Family members of three tourists who died while staying at an Airbnb in Mexico City, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning, urged the short-term rental company Thursday to require detectors in properties it lists to prevent future tragedies.
“Our main goal is to try to get the word out to those planning to use short-term rentals like Airbnb,” said Jennifer Marshall, whose son, Jordan Marshall, was one of the travellers.
“We want to put pressure on Airbnb to regulate and mandate carbon monoxide detectors going forward. It’s the only way we could think of to honour our children.”
Lawyer L. Chris Stewart of the Atlanta-based firm Stewart Miller Simmons Trial Attorneys also said a wrongful death lawsuit is planned against Airbnb and others as a result of the incident. “We’re asking Airbnb to mandate that all of their listings have detectors,” he said.
“They’ve created international and national bans on parties, on weapons, on cameras. They could easily mandate carbon monoxide detectors too. They know they’ve been killing people in their rentals. We know of at least three other cases.”
Stewart said however that they are awaiting information from investigators in Mexico to determine “all the defendants” before filing the suit. The three travellers who died last month were Kandace Florence, 28, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; her long-time friend, Jordan Marshall, 28, who was also from Virginia Beach but was teaching in New Orleans; and Courtez Hall, 33, of New Orleans, who also taught in the city.
They visited the country for Day of the Dead and were staying at the vacation rental in an upscale part of Mexico City.
According to news reports, Florence contacted her boyfriend back in the States to say she was feeling sick, and he contacted her Airbnb host to go check on them. Authorities later found all three dead. In a statement, Airbnb said it has suspended the listing and cancelled upcoming reservations pending investigation of the incident.
“This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones as they grieve such an unimaginable loss”, the company said. “Our priority right now is supporting those impacted as the authorities investigate what happened, and we stand ready to assist with their inquiries however we can.”
Airbnb said it has not yet confirmed that carbon monoxide exposure was responsible for the deaths but noted that it operates a global program making free smoke and carbon monoxide detectors available to hosts, more than 200,000 of which have been ordered so far. It said that it is also working with Mexican officials to promote safety practices among hosts and is updating its detector program to expedite shipments in the country.
It added that the site lets prospective guests filter their searches for hosts who report having detectors and flags any bookings where there are none.
