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I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb
- CarolineW 10y agoQuoting: For folks that are going to say, "well people have the right to refuse rentals in their homes". True. To an extent. There are Fair Housing laws that may apply under certain circumstances ... I thought the whole point of AirBnB was to be disruptive, and ignore regulations, and not have to obey the laws that hotels have to obey and thereby, well, something. Things like this will happen. And yes, he can tell his story, but it won't change unless it's legislated. AirBnB can't have it both ways.
- devopsproject 10y agodisruptive doesn't have to mean ignoring regulations
- retrac98 10y agoIt seems unrealistic to expect AirBnB to "fix" this issue. This is a cultural problem, not a technical one, and it's outside their sphere of control. Sure, they could shut down a few blatantly racist hosts... but that'll never stamp out the underlying sentiment and they'll never get them all. I think a more realistic expectation on them would be for them to actively promote equality and do their bit to contribute towards a larger cultural shift in that regard. For example, while on-boarding hosts, show a short video encouraging a bit of open-mindedness.
- nailer 10y ago> For example, while on-boarding hosts, show a short video encouraging a bit of open-mindedness. Not a video, but AirBnB (maybe about two months ago) made EVERY host agree to not discriminate or their listings would be turned off. I still think AirBnB is an awful company (hallway outside my apartment is currently trashed by an airbnb guest, the host doesn't care, airbnb won't get involved), but they are definitely aware of and addressing this.
- Chris2048 10y ago> hallway outside my apartment is currently trashed by an airbnb guest, the host doesn't care Can't you sue?
- muninn_ 10y agoYes, or perhaps they can flat out tell people "we are looking at the data and if you discriminate based on skin color you are not hosting and we will tell other sites about our find". It's disgusting that people still do this crap.
- wayn3 10y agoin order to do that they would first have to profile their customers for race. thats not exactly legal either.
- muninn_ 10y agoNo they don't, they can just say this person disproportionally rejects people of whatever race or prejudice. No need to state the host's race.
- wayn3 10y agoNot the hosts race, the potential renters race. In order for Airbnb to say someone of race {race} got rejected, they have to know, or guess, their race. Whether they ask for that on the application or look at the pictures, its probably illegal.
- Eridrus 10y agoThey could try and limit what people see about guests before a booking is confirmed. E.g. they could not show any photos of the person before the room is confirmed. But most of the actions they could take would probably impact their bottom line, so it's hard to see them doing anything.
- vivekd 10y agoWhile perhaps not altogether effective, I think shutting down blatantly racist hosts would be a very good place to start in promoting that cultural shift.
- joshuas 10y agoI don't know about fixing it outright, but they could somehow derank hosts in search results if they have weird rejection patterns. Sex/Age/Race/Whatever
- brador 10y ago> it's outside their sphere of control It is absolutely within their sphere of control. They can not show photos or names until the deal is done. Why does a renter need to see the face and name of the person renting? As the market maker it is up to AirBnB to verify legitimacy of buyers and sellers. Photos and names add little to the transaction itself and are clearly reducing the buy side with no gain on sell side.
- TheCoelacanth 10y agoI think it's realistic to expect them not to aid landlords in violating the FHA. They should be taking active steps to remove discriminating landlords from their platform.
- robbies 10y agoI don't think this is too surprising for any person of color. For myself, I've learned that I have to plan 'extra ahead' in order to make sure I have time to correspond with multiple hosts, in order to work around the calendar being wrong or other 'reasons'. I've been cancelled too many times with Instant Book for 'reasons'.
- tinus_hn 10y agoIncidentally that was why the 'green book' was started. It's a sad thing indeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book
- mathattack 10y agoI used to not believe this happened. Then I saw saw several instances of taxis refusing to pick up blacks in New York, and realized that racism was still hiding below the surface.
- justmadethis 10y agohaha crissie is hilarious LOL ROFLMAFAO that expectation vs reality pic at the end jajajajaja
- txmx2000 10y agoSomehow AirBnB is responsible for stopping racism. Not the police. Not the court system. Not congress. Not the host who cancelled the booking. AirBnB needs to balance the scales of justice. It's a completely rational idea.
- vinay427 10y agoOf course they're not obligated to stop racism. If they don't do anything to address this issue, however, I and potentially many others will hesitate to book using Airbnb to vote with our [currency]. This is capitalism working without necessarily requiring government interference.
- txmx2000 10y ago"Address the issue" That doesn't mean anything. There's no issue here.
- vinay427 10y agoI see an societal issue that Airbnb can mitigate, and so do many of the commenters on this thread and on the article. I understand that you disagree, but some of us will gladly support alternatives that take a harder stance against what we see as injustices.
- lolsal 10y agoI find this interesting because instead of choosing to find a different cabin and reward another AirBnb host that was not racist (vote with your wallet), the author went out of their way to still do business with this host. It seems like the inconvenience of booking indirectly was not enough of a deterrent to factor into the purchase of this rental. I also note that the host did say: > So sorry, but we are planning to be up there now 4th of July week afterall I wont presume to know if the host was racially motivated or not, but the response seems entirely plausible - possibly plans really did change. Either way this does not seem like something AirBnb could even remotely affect with policy. I don't think anyone could say 'plans changing' is racist, whether it's true or not.
- TheCoelacanth 10y agoExcept for the part where the host cancelled his request for another date and ignored all his subsequent communications.
- lolsal 10y agoI find this interesting because instead of choosing to find a different cabin and reward another AirBnb host that was not racist (vote with your wallet), the author went out of their way to still do business with this host. It seems like the inconvenience of booking indirectly was not enough of a deterrent to factor into the purchase of this rental. I also note that the host did say: > So sorry, but we are planning to be up there now 4th of July week afterall I wont presume to know if the host was racially motivated or not, but the response seems entirely plausible - possibly plans really did change. Either way this does not seem like something AirBnb could even remotely affect with policy. I don't think anyone could say 'plans changing' is racist, whether it's true or not.