Airbnb: the family is pushed back against their service dog

A Manitoba family hopes their bad experience with an Airbnb host who tried to cancel their reservation because of a service dog will raise awareness about human rights.

Jonathan Trudel says he didn’t think there would be a problem when he booked a weekend for his mother’s birthday at a cabin in the Belair Provincial Forest in January.

Jonathan’s mother, Carmen Trudel, is visually impaired and has used a service dog for over 20 years. Jonathan said it didn’t even occur to him to mention the dog at the time, even though the cabin had a no-pets policy.

As the August weekend approached, Jonathan thought he should let the host know he would have a service dog with him. “I just emailed the host saying ‘my mom and sister will check in first. Out of courtesy, I figured I’d let them know a guide dog was coming.”

Ten minutes later, Jonathan received a call from an Airbnb case manager saying they had to cancel the reservation due to the host’s no-pets policy.

“I talked to him on the app, I said ‘you know, it’s actually illegal,'” Jonathan said.

The Manitoba Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities who depend on a service animal, wheelchair or any other assistive device or device.

Jonathan then began messaging the host, who requested proof that the dog had been trained as a service animal.

“Even in Airbnb’s policy it says we don’t have to,” Jonathan said.

But he sent the proof anyway, and after a few more messages, the host reluctantly agreed to let them stay in the cabin.

“He said, ‘I know I’m going to lose no matter what, go enjoy my cabin,'” Jonathan said.

But Jonathan says they couldn’t enjoy it because they were too worried the dog hair would get everywhere. The host had said the reason for the no-pets policy was his mother’s severe allergies.

“We were worried about every hair on the floor,” Jonathan said. “We did everything we could, we swept, we picked up his droppings.”

Carmen Trudel (left) says having a service animal has never been a problem for her. (Source; CTV Winnipeg News) Carmen says this has never been a problem for her before.

“I’ve brought it everywhere, it’s been to Disney World, and it’s allowed everywhere,” she said.

Airbnb claims the host failed to follow its policy.

“Airbnb does not tolerate any differential treatment for service animals, and we have a specially trained team to investigate allegations of discrimination, with actions ranging from warnings to suspensions to full removal depending on the circumstances. In this case , we can confirm that we have found a violation of our accessibility policy,” Airbnb said in an email to CTV News Winnipeg.

Carmen will think twice before using Airbnb again. “Airbnb communication, customer service was not good,” she said. “They just fell off the edge of the earth after we were done and the man still didn’t treat us right after and said inappropriate things.”

Airbnb says the host was made aware of its accessibility policy and received a warning for violating the policies.

Comments are closed.