I got an email from Airbnb today who decided to weigh in on the SCOTUS decision to uphold the travel ban orders from the Trump Administration. For some reason, they think it is their place to send me social and political commentary because I had previously used their website to book lodging. The body of the email is below.
The US Supreme Court decided to uphold the travel ban. We are profoundly disappointed by the Court’s decision. The travel ban is a policy that goes against our mission and values — to restrict travel based on a person’s nationality or religion is wrong.
And while this news is a setback, we will continue the fight with organizations that are helping those impacted. Airbnb will be matching donations to the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) up to a total of $150,000 through September 30, 2018 to support their work advocating for systemic change and legal pathways for those affected by the travel ban. If you’d like to join us, you can donate here.
We believe that travel is a transformative and powerful experience and that building bridges between cultures and communities creates a more innovative, collaborative and inspired world. At Airbnb, we are so grateful to our community who will continue to open doors around the world so that together, we can travel forward.
Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk
Virtue signal much? I’m really not seeing the connection between their business model of online bookings for bnbs and the travel ban issue. How do they assume that because I use their service for a vacation booking, that I am on their side (whichever side that may be) or even remotely interested in their views on politics? To be fair, Airbnb is not the only vendor guilty of this virtue signalling. The CEO of spice maker Penzeys used their customer mailing list to send out a letter saying Trump was a racist after the 2016 elections.
The travel ban is about security. Certain countries are known hot spots for terrorist and criminal activity and direct travel from those countries to the US should be viewed with suspicion. Take North Korea for example. No one even gets out of the country legally without being loyal apparatchik of the NK regime. NK agents have carried out assassinations and criminal activities across the world aimed at NK dissidents and defectors. Also, anyone travelling out of Syria is likely either an operative of the brutal Assad regime or a member of anti-Assad, pro-Iran faction. Either way, not good for the US and I am completely in favor of extreme vetting before we let anyone from those problematic countries into the US.
For Airbnb to come out against the SCOTUS decision tells me that they are simply making a flagrant political statement using the court ruling as a platform for their political views. For them to talk about donating $150K to international refugee activities is purely cynical virtue signalling. What about homeless Americans who could use that money? Why simply tell me you are against the SCOTUS ruling without even acknowledging the purpose of the travel ban?
Frankly, I am personally getting tired of all this virtue signalling from CEOs and companies and will be doing some vitue signalling of my own. No, I don’t care how politically informed/uninformed or engaged you are. If I want political commentary, I will seek it out from better sources than the company that books rooms in people’s houses or sells spices.
As for me, Airbnb is off my list of vendors I will do business with in the future. There are other alternatives like VRBO.
