Why Airbnb Is Canceling Its D.C. Reservations for Inauguration Week
Residents fearful of violence and intimidation in their neighborhoods pressured short-term rental platforms to take aggressive action.
The neighborhood of Capitol Hill is bracing for another influx of white supremacists and Trump supporters during inauguration week. Airbnb said it will cancel reservations that week to mitigate the danger to the community.
Photographer: Al Drago/CQ Roll Call
Darrell Fogan has led a running team from his home in Washington, D.C. since the early 1990s, but when Trump supporters started showing up in his Shaw neighborhood last week to stay in rented homes, he canceled his group's daily morning run for the first time ever.
Fogan, a Black swimming instructor at nearby Howard University, says he was yelled and cursed at on a public street for wearing a mask, and feared for the safety of his multiracial group. “I said, ‘I’m not running,’ and then my runners said, ‘Me too.’ They said that the Trump supporters were too wild."