Female hosts Accepting only female guests?

There’s an article in today’s NY Times about the rise of female-solo travelers and the correlating violence that sometimes occurs.

I’m not here to debate merits of the article.

What struck me was a reference to Airbnb policy change that I hadn’t heard about. Does anyone know if this is accurate, and if it applies in US? Our gender discrimination laws are usually pretty tight, but this would be (in my opinion) a welcomed change.

Here’s a quote from the article about the changes Airbnb has made, which apparently resulted from a female guest being murdered:

“… That includes removing any host or guest accused of sexual assault from the platform and including a clause in its nondiscrimination policy that allows female hosts to accept only female guests.”

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Yes, its been around for a while but restricted to folks renting a room at home.
Airbnb help page

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Hosts are able to put a gender qualification IF they’re sharing space with a guest.
They can also put age restrictions if the property requires it (like a seniors only development or Co-Op that states 25+)

This is a more narrow definition than federal law. Under the “Mrs Murphy” exemptions to Fair housing laws, owners of a building with 4 or fewer units in which the owner also resides can be far more discriminatory about their choice of tenant. You just can’t advertise your demographic preferences. But if, for example, you own a house with 4 rooms you can pick roommates who are as young, old, ethnically diverse or mono-cultural as you like.

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Being able to choose to host only women if you are a female in a shared listing is not a recent change. It’s been around all the time I’ve been hosting ie 3.5 years and applies globally (no reason for it just to apply to the US).

I think the media you quoted hasn’t researched its story properly. It’s also been the case since I started hosting that if a guest or host was accused of harassment sexual, racism etc and this could be demonstrated they would look to remove them from the platform. They wouldn’t just do that just on the say so of the other party as it could be they have fallen out with each other.

Didn’t hear the sad story of a female guest being murdered.

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Thanks. I don’t have a shared space, per se. My home shares a driveway with the cottage that I rent out, and it’s in a remote area.
I didn’t mean that it’d apply only in US. What I was asking was if it did apply at all in US, because in general we are not allowed to turn down renters for any reason related to gender.

Thanks. This is helpful.

you are a credit to the forum Allison :slight_smile:If you’re not being entertaining, you’re being very clever and informative.

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So, the next guest retaliation scheme will be to call Airbnb and accuse the host of sexual assault. I’m sure Airbnb will treat it in the same guilty-until-proven-innocent manner they treat other guest complaints. I.e. they won’t bother to verify the claim, they’ll close the host’s account, cut all communication channels with the host, then make the host prove their innocence in court at their own expense if they actually want to host again.

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Most reported sexual assaults are actual assaults and the real problem is under reporting of actual assaults, not the fake reporting of non-existent assaults. So the idea that this will be the “next scheme” is unlikely. And of the millions of nights booked by Airbnb each year very few are part of any scheme.

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I’m sure that’s true for bedbugs and weapons, too, but it’s no consolation to the host whose guest makes a fake report to retaliate for something. I’m not downplaying sexual assault, just paranoid about how Airbnb handle complaints so one-sided.

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Just don’t forget you’re on a host forum and so we get host stories. Go out and find guest horror stories and you’ll see that Airbnb is always on the side of the host. :wink:

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I did not know about age parameters, Allison. Thank you. My home insurer will not allow anyone under 19, but Air’s limit is 18, so this may be handy.

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My 1 experience with this after filling a police report was that Air remained neutral and because no charges were laid the guest to the best of my knowledge is still on platform, though I haven’t checked recently.

In the UK we are lucky because we have sex (not gender) as a protected characteristic in the 2010 Equalities Act. This makes it easier to maintain female only spaces to protect women. Obviously that would apply to rooms offered by a female live in host. As I understand it, Airbnb supports female only listings in that scenario.

Thanks! That’s very kind of you to say! :slight_smile:

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I agree! A valued member, indeed!

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When I was hosting and had an ‘incident’ with a male guest in my shared home (guest space was own floor but living room and kitchen were shared space), ABB was positively responsive to my report.

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My male neighbor only rents rooms in his house (not via AirBnb) to other men because he does not want to be accused of anything.

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I have several rooms in my house and happened into a curious solution. I am not far from the industrial sector and the overwhelming majority of guests are male. With one male guest it was a problem, but with a full house or close to it, no problems! Strange but true.

I also turned my partner into a husband and had more neighbors dropping in.

But I’ve been warned repeatedly by the police and others that it’s not forever. Most of them are really nice but you never really know who is walking through the door.

already done

I can’t judge if this claim is real or not. It did result in the host being shut down. Since it is posted on Airbnbhell website, dishonest people will now know what to say to have a host shut down and get a refund.

Harassment is real. The sad part is there are opportunistic people who use other’s tragic personal stories for personal gain.