Airbnb has been criticised for its handling of an incident which involved a transgender guest rejected because a host felt “uncomfortable”.

Shadi Petosky complained back in 2015 directly to Airbnb, who did not remove the host from the website. Instead, at a later date the host was made a “super host”, giving her specific site privileges. Petosky recently tweeted about Airbnb’s failture to act, including a screenshot of the Minneapolis-based host rejecting her because of her gender.

It was only when the tweet went viral that the company took action, replying that they had since banned the host. Airbnb’s public affairs director Nick Pappas responded in a statement: “Discrimination has no place in the Airbnb community. We are removing this host from Airbnb.

“We are conducting a comprehensive review and examining what can be done to ensure we resolve these kinds of issues quickly and help make sure everyone is treated fairly.”

Petosky, who’s a producer for the show Yo Gabba Gabba and creator of the Amazon show Danger & Eggs, was in conversation with the host when she disclosed that she was trans. “I usually just say that I’m transgender in an intro email. I don’t want to arrive at a scene and feel unsafe. For trans people we’re just so often seen as trying to trick people,” she said.

The host responded to say she was fearful that her son would feel uncomfortable, and that she would not be welcome in her home. Petosky said that, while initially shocked, it was a general reaction she’d experienced before. “I think that she’s using kind of coded language that is really effecting trans people right now.

“The idea that we’re negatively impacting kids or hurting children is a really hard thing for trans people,” she said. “People are using their children to discriminate against trans people. They don’t realise we’re parents, too.”

Petosky told the Guardian that when she first approached the company, they reacted very differently. She explained: “They asked me who she was but didn’t take her off the platform then. She became a super host. But now that there’s this larger conversation around Airbnb and race, so I just posted to add the trans perspective.”

Recently, Airbnb has faced criticism as black guests across the world have shared stories of discrimination from other users on site, using the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. At this time, the house-sharing company has no policy with regards to hosts who systematically discriminate due to gender or race.

“The reality is Airbnb doesn’t have any training or anything to block discrimination,” Petosky said. Her tweet was initially met with a link to their general terms and services as well as, according to Petosky, a voicemail left with no forwarding number.

Despite the lack of guidelines, Airbnb have marketed themselves as a gay-friendly organisation, with an advertising campaign centring around the word “mankind”. They’re official sponsors of San Francisco’s gay pride parade, and another recent advert featured a trans couple.

The home-sharing service lets hosts see headshots and have chats before This is in contrast to Airbnb’s very gay-friendly advertising campaign that centers on the word “mankind”, often breaking it apart in print ads to emphasize the word “kind”. Airbnb, which has sponsored San Francisco’s gay pride parade, turns their logo rainbow-colored for the events. One of Airbnb’s recent advertisements featured a trans couple.