There’s a good reason AirBnB is making this move, and it’s not because of good will or ethics–it’s external pressure.
Read all about it:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-10/study-finds-racial-discrimination-by-airbnb-hosts
Researchers set up 6,400 fake profiles of Airbnb guests and assigned them stereotypically white or black names, based on Massachusetts birth certificate data from the 1970s. None of the guest profiles had identifying pictures. They used the accounts to request bookings with hosts in five cities: Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. Airbnb hosts decide whom they want to rent to; requests from white guests got “yes” responses 50 percent of the time, vs. 42 percent for black applicants. The researchers controlled for a variety of factors, such as the host’s gender and ratings, and the “race effect,” as the paper described it, persisted.
“Life is tough if you’re a black guest on Airbnb,” said Ben Edelman, an associate professor at HBS and one of the study’s authors. “Particularly when you compare it to the baseline of the way things used to be. If you’re a black guest, you just make a reservation at the Marriott.”
jym626
September 10, 2016, 11:51am
22
This is about Airbnb. Not other housing. Let’s not stray off topic please.
jym626
September 10, 2016, 1:56pm
23
The above was in reference to something no longer here.
Reviews of hosts don’t protect folks against any kind of discrimination–if you haven’t stayed at a place, you can’t leave reviews.
cobrat
September 10, 2016, 4:15pm
25
Some will say if they act as a hotel they should have the same rules. The trouble with that short-sighted opinion is that Not having the same rules is what has led to its success, and the desire of so many customers to use the service and make it a success. If we impose all the regulations(and related Costs that go with it), on someone that leases a room, or their home or their vacation home for example, then at much higher prices this service is much less attractive, hurting the bargain seeking potential guest, and hurting the potential host.
Airbnb are currently being scrutinized by laws related to housing in many jurisdictions due to various issues including those related to discrimination or failure to provide adequate safeguards for guests which hotels and rental housing are mandated by local housing laws to provide. .
This along with the usual hotel lobby is one reason why there’s currently an ad war in my area by airbnb to argue against laws being considered to completely ban the service in NYC/state.