I wonder if Airbnb wasn’t getting any takers, so they used the ‘excuse’ that they weren’t going to allow rentals during the Inauguration to hide that fact?
Could be.
When an Airbnb Host Realized His Guests Were Insurrectionists
Photo-Illustration: Stevie Remsberg/Getty Images
When a woman from South Carolina told Paul she wanted to rent his upstairs on Airbnb for a “history sight seeing trip” in Washington, D.C., he had no reason to think that she was lying. His rowhouse is in Columbia Heights — about an hour’s hike from the monuments — and the back-and-forth he’d had with the ostensible tourist seemed standard. But as the date of her arrival approached, a neighbor asked him if he happened to have any information about who might be coming to town that week. It hadn’t previously occurred to Paul that his guest might be participating in the “Stop the Steal” protest. It certainly never crossed his mind that he might be quartering insurrectionists.
A longtime Airbnb host, Paul already suspected he wouldn’t have a ton of ability to vet his guests when accepting their bookings. As part of its effort to root out racial discrimination, the company penalizes hosts who renege on an arrangement after receiving a customer’s photo. He wanted to prevent a ding on his profile, sure, but also generally felt weird about canceling. After all, who was he, “a die-hard Democrat and a supporter of American democracy generally,” to say that people couldn’t come to make their voices heard?
But when the woman who called herself Melissa arrived on January 5 with seven other people, Paul kept one eye on the news and the other on the exterior cameras he’d installed around his property. Then, at 7:30 in the morning on January 6, he watched with trepidation from the rowhouse’s basement apartment as his visitors headed southeast toward the Capitol with a MAGA flag. “That’s when I was like, ‘Oh fuck, I’ve got a problem,’” he said.
Everyone knows what happened next. Trump supporters — many of whom had traveled from out of town — attacked the Capitol as lawmakers voted to certify the results of the presidential election, leaving five people dead. But as millions watched the scene play out on cable news, Paul was panicking about the chaos that might soon be returning to his home. He called Airbnb customer service looking for guidance. A representative said he would give him a call back, though no one did. All he could do was stay glued to the cameras and watch one of his guests who had returned pace on the porch, pull from a Miller Lite, and, according to footage reviewed by Intelligencer, say into his cell phone:
“We stormed the Capitol, we got inside of it.”
Paul’s stomach dropped as he learned more about his guest’s true intentions in coming to D.C.: “Trump said we’re gonna march over to the Capitol Building … And we’re going to tell them what’s been happening,” the man said. “To be honest, they deserved it.”
Fearing for his safety, Paul left to go stay at a friend’s place. (He agreed to tell his story on a first-name basis owing to these same concerns for his well-being.) When he woke up, he had two messages, also reviewed by Intelligencer, from Airbnb’s support staff: the first at almost midnight requesting more information and another about an hour later saying Airbnb had closed his case since it didn’t receive a response while he was asleep. Realizing he wasn’t going to be able to get any assurances from Airbnb that his guests would be banned from using the platform in the future, he sent his footage to the FBI tip line and hoped it would arrest them. (Airbnb said it has now “suspended the guest pending a thorough investigation.” The FBI declined to comment.)
When Paul finally returned home the next day, it looked as if no one had been there except for a lone cigarette butt outside his front door. If he didn’t also have video evidence that they were insurrectionists, they would have been perfect guests, worthy of a five-star review, he said.