Companies like Airbnb and Uber, that operate as platforms that bring people together for the purpose of sharing resources like housing and transportation, are bound to run into problems of inequality and discrimination. Our society is still plagued by unfair discrimination practices and ideologies that have unfortunately, but inevitably seeped into the very services we use to get around or chill for the weekend.
In the case of Airbnb, a community marketplace that allows homeowners and apartment dwellers the opportunity to post their pads for renters to temporarily live in, black guests were more likely to find their housing requests denied by hosts. After a study confirmed what many black users of the site already knew to be true (Airbnb hosts were rejecting black users’ requests for temporary housing based on their race/ethnicity) they took to Twitter to vent their frustrations using the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack.
Months of criticism obviously had an effect on the San Francisco based company, who announced Thursday a new plan to deal with host discrimination. Working with the former head of the ACLU’s Legislation Office in Washington, DC, Laura Myers, the company unveiled a new proactive approach that includes decreasing the emphasis on profile photos and ramping up the availability of Instant Book, which allows guests to book available listings without the prior approval of the host.
Airbnb has also assembled a permanent, full-time team dedicated to rooting out bias at the algorithmic level, and also plans to implement anti-discrimination training for all of its employees and hosts. Additionally, the platform has instituted a policy called Open Doors that guarantees that they will make housing accommodations for guests who have been discriminated against, including those who have already filed complaints.
Since the controversy surrounding Airbnb, black-owned companies Innclusive and Noirbnb emerged as alternatives for those wanting to use a different service, without the risk of discrimination.
As far as Airbnb, these are certainly steps in the right direction and we look forward to seeing them in action over the next months.
