Airbnb will allow hosts and guests to SUE the company over claims of sexual assault and harassment following fallout from estimated $50 million in secret annual payouts ranging from rapes to dismemberments
Airbnb will allow hosts and guests to sue the company over sexual assault and sexual harassment claims that take place in its listings after quietly removing a clause from its 40-page terms of service.
The clause - which said customers claiming sexual assault or sexual harassment took place in an Airbnb property had to seek a judge to settle the dispute - had been buried in the terms for more than a decade.
The 150 million Airbnb users agreed to this clause when they registered for the site.
In a statement released Friday, Airbnb said, 'We're announcing that arbitration provisions will no longer apply to sexual assault or sexual harassment claims by hosts or guests in the next iteration of Airbnb's Terms of Service.'
Before it was removed the clause - which said customers claiming sexual assault or harassment took place in an Airbnb property had to seek a judge to settle the dispute - had been buried in the 40-page terms for more than a decade
The 150 million Airbnb users agreed to the previous clause when they registered for the site. The new terms are expected to take effect this fall but the statement didn't specify an exact date
The new terms are expected to take effect this fall but the statement didn't specify an exact date.
Airbnb, which went public last year, saw a a slight 0.55 percent dip in its stock price - down to $150.32 a share - after the announcement.
'We believe that survivors should be able to bring claims in whatever forum is best for them,' the statement read.
It also encouraged 'industry peers within the travel and hospitality space to consider taking similar steps for their respective communities'.
Airbnb concluded the statement by ensuring hosts and guests that it is 'building trust' by 'doing the right thing in the rare instances where things go wrong'.
However, the company - which reportedly spends about $50million annually on payouts when 'things go wrong' - is no stranger to the occurrence.
Airbnb saw a 0.55 per cent fall in its stock price - which now stands at $150.32 - after the announcement
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. The short-term property rental company, which went public in December, has spent an estimated $50 million every year on payouts to hosts and guests when things go wrong, according to Bloomberg Businessweek
Airbnb has a history of paying out victims of the worst crises that take place at the company's short-term rental properties to keep news of the disasters quiet.
The company even has a secretive team to do just that known as the 'black box' team inside the firm - a group of about 100 agents in cities across the world, several of whom have backgrounds in the military or emergency services.
Team members in Dublin, Montreal and Singapore have the power to spend any amount of money tackling crimes such as sexual assaults, murders and deaths.
In one incident, a rape victim received a $7million payout in exchange for agreeing not to 'imply responsibility or liability' on Airbnb or the host after a 'career criminal' used a duplicate key to enter a New York City rental to rape and attack her at knifepoint, according to a report published by Bloomberg Businessweek.
The unidentified Australian woman, who was 29 at the time, and a group of friends had rented a first-floor apartment on West 37th Street, close to Times Square.
In one incident a rape victim received a $7million payout in exchange for agreeing not to 'imply responsibility or liability' on Airbnb or the host after a 'career criminal' used a duplicate key to enter a New York City rental to rape and attack her at knifepoint
The group had picked up the keys for the apartment from a bodega close by without having to show any identification, Bloomberg reported.
They went out to a party together but the 29-year-old returned back to the property alone - ahead of her friends.
The suspect, 24-year-old Junior Lee, was allegedly already inside the apartment hiding in the bathroom when she returned.
He raped her at knifepoint.
The incident was under wraps until the Bloomberg report was published two months ago.
It revealed that Airbnb's safety team sprung into action right away, paying to fly the victim's mother over from Australia and house them in hotels before flying them back home again. They also offered to pay for health and counseling costs, according to the report.
Florida woman Carla Stefaniak was murdered by a security guard at the apartment complex where she was renting an Airbnb in Costa Rica
Two years later they paid the victim $7million in an agreement that she wouldn't blame or sue Airbnb or the host.
In another incident the 'black box' team arranged for contractors to cover bullet holes in the walls of properties or hire body-fluid crews to clean blood off the floors, the report said.
In extremes case they've even had to deal with hosts who discovered dismembered human remains inside their homes.
In another previously reported incident, Florida woman Carla Stefaniak was murdered by a security guard at the apartment complex where she was renting an Airbnb in Costa Rica in 2018.
Her partially-buried body was found half-naked and covered in plastic bags by sniffer dogs 200 feet away from her Airbnb.
Stefaniak's body was found half-naked and covered in plastic bags near the San Jose vacation rental she was staying in
Traces of blood were found left behind in the Airbnb, which she described as 'sketchy'
She suffered a blunt force wound to the head and stab wounds.
Stefaniak had told friends that she thought the accommodation was 'sketchy' and that there was heavy rain and no power.
She said in a FaceTime call that she might ask a security guard at the Airbnb to buy her water because of the storm.
Bismark Espinoza MartÃnez, 33, was sentenced last year to 16 years for her murder.
Stefaniak's family filed a suit against Airbnb claiming it failed to perform a background check on the security guard, who it transpired was working in the country illegally.
The case was settled for an undisclosed sum.
Despite the critical role the team has played in supporting guests and hosts and helping to evade PR disasters, 25 of its most experienced agents were laid off last year amid the pandemic, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced in May of last year.
Safety agents slammed the move, arguing they had already sacrificed their mental health to the role.
Chesky later partly walked back the decision and rehired 15 of the workers on time-and-a-half pay.