Straight from Airbnb website. Several states prohibit denying an ESA access. A few examples are NY, HI, and CA.

What we don’t allow:
For jurisdictions where Hosts are required to accept emotional support animals (unless the Host has an exemption) a Host cannot:
Charge pet fees, decline a guest, or apply different rules, treatment, or behavior to a guest traveling with an emotional support animal
Ask for information or documentation about a guest’s emotional support animal beyond the questions outlined above for service animals
For jurisdictions where Hosts are required to accept emotional support animals, a guest’s emotional support animal must not be:
Out of control
Unhousebroken
Left alone at the listing without prior approval
Allowed into areas that are considered unauthorized to the guest
Allowed in a public space without being harnessed, leashed, or tethered and not under the guest’s control

Anyone who disagrees, feel free to look it up and hit “ctrl f” and search for the word “emotional”, “support” “or emotional support animal” and you wont find it in there at all.

Service animals, alone, have rights in the fair housing act.

So if your dog is not a pet, then what is it? Virtually all people who have pets have them for emotional reasons, so they would all be ’emotional support animals’.

‘The listing that we booked did not mention an additional pet fee nor any mention of any requirements for notification regarding animals.’ You must know not everyone likes or allows pets so even if it’s not explicitly stated you need to ask about this in advance, you should know to ask in advance. You really asked for this situation yourself by not discussing your puppy with the host.

Entitled people like you make life hard for hosts (I hate AirBnB but some hosts are decent people and shouldn’t have to put up with people like you).

Cool story!

Suzanne,

The sad thing is, that I don’t think either of those options are true. I had posted this story on Reddit, and the amount of hate I received from people saying exactly the same things that Ron said was appalling.

It’s truly incredible how far human ignorance can go.

Oh, man! That’s a bit discouraging to read. To be honest, I really don’t want to have to take the legal path, as I’ve always been resentful of the stories when people take advantage of the legal system. But now, I’m realizing that the courts are in place to protect us little people from the immovable and unforgiving big guys.

I guess we’ll have to see!

Hey Pumpkin!

Thanks for your condolences. I haven’t had much luck with Airbnb making up for this. They’ve apologized profusely for the discrimination and unprofessionalism from the host, and said that he will face consequences, but only offer a measly $200 credit to make up for this whole ordeal. Which would be sufficient (even tho the cleaning fee we had paid before reimbursement was $225 and my wife cleaned the place herself), but all of the rentals in the area cost more than double what he had originally paid. Looking like Airbnb isn’t going to be of much help.

Again, thank you. Obviously, you’re on this forum because you’ve faced your own issues with Airbnb (whether as host or guest is irrelevant), and I hope that these issues have been/will be resolved for you 🙂

Take care!

Hey Ron! Thanks so much for the thoughtless reply! I really do appreciate you taking time out of your day to call me pathetic and entitled, even though you couldn’t be bothered to take any time in order to read the post thoroughly. You may wonder how I know this, and the answer is simple, really:

You see, I mentioned multiple times throughout my post that we specifically chose a pet friendly rental as we always do, in order to avoid inconveniencing our host in any way! And you probably would have noticed this if you hadn’t jumped to conclusions just based on the title of the post alone!

That being said, I guess it really is pathetic that I’ve been choosing to inconvenience myself instead because–even though I was diagnosed with a Class IV disability six years ago and have been receiving treatment since, and I am therefore truly “entitled” to have an Emotional Support Animal by our federal laws and Airbnb policy– I have been choosing ONLY pet-friendly rentals and paying all the applicable fees, even though I am under no obligation to do so! PATHETIC, RIGHT?!

It should also be mentioned that Airbnb is punishing this host accordingly, because–once more, if you had taken a moment to read the post rather than electing to become a keyboard warrior, fighting against all this “p–sification of America”–even though the host clearly breached Airbnb’s own non-discrimination policy, his real reason for cancelling the rental was to avoid paying reparations for renting us an apartment in an unsuitable condition.

All in all, Ron, I really am so sorry to steal the one glimmer of positivity from your day (or week, month, or entire life, rather), but it must be said that I will not be “BANNED FROM THE SERVICE” for standing up for myself, my family, and my rights as a tax-paying American. Although, this white knight of an Airbnb host just might be.

Sincerely,
Learn to read, it’s never too late to start!

P.S. As a sort of level one/early beginner “practice puzzle” for you, I’ve arranged my screen name in a way that can only be deciphered (look it up) if you sound it out REAL SLOWLY.