{"id":609045,"date":"2026-08-30T08:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T08:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609045\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T08:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T08:18:12","slug":"airbnb-manager-said-he-was-unlawfully-fired-despite-very-positive-performance-review-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609045\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb manager said he was unlawfully fired despite \u2018very positive\u2019 performance review \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Airbnb<\/a> manager took High Court<\/a> action against the home rental website complaining that he was unlawfully fired without any warning that his performance was not up to expectations.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Pugliese, who led the company\u2019s premium French support team in Ireland, complained that his dismissal was \u201cunprofessional\u201d, \u201cdisrespectful\u201d and done in breach of Airbnb\u2019s own policies. <\/p>\n

The global online home rental giant set up its European, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin in 2016 and now employs about 400 staff out of its North Wall Quay headquarters.<\/p>\n

Pugliese took High Court proceedings against Airbnb Ireland Unlimited Company on July 29th seeking orders that his employment was still valid and that the decision to remove him was null and void. He sought orders requiring Airbnb to continue to pay his salary and bonuses and sought to restrain Airbnb from filling his position.<\/p>\n

He sought damages for the intentional infliction of \u201cemotional suffering\u201d, breach of contract and damage to his reputation. <\/p>\n

Judge Siobh\u00e1n Stack granted Pugliese an interim injunction barring Airbnb from filling his position. When the case came back before Judge Michael Twomey on August 6th, he was told the interim injunction orders could be lifted as the case had been settled. <\/p>\n

Pugliese has since listed that he left Airbnb on his LinkedIn profile. The affidavit that the manager filed before the settlement gives an insight into Airbnb\u2019s Dublin operation. <\/p>\n

Pugliese said he joined Airbnb on a contract of indefinite duration on August 25th, 2025, having previously worked at Apple and Amazon. He rents a property in Cork and also owns a property in Belgium.<\/p>\n

His role with Airbnb was premium support delivery manager for the French market with a base salary of \u20ac90,000. He was granted restricted stock worth $55,000 (\u20ac47,000) to be vested over three years. He received a $10,000 stock top-up after working six months and had his salary increased to \u20ac91,500.<\/p>\n

In February, he had passed his six-month probation period and had a \u201cvery positive\u201d performance review. He said his contract provided for \u201ctermination\u201d by giving one month\u2019s notice. The contract also specified that summary dismissal was allowed for \u201cgross misconduct\u201d but it also provided a right of appeal. <\/p>\n

Pugliese had several staff reporting to him but said Airbnb provided \u201climited training\u201d. He relied upon his previous management experience with Amazon and Apple. He said his position was \u201cchallenging\u201d as his own manager changed four times.<\/p>\n

He said no issues or concerns were ever raised with him, nor was he ever placed on a performance improvement plan. <\/p>\n

On July 15th, he was invited to a French team performance discussion. At the meeting a human resources manager told him that his performance was \u201cnot up to expectations\u201d and his employment would be \u201cterminated with immediate effect\u201d. His access to internal systems was to be revoked. He was told there was \u201cno room for discussion\u201d. <\/p>\n

After the meeting he received an email from Maxime Quantin, a regional manager, confirming the dismissal and saying it followed \u201ccareful consideration\u201d that determined he should be dismissed due to \u201congoing unsatisfactory performance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pugliese said he was \u201cshocked\u201d by the allegations of poor performance, which were not discussed in detail at the earlier meeting. He said he was later asked to agree a settlement whereby he was offered a \u201cmodest\u201d ex-gratia payment, but he refused.<\/p>\n

He was \u201ccompletely taken by surprise\u201d as he had never been asked to discuss his performance or warned that improvement was necessary. <\/p>\n

Pugliese complained that Airbnb failed to follow its own policies of issuing verbal warnings before taking a decision to dismiss. He said the manner in which he was dealt with was \u201cunprofessional, disrespectful and in breach of the defendant\u2019s own policies\u201d. <\/p>\n

The reasons given for his termination were \u201cdifficult to reconcile and is absent any factual justification\u201d. He alleged Airbnb\u2019s actions were \u201cunlawful\u201d and a breach of contract. <\/p>\n

Both Pugliese and Airbnb declined to comment on the case this week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Airbnb manager took High Court action against the home rental website complaining that he was unlawfully fired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2201,42,73,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-609045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-airbnb","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}