April 10, 2017
Mable Chu was featured in a recent Airbnb marketing campaign as an average Toronto “host” who, dealt a setback, began renting out rooms on the platform as she struggled to pay the mortgage. “One of the things I first did when I lost my job was Airbnb,” Chu said in a 30-second video posted, and now removed, by Airbnb on YouTube. With instrumental music playing softly in the background, the video cut to Chu warmly greeting a woman at a door, presumably a guest. Without the home-sharing income, “there’s no way I could manage to keep up the mortgage payments,” Chu said in a voice-over…