'He's allowed everywhere': family soured on Airbnb after service dog push back

A Manitoba family is hoping their bad experience with an Airbnb host who tried to cancel their booking because of a service dog will educate others about human rights.

Jonathan Trudel says he didn't think there would be any problem when he booked a weekend stay for his mother's birthday at a cabin in Belair Provincial Forest back in January.

Jonathan's mother Carmen Trudel is visually impaired, and has been using a service dog for more than 20 years. Jonathan said it didn't even occur to him to mention the dog at the time, even though the cabin did have a no pet policy.

As the weekend in August drew near, Jonathan thought he should let the host know they would have a service dog with them. "I just emailed the host, saying 'my mom and my sister will be checking in first.' Out of courtesy, I just figured I'll let them know that there will be a guide dog coming."

Ten minutes later, Jonathan got a call from an Airbnb case manager saying they had to cancel the reservation because of the host's no pet policy.

"I talked to her on the app, I said 'you know, this is actually illegal,'" said Jonathan.

Manitoba's Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities who rely on a service animal, wheelchair, or any other remedial appliance or device.

Jonathan then began messaging back and forth with the host, who asked for proof that the dog was trained as a service animal.

"Even in Airbnb's policy it said we don't have to do that," said Jonathan.

But he sent the proof anyway, and after some more messaging, the host reluctantly agreed to let them stay at the cabin.

"He said 'I know I'm going to lose no matter what, go enjoy my cabin,'" said Jonathan.

But Jonathan says they couldn't enjoy it because they were too worried about dog hair getting everywhere. The host had said the reason for the no pet policy was his mother's severe allergies.

"We were worried about any little bit of hair being on the ground," said Jonathan, "We did everything we could, we swept, we picked up his droppings."

Carmen Trudel (left) says having a service animal has never been an issue for her. (Source; CTV news Winnipeg) Carmen says this has never been an issue for her before.

"I have brought him everywhere, he's been to Disney World, and he's allowed everywhere," she said.

Airbnb says the host was not in compliance with their policy.

"Airbnb does not tolerate differential treatment for Service Animals, and we have a specially trained team to investigate claims of discrimination, with actions ranging from warnings to suspensions to full removal depending on the circumstances. In this case, we can confirm that we found a violation of our Accessibility Policy," said Airbnb in an email to CTV News Winnipeg.

Carmen is going to think twice before using Airbnb again. "The Airbnb communication, customer service was not good," she said. "They just dropped off the edge of the earth after we were done and the man was still not treating us properly after, and saying inappropriate things."

Airbnb says the host has been educated on their accessibility policy and given a warning for violating the policies.