Airbnb cops backlash over ‘slave cabin’ listing in viral TikTok

Airbnb has swiftly removed a $165 a night bed and breakfast listing after it was lambasted in a viral TikTok.

Airbnb has swiftly removed a bed and breakfast listing after it was lambasted as a “slave cabin” in a viral clip.

Wynton Yates, a lawyer from New Orleans, blasted the San Francisco-based company in a TikTok over its “The Panther Burn Cottage at Belmont Plantation” listing in Greenville, Mississippi.

The cottage that was rented out for $165 a night was listed as an “1830s slave cabin” and used as a “tenant sharecropper’s cabin”.

Stream the news you want, when you want with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

Wynton Yates blasted Airbnb over a ‘slave cabin’ listing in Mississippi. Picture: TikTok/lawyerwynton

Wynton Yates, 34, a Black lawyer from New Orleans, expressed his shock over the property saying it was anything but quaint and charming as described by some of its guests in reviews.

“This is not OK in the least bit,” he said.

“And I know there’s going to be someone saying ‘Oh you’re looking for controversy where it doesn’t exist.’ No.

“This is an 1830s slave cabin up on Airbnb as a bed and breakfast.

The US company has since apologised and removed the listing. Picture: TikTok/lawyerwynton

Wynton sharing screenshots of some of the reviews, adding it was anything but ‘quaint and charming’. Picture: TikTok/lawyerwynton

“They say it in the listing, ‘This particular structure, the Panther Burn Cabin, is an 1830s slave cabin from the extant Panther Burn Plantation to the south of Belmont.’

“How is this OK in someone’s mind to rent this out? A place where human beings were kept as slaves.”

Wynton said what really infuriated him were the reviews.

He shared screenshots and began to read some of them out to viewers.

It was listed as an ‘1830s slave cabin’ for $165 a night. Picture: TikTok/lawyerwynton

It featured a bedroom and private bathroom. Picture: TikTok/lawyerwynton

“We stayed in the sharecropper cabin and ate in the main house. The house tour was great and so was the breakfast,” one review read.

“’We stayed in the cabin and it was a historic but elegant’ – a slave cabin is elegant?” a furious Wynton asked.

“The history of slavery in this country is constantly denied and now it is being mocked by being turned into a luxurious vacation spot.”

The cabin, which accommodates up to two guests, features a bedroom and tiled private bathroom. It had a 4.97 star rating and 68 reviews.

Wynton’s clip has since amassed almost 3 million views attracting over 16,000 comments from TikTok users equally gobsmacked by the listing.

“My jaw literally dropped,” one woman wrote.

“Everyone’s talking about Airbnb and the host. What I am wondering is where the accountability for the people staying here? They are the real problem,” a second person said.

Another person added: “I wouldn’t be able to sleep in there knowing the pain and suffering slaves went through. Who does this???!”

Wynton’s clip which has been viewed almost 3 million times, promoted Airbnb to swiftly remove the listing. Picture: TikTok/lawyerwynton

Wynton’s viral clip prompted Airbnb to swiftly remove the listing.

“Properties that formerly housed the enslaved have no place on Airbnb,” Airbnb said in a statement to USA Today.

“We apologise for any trauma or grief created by the presence of this listing, and others like it, and that we did not act sooner to address this issue.”

The company said it’s working with experts on developing new policies for dealing with properties tied to slavery.

In another TikTok, Wynton addressed a bunch of comments from users who believe the cabin should perhaps be burned down.

“I truly feel where you guys are coming from that buildings like this be burned down, destroyed, what is it still doing on this plantation and I honestly feel like they shouldn’t be destroyed. They should remain where they are,” he said.

“We live in a world now where our history, this country’s history are being denied, it is being white washed. It is being not allowed to be talked about in its real true context of what happened.”

He continued that the owners of these properties should research and find the history of these places.

“Find the people that lived there, their lives, names, because they’re people’s ancestors that would give anything to know the name, stories and experiences of their ancestors that lived their lives in places like this,” he added.