A New York hotel workers union and The Hotel Association of New York City is scheduled to run an ad Monday that will rip Airbnb, the home-renting site, citing possible links to the company harboring terrorists, reports the New York Daily News.
The attack ad comes after reports that Salman Abedi used a short-term rental apartment, where “massive packages” were shipped to him at the time of the Manchester bombing.
The alleged short-term rental was not an Airbnb unit.
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The ad cites Airbnb refusing to “hand over” information and addresses of 40,000 apartments it lists on its site to law enforcement. The video claims that Airbnb lists this information for other large metropolitan areas like Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans—but not New York.
The video ends abruptly, asking and answering its own question, “Who’s in your building? Airbnb won’t say.” It then gives a number to call for more information.
Airbnb states on their site that they run background checks for certain guests, and check the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) list, which includes terrorist designations. They claim to run background checks using third-party background checkers.
Airbnb was under scrutiny during the Paris Attacks when some hosts refused refunds after visitors quickly canceled visits following the attacks.
The company bounced back quickly. Gaining an influx of visitors who were seeking to capitalize on cheaper travel in the fall, only a few months after the attacks.
