An Australian tourist who was raped in her Times Square Airbnb rental in 2015 was quietly paid $7 million, according to a Bloomberg report detailing the company’s multi-million dollar efforts to keep disasters under wraps. The 29-year-old visited New York City with some friends for New Year’s Eve but when she returned to the apartment in the early hours, a man who somehow had a copy of the keys was waiting in the dark to attack her. He was arrested the next day. After the rape, Airbnb paid for the woman to stay at a hotel, paid for her mom to fly out, paid for both of them to fly home, and offered to cover any counseling bills. She also accepted a $7 million payout, one of the biggest ever made by Airbnb, that included an agreement not to talk about the settlement or imply Airbnb or the host were to blame.
An Airbnb spokesman disputed to Bloomberg that the woman was forbidden from blaming anyone, and said the company’s main goal after the rape was to support the survivor.
Read it at Bloomberg
