Family members of two El Paso siblings have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in California accusing Airbnb of negligence and deceptive safety practices after the pair died in a Mexico City rental they booked on the platform. The complaint alleges that 35-year-old Hugo Iván Morales and 37-year-old Laura Abril Morales were killed by carbon monoxide after a fuel-burning water heater vented into their apartment instead of safely exhausting outdoors.
Filed on Feb. 6, the suit claims Airbnb failed to disclose the hazardous appliance, allowed the listing to appear on the site without a carbon monoxide alarm, and misrepresented the overall safety of the unit.
What the lawsuit says happened inside the rental
The complaint accuses Airbnb of failing to warn guests about dangerous conditions and of creating a “reasonable expectation” that listings on the platform are safe, according to KDBC. Court filings say the Mexico City rental contained a fuel-burning water heater installed inside the apartment that emitted carbon monoxide and that there was no functioning carbon monoxide detector to alert anyone inside.
Relatives are pursuing claims including wrongful death, negligence, premises liability and fraud. The complaint says damages are expected to exceed $35,000, in addition to any policy changes the family hopes to force through the legal process.
How Mexican authorities describe the deaths
Mexican authorities found Hugo and Laura Morales dead inside the rental during a February 2025 trip, after staff raised the alarm when the guests stopped responding, according to reporting by El Diario de Chihuahua. Early reports placed the property on Emilio Dondé Street in Colonia Centro, in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City.
Prosecutors later said the water heater appeared to have been improperly installed in an area that was not adequately ventilated, allowing carbon monoxide to build up inside the unit. Family members have said relatives traveled to Mexico City to identify the victims and began raising funds to cover funeral expenses.
Legal stakes and the bigger Airbnb safety question
The lawsuit urges a California court to hold Airbnb responsible for what the plaintiffs characterize as systemic safety failures and to award money for funeral costs and emotional harm, according to KDBC. The family’s attorneys also point to what they describe as a broader pattern of carbon monoxide incidents at short-term rentals.
An investigation identified multiple carbon monoxide deaths at Airbnb listings overseas, according to reporting tied to NBC News. Civil lawyers who have handled similar cases have warned that Airbnb’s terms of service and arbitration clauses can complicate efforts to get such disputes before a judge, and this new filing could test how far those barriers really go.
Airbnb’s response and what happens next
Airbnb has called the deaths “a terrible tragedy” and said it was “supporting those impacted,” according to KVIA. The company has previously encouraged hosts to install carbon monoxide detectors and runs a limited distribution program for alarms, although participation is not mandatory in many places.
The plaintiffs argue that voluntary safety measures are not enough and are asking the court to force stronger protections. The case remains in its early stages, and the schedule for hearings or key motions has not yet been set.
What the family wants to change
Relatives say they are seeking both financial compensation for the loss of Hugo and Laura and concrete policy changes that would make short-term rentals safer for travelers. For now, the lawsuit is the main tool the family is using to push their claims and to press for broader safety reforms on the platform.
