Bentong Homestay Cancel’s Couple’s Reservation Because the Boyfriend is Indian

A Twitter netizen, Eleanor recently shared her experience of getting her Airbnb booking cancelled just because her boyfriend was Indian. Eleanor, her boyfriend Jonathan and his family annually enjoy a Christmas trip together.

For their stay this year, they found a sprawling villa complete with a pool and 14 bedrooms called the ‘Bentong Eco Wellness Resort’ for RM3,300 a night.

According to her, Eleanor decided to call up the property agent, Daniel to clarify some information about the property before booking, conversing in Mandarin the entire time. They proceeded to book the accommodation on the website as the call went well.

However, things took a turn when Daniel reached out to Jonathan about the property. He not only asked him how many people would be potentially staying at the property, but also enquired about his race.

Jonathan ignored the question about his race, but Daniel pressed on, asking, “R u Chiness?”, which we take to mean “Are you Chinese?”. Go figure, the guy can’t even spell right *rolls eyes*.

Daniel reached out to him and asked about his race. We were confused as to why it matters. Daniel said "We just rent for Chiness & Malay" and proceeded to cancel our booking. pic.twitter.com/eSXeJNRHmY
— Eleanor Eyu (@eleanor_eyu) June 29, 2022

Daniel went on to say, “We just rent for Chiness & Malay” and shared that Indian people who had stayed at the property before didn’t follow their rules. Despite Jonathan calling him a “racist person and insisting that they would “follow all the rules”, Daniel still cancelled their booking.

Eleanor then called up Daniel to clarify the matter but according to her, he disgustedly replied, “They're so dirty, they leave the place messed up and stole the property's ice cream".

Understandably outraged by the property agent’s racist assumptions, Eleanor took to Twitter to share her experience online saying, “Just because one group of people from a certain race left the place dirty, it makes it okay for you to assume every single person from that race is dirty?”.

She also elaborated that her boyfriend’s family goes on Christmas trips every year but they’ve never faced this problem before as they always clean up after themselves.

She also went on to wonder if a group of Chinese people were to mess up the place, whether the property agent would not rent out the villa to other Chinese people in the future as well.

She also suggested that a penalty fee be imposed by the owners instead of racist restrictions. Despite Daniel’s rudeness, Eleanor also believes it wasn’t his fault as that the decision makers must have ultimately been the owners and the management team”.

Other frustrated netizens chimed in on Eleanor’s issue by sharing their own similar experiences. A sign that he has encountered many similar experiences before, this user shared:

pic.twitter.com/tz1YgUv9n5
— suthesan (@suthesan) June 29, 2022

Another netizen mentioned his previous experience trying to rent a place:

I had experienced before, but it was a house Rent. At 1st the owner was ok n at the end of the day when we were about to seal the deal, Owner asked what religion I am? To my surprise, he told me he cannot rent to Hindus as referring to the way we pray, it will damage the house.
— Sanctuary (@Guyz2021) June 29, 2022

The company has since reached out to Eleanor, stating that they “Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way.

Hi Eleanor, Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way. You can view our Nondiscrimination Policy here: https://t.co/VkaZDgSkpi We'd like to look into this, please send us a DM with the email address connected to your account, so our team can follow up. Thank you. https://t.co/WCQEFGIlXC
— Airbnb Help (@AirbnbHelp) June 29, 2022

This user recommended that “this host should be removed from Airbnb listing”.

Good on you @Airbnb for looking into this and a detailed Anti-Discriminatory Policy. As an example to others, this host should be removed from Airbnb listing. As for other Malaysians who actually have a justification and have a spoilt durian analogy, shame on you ?
— Harish Raj (@hraj81) June 29, 2022

Hopefully Airbnb can help to solve this matter so that other users do not have to face such unpleasant situations!