The recently launched, NoirBnB aims to create a welcoming and safe platform for people from all walks of life to access curated accommodations & experiences on a local & global level.
Last year, founders, Stefan Grant, 27 Ronnia Cherry, 30, along with a group of their friends used the more widely known, AirBnB, to rent accommodations while visiting Decatur, a city east of Atlanta, Georgia for a music conference.
“While preparing for our show, the rental home was descended upon by two police officers, guns in hand, looking for robbery suspects,” Ronnia said.
“Apparently the neighbors saw a bunch of Black people in the house and assumed they were robbing the place.”
After a brief conversation, and confirmation of rental, the police realized there was no robbery taking place, and were cool enough to take a selfie with Stefan, who posted about the encounter on Twitter.
The photo instantly went viral, garnering the attention of various media outlets such as Buzzfeed, Slate, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and many others.
This selfie even caught the attention of their accommodations provider, Airbnb. After meeting with Airbnb at their San Francisco headquarters, pitching the Noirbnb concept, and speaking for months about how they could better serve the Black community, they realized the company had no intention of focusing their energy on properly servicing Black travelers.
Accusations that Airbnb has been ignoring complaints of racism and Harvard’s study of discrimination on Airbnb led to the rise of the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. Countless black consumers gave accounts of being denied accommodations because of race.
These events inspired the co-founders announced announced the launch of Noirbnb and vowed to serve the community and be The Future of Black Travel. Another accommodations’ service, Innclusive.com, also announced their launch.
“What we are building at Noirbnb is a platform for the African diaspora and people of color to connect with each other on a global level. Share not only your spaces but, also your experiences and culture,” he concluded.Noirbnb’s mission is to not only provide safe and welcoming spaces for Black travelers to rent; “we also aim to connect the African Diaspora in each corner of the world,” Stefan added.
“What we are building at Noirbnb is a platform for the African diaspora and people of color to connect with each other on a global level. Share not only your spaces but, also your experiences and culture.”
“The African-American spending power is currently 1.3 trillion dollars and is expected to increase to 1.7 trillion over the next few years. The Black travel market is currently around 48 billion dollars.”
“Our people have more power than we often realize. We want to ensure that our community feels welcome, wherever they choose to travel and never have to face discrimination on their journey,” Stefan concluded.