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Here’s a 2019 working paper from the University of Alabama College of Law by Allyson E. Gold, now Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) Clinic at Wake Forest Law in North Carolina.
This is a very informative survey article, with sources listed (footnotes). There’s a LOT here.
I don’t agree with some of the policy recommendation at the end, at least not on first blush, but it’s very interesting to know what kind of policy advice is being given. And I learned at least one rationale for Airbnb pushing Instant Booking that I was unaware of.
I started copying and pasting interesting excerpts but after copying 3,500 words and six pages of text I think it’s worth it to read or at least skim this article.
If anyone wants my six pages of excerpts message me and I’ll message you with them if the system permits messages so long, or post here if desired.
What is that? To try to minimize racism and benefits accruing disproportionately to white hosts? That’s certainly been talked about here, especially years ago. Many hosts have persisted in their belief that they can tell a lot about a guest by looking at their pictures and were upset that Airbnb removed the photos from profiles.
Most of the regulations proposed seem to be in line with what is proposed here locally. As a host living on the premises I don’t think they should put hosts like me in the lottery, but even if they did I’m renting so few days on Airbnb now that it probably wouldn’t matter.
My trash neighbors are the main impact on my business.
Yes, I was unaware of that as part (much?) of Airbnb’s motivation, and the Congressional Black Caucus’s letter to Chesky.
As for discussions here, it was either before my time here or I just missed it. Glad the forum was on top of this!
I was surprised about the argument that, in effect, is against grandfathering, saying it favored early adopters and those with technology expertise. Instead, they recommend a lottery system anew for all. I hadn’t heard of that before, though I don’t monitor this systematically.
Grandfathering. The term is from the anti-black Jim Crow era. It applied to provisions put in place to keep blacks from voting.
Although I see why people often feel that changes in law shouldn’t apply to them, grandfathering usually benefits the haves over the have nots and those who traditionally hold power. As a result, it’s usually a barrier to improvement.
That was indeed the rationale, but Airbnb did a survey and found that POC got rejected at a rate of 2.7% more compared to whites. In the absence of any further context, that number can’t really be taken at face value as simply being because of prejudice.
Perhaps they didn’t meet the host’s requirements, indicated they wanted to throw a party, didn’t respond to the host’s messages, had some bad reviews.
At one point, I noticed on a thread on the CC that had been started by a young black woman, saying she was having a hard time finding a place to have a party of “only about 20-30 people” for her one year old’s birthday. While many hosts chimed in, explaining why parties aren’t accepted by most hosts, there were a lot of responses from more young black female guests (and no white ones), some quite rude, saying it was ridiculous that they couldn’t have birthday parties for their babies at an Airbnb.
So I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing among young black women to have big bashes for one year olds, but it would just show on a survey that another POC got declined, rather than that they got declined because they wanted to throw a party.
(One year olds actually hate big commotions, and end up crying and melting down because of the over-stimulation, so a 20-30 person party for a 1 year old is really a party for the grown-ups)
I’m all for policies which cut down on discrimination, but I’m just not sure that hiding profile photos is an effective way to do it. Seems like hosts who are prejudiced would cancel the booking after seeing the photo anyway, like that host did with the gay couple who he asked, “So I’m going to be hosting two men sleeping together?”
Airbnb did a survey? Lol. I’m at the vet’s office so not doing research now but I can say that if I’m one of the 2.7%, it’s 100% to me and 100% unjustifiable. There are other studies that show bias against people African American names in hiring and it’s well over 2.7%.
The thing is, there are also guests who are in demographics which get discriminated against who say they would prefer that they got declined right out the gate if the host is prejudiced. They don’t want to stay somewhere or put money in the pocket of bigots due to the host being “tricked” into accepting them, and then not cancelling because of the penalties involved.
Seems like a better way to rout out bigots would be to show the profile photos at the outset and have an algorithm that tracks declines and cancellations for each host and whether those were linked to guests of color, same-sex couples, etc.
I’m going to disagree in the strongest possible terms with any policy that perpetuates systemic racism. Anyone who can’t put aside their bigotry shouldn’t be in the hospitality business. Maybe those hosts could sew Klan robes or build quick burning crosses.
I agree absolutely. But I have read several posts from black guests, same-sex couple guests, etc. who didn’t think that hiding profile photos was the way to accomplish that, and actually put them in danger of arriving to a listing only to be met with obviously racist or homophobic vibes.
It’s not some theory I made up- guests actually put forth those concerns.
And if Airbnb is going to hide profile photos of guests, it’s hypocritical not to hide host photos as well. There are plenty of bigoted guests who wouldn’t book with hosts who are black, Muslim, gay, etc. They also need to be routed out.
I’m sure they did; that doesn’t make it the best solution.
As a member of a marginalized group I feel the same, but only in the absence of the structural change that needs to happen. I scour a host’s listing in search of clues that they are anti-gay or ageist, but only out of preservation, not because it’s good policy.
I really don’t know why this would be a good policy for Airbnb but not in other areas of society.
"Hey, if they don’t want me in their HOA run, all white, gated community, I’ll just stay over here in my ghetto with no decent grocery stores. "
“Why make discrimination in hiring illegal? No way to outlaw bigots, I’d rather my boss just tell me he doesn’t hire women or Jews so I know not to waste by time applying there.”
A guest or a host stating their own opinion here and there where you can read it is not the same as a systemic analysis of a problem.
I’m sorry you have to do that. I don’t know what the best policies for countering discrimination are, I’m just sad and disgusted that it needs to be done in the first place.
Perhaps Airbnb, rather than having hosts agree to a non-discrimination policy when they sign up, should have check-boxes saying “All guests, regardless of race, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation are welcome here”, “I won’t accept black guests”, “I won’t accept same-sex couples”, etc. Then any host who checked a box other than the first would immediately have their listing delisted, and their account closed.
Well, c’mon, don’t you think that Hosts would catch on pretty quick and just go [further] underground?
I like your idea of statistical analysis on declines as a way of ferreting out likely discrimination. But I’m no social scientist, really out of my depth, agree with @KKC that a systematic analysis must be done, some of which Airbnb seems to be doing.
At first glance it seems that Airbnb is doing some good things here. They responded to the Congressional Black Caucus concerns, did/are doing a partnership with NAACP, working with Color of Change (see gifted article below).
So I feel very positive on what I am reading about Airbnb and its efforts, partnerships, open-ness on exploring how it can reduce/stop race discrimination. And, of course, this is an ongoing challenge for the whole country, can be quite subtle, nuanced and unconscious.
I haven’t explored what Airbnb is doing about other kinds of discrimination.
Some of us (including me) can be tough on Airbnb, sometimes perhaps unreasonably so. So when they are doing the right things it’s worthwhile to acknowledge that.
It was actually a kind of tongue-in-cheek suggestion. But having to agree to the non-discrimination policy doesn’t seem to work, either, as any host who was bigoted and wanted to list would just agree anyway. Like the enhanced Covid cleaning policy which everyone had to agree to if they didn’t want their listing suspended. Many hosts were obviously not following that policy, as guests reported encountering listings that were dirty, so obviously weren’t even doing good basic cleaning, let alone sterilizing, etc. And some hosts, like me, agreed to that policy, but certainly didn’t follow it to the letter, as some of it was absurd Covid-cleaning theatre, like washing the porch ceiling, or wearing gloves to move clean bedding into the guest space, when freshly washed hands serves just as well.
But how will that work? ABB can’t even police the vast ocean of listings that are unpermitted or even prohibited. “Hmm, Montréal doesn’t allow STRs, but let’s let this Montréal listing stay on the platform, though, cuz platform fees.” I don’t have a lot of confidence that Air can accomplish much of anything on scales as large as their platform. nd how will they handle places like Uganda?
How are they going to identify the bigots and scrape them out?
It’s funny to me that on a subreddit for abb hosts someone analyzing a new host’s listing for recommendations suggested they remove the LGTBQPOC++ flag from their front yard marquis image, suggesting they “not include political items as it would alienate some potential guests”! That flag is a welcome sign to specific people and the flag of the allies for certain others. Only one set of people would be alienated from wanting to rent that STR, and that, in my mind, would be scoring a goal. It’s the opposite of seeing a listing with a framed confederate flag showing on the living room wall.
It’s not Airbnb’s position to police the listings in Montreal. It is explicitly Montreal’s job. That is the deal that Montreal made. If they wanted Airbnb to police it then they would’ve had to require that and fight for it like Boston did.
They’re a company valued at $75 billion USD. They’re going to need to figure it out.
It’s not just discrimination issues, but also safety of the listings, compliance with local laws.
Yes, it’s a daunting task, but they’ve chosen to enlist Hosts for four million listings and generate annual sales, $8 billion, more than most legacy hotel brands (though Marriott alone was at $21 billion sales last year).
With those kinds of numbers come responsibilities.
It might very well be that they can generate more sales than they can manage to provide safe and non-discriminatory listings.
Maybe it’ll just take some congressional attention once a few more people die, and/or the various equal rights groups escalate their messaging and protests. But without something to compel Airbnb to address these with more than lip service and press releases, I fear the status quo will just hobble along, all the while still dumping cash into Chesky’s account.
Our government inspectors (to allow us to operate during COVID), required us to install a luggage decontamination station outside, as well as a sanitizing foot bath for guests to dip their shoes into before entering our house.
We bought a little plastic bucket, filled it with a sterilizer (Steramine), and set it out for guests’ shoes. Is anyone surprised that not a single guest used it?
