NEW ORLEANS — Mia X says she’s never had any issues booking short term rental through AirBNB, but that changed when the hip-hop star came home from touring and saw that her roof was badly damaged from recent rain.
Because she needed a quiet space for upcoming Zoom meetings, she went to the app as she’s done many times before.
“I didn’t really look at the host, I just saw a space and said, "This looks cool." I clicked it reserved it, paid for it, everything was fine,” said Mia X.
Everything but the fine print from the host she had no idea she was renting from.
Sextant Stays is a Florida based company that leases entire commercial spaces, renting out individual units via AirBNB. They have a policy that states they do not allow bookings from local residents within a 60-mile radius.
Mia says the policy is not fair.
"I was offended by that, and then they had not refunded all my money," Mia said. "They kept only $200 of it, and that's what made me go to my Twitter page."
Once the post began to go viral, Mia says her phone started to ring. Sextant Stays was calling. She says the company offered to make good on what happened, citing their policy to suspend the no locals rule in cases of home repairs like in her case. She said she asked them why they had the policy in the first place.
“I spoke with someone named Jazzy and she reiterated that they do not rent to locals because locals have had parties and trashed the place,” Mia said.
Kristen Vancourt has run short term rental properties for three years. She says the Sextant Stay's concerns are very real. But she says the only time she has had an issue was with a tourist staying for a festival who booked for four people but showed up with 12.
"There wasn't any physical damage to the property, but the house was just trashed," Vancourt said. "It took the cleaning days to get it back to its previous condition."
As for Mia, she says this feels like the policy is a continued encroachment on the culture of New Orleans from those not born and raised here.
"To have companies come in and say,"We're going to move our business here, but we don't want your business, even though we are moving our business in your city.' Doesn't sit well with me. It's not fair," Mia said.
In a statement to WWL-TV, Sextant Stays said that it created several rules "as the result of recent industry challenges" to deter fraudulent bookings, "particularly last minute local bookings." The company said that the rules were created "to ensure guest and property safety" and Mia's booking was denied based on "insufficient booking details provided by the guest."
Sextant Stay's full statement is below:
"Sextant Stays is an equal opportunity employer and a company that pledges to not discriminate against any employee and/or guest based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. As the result of recent industry challenges the company has implemented several protocols to deter fraudulent bookings, particularly last minute local bookings, to ensure guest and property safety. As a result, this individual’s booking was denied based on insufficient booking details provided by the guest."
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