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Airbnb has tweaked its rules and reservation system to lessen discrimination:
Online rental marketplace Airbnb will address reports of widespread racial discrimination against non-white guests by displaying photos less prominently on its website, promoting instant bookings and changing some of its technology, according to a report commissioned by the company. The report, released on Thursday, followed months of criticism of Airbnb, sparked partly by comments under Twitter hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack about discrimination against black people. "Bias and discrimination have no place on Airbnb, and we have zero tolerance for them," Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky wrote in an email to users. "Unfortunately, we have been slow to address these problems, and for this I am sorry."
Before the end of the year, Airbnb will roll out changes to its reservation request system that emphasize trip details, reviews and verified IDs while testing various formats that downplay users' photos, said the report from Laura Murphy & Associates. San Francisco-based Airbnb will also expand its instant book program, which allows guests who meet preferences preset by hosts to make reservations without prior approval, to 1 million of its 2 million listings by January. Under that program, hosts can require guests to provide Airbnb with government issued ID or have or a 4.5 out of 5 star rating to be approved for booking. Hosts can also cancel bookings without paying a fee if they have issues with guests' behavior. The company will also implement technology that prevents hosts from booking new guests if they tell another guest their listing is unavailable for the same time frame.
Also at The New York Times , which notes that the company had hired former Attorney General Eric Holder and other advisers such as the former head of the ACLU's D.C. Legislative Office Laura Murphy and civil rights attorney John Relman to help design the new policies.
Here is the report Laura Murphy submitted to Airbnb, entitled Airbnb's Work to Fight Discrimination and Build Inclusion (32 page PDF).
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Sunday September 11 2016, @12:51PM
As always, the root of the problem is the concept of a "public accommodation".
- It is correct for the government to be required to treat everyone equally, regardless of eye color, hair color, skin color, or whatever.
- It is the right individuals to decide who they want to associate with, who they want to invite into their house, or whatever.
Privately owned businesses fall in between. US law declares them to be "public accommodation", meaning that they are subject to the same rules as the government.
Personally, I think this is wrong. If a business wants to serve only blond haired, blue eyes women? That should be their decision. Choosing your clientele bring advantages and disadvantages. Certainly, if I were renting my house out via Airbnb, there are some groups of people who are a lot riskier to rent to than others. It's entirely understandable that people don't want to take risks, when renting out their homes. This may even be legal. While Airbnb itself is clearly a business, many of the people renting on it are not - they're just earning a bit of beer money, or maybe looking to host interesting people.
If Airbnb manages to hide what kind of people individual renters are, they will drive away anyone who is renting their place out casually. They will be left only with the professional renters who are - in actual fact - just hotels dodging regulations.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.