad is misleading, plays to xenophobic fears, and is beneath the dignity of the hospitality industry,” said Nick Shapiro, global head of trust and risk management at Airbnb, in a letter addressed to hotel chief executives in New York. Shapiro signed off the letter with a strongly worded ending to hotel CEOs: “The fear mongering you have demonstrated does not make us safer.”
Not surprisingly, Airbnb has released its own counter advertisement, titled Scare Tactics.