Airbnb host asks black guests which 'monkey' will sleep on the couch

By Matthew Wright

A Black chef and his friends encountered a racist Airbnb host in New York City who asked which ‘monkey’ would be sleeping on the couch after the group asserted that her listing said it accommodated five people.

Meshach Cisero – owner and executive chef of The Cage Bird in Washington D.C. – took to his social media to share the unsettling experience of being kicked out by the host at 2am on Saturday morning. The listing was for an apartment in the Upper East Side.

‘We arrived to our @Airbnb, and we were harassed several times before being thrown out at 2 am,’ Cicero said on Instagram.

‘Her reasonings were because she felt unsafe, we were going to steal and destroy her property, and then told us to “Get the f**k out of her house immediately!” We cooperated and began to pack our things to leave.’

Cisero and his four friends compiled and started gathering their things so that they could leave. But he asserts that as they were packing, the host bust into the apartment with a camera.

They asked her to respect their privacy – as one of them had just exited the shower – but the woman continued her tirade and called them ‘criminals’ adding that she didn’t feel ‘safe.’

Cisero added: ‘She became so angry, rude, and disrespectful that we had to call @NYPD because we weren’t sure if she’d attack us while trying to leave.’

Cisero included videos of him explaining what had happened but also of the host – identified only as Kate – calling the group ‘monkeys.’

The clip shows Kate arguing with Cisero about how many the space can accommodate, with the host asserting that it says four.

‘It says four and a couch, so that’s five. You have that on your Airbnb description’ the chef declares.

Kate retorts, ‘which monkey is going to stay on the couch?’

This article originally appeared in the San Antonio Observer