I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb | Hacker News Reader

I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb

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50 pointshelmett26 comments

It seems unrealistic to expect AirBnB to "fix" this issue. This is a cultural problem, not a technical one, and it's outside their sphere of control. Sure, they could shut down a few blatantly racist hosts... but that'll never stamp out the underlying sentiment and they'll never get them all.

I think a more realistic expectation on them would be for them to actively promote equality and do their bit to contribute towards a larger cultural shift in that regard. For example, while on-boarding hosts, show a short video encouraging a bit of open-mindedness.

> For example, while on-boarding hosts, show a short video encouraging a bit of open-mindedness.

Not a video, but AirBnB (maybe about two months ago) made EVERY host agree to not discriminate or their listings would be turned off.

I still think AirBnB is an awful company (hallway outside my apartment is currently trashed by an airbnb guest, the host doesn't care, airbnb won't get involved), but they are definitely aware of and addressing this.

> hallway outside my apartment is currently trashed by an airbnb guest, the host doesn't care

Can't you sue?

They could try and limit what people see about guests before a booking is confirmed. E.g. they could not show any photos of the person before the room is confirmed.

But most of the actions they could take would probably impact their bottom line, so it's hard to see them doing anything.

Yes, or perhaps they can flat out tell people "we are looking at the data and if you discriminate based on skin color you are not hosting and we will tell other sites about our find".

It's disgusting that people still do this crap.

in order to do that they would first have to profile their customers for race. thats not exactly legal either.

No they don't, they can just say this person disproportionally rejects people of whatever race or prejudice. No need to state the host's race.

Not the hosts race, the potential renters race. In order for Airbnb to say someone of race {race} got rejected, they have to know, or guess, their race. Whether they ask for that on the application or look at the pictures, its probably illegal.

They could add button "Report discrimination" for rejected potential renters and then ask them what type of discrimination they want to report. Then they wouldn't need to guess anyone's race.

Exactly. There is no serious reason why they can't do this.

I think it's realistic to expect them not to aid landlords in violating the FHA. They should be taking active steps to remove discriminating landlords from their platform.

While perhaps not altogether effective, I think shutting down blatantly racist hosts would be a very good place to start in promoting that cultural shift.

> it's outside their sphere of control

It is absolutely within their sphere of control. They can not show photos or names until the deal is done. Why does a renter need to see the face and name of the person renting?

As the market maker it is up to AirBnB to verify legitimacy of buyers and sellers. Photos and names add little to the transaction itself and are clearly reducing the buy side with no gain on sell side.

I don't know about fixing it outright, but they could somehow derank hosts in search results if they have weird rejection patterns. Sex/Age/Race/Whatever

Quoting:

    For folks that are going to say,
    "well people have the right to
    refuse rentals in their homes".
    True.  To an extent.  There are
    Fair Housing laws that may apply
    under certain circumstances ...

I thought the whole point of AirBnB was to be disruptive, and ignore regulations, and not have to obey the laws that hotels have to obey and thereby, well, something. Things like this will happen.

And yes, he can tell his story, but it won't change unless it's legislated. AirBnB can't have it both ways.

disruptive doesn't have to mean ignoring regulations

I don't think this is too surprising for any person of color. For myself, I've learned that I have to plan 'extra ahead' in order to make sure I have time to correspond with multiple hosts, in order to work around the calendar being wrong or other 'reasons'. I've been cancelled too many times with Instant Book for 'reasons'.

Incidentally that was why the 'green book' was started. It's a sad thing indeed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book

I find this interesting because instead of choosing to find a different cabin and reward another AirBnb host that was not racist (vote with your wallet), the author went out of their way to still do business with this host. It seems like the inconvenience of booking indirectly was not enough of a deterrent to factor into the purchase of this rental.

I also note that the host did say:

> So sorry, but we are planning to be up there now 4th of July week afterall

I wont presume to know if the host was racially motivated or not, but the response seems entirely plausible - possibly plans really did change. Either way this does not seem like something AirBnb could even remotely affect with policy. I don't think anyone could say 'plans changing' is racist, whether it's true or not.

Except for the part where the host cancelled his request for another date and ignored all his subsequent communications.

Somehow AirBnB is responsible for stopping racism. Not the police. Not the court system. Not congress. Not the host who cancelled the booking. AirBnB needs to balance the scales of justice. It's a completely rational idea.

Of course they're not obligated to stop racism. If they don't do anything to address this issue, however, I and potentially many others will hesitate to book using Airbnb to vote with our [currency]. This is capitalism working without necessarily requiring government interference.

"Address the issue"

That doesn't mean anything. There's no issue here.

I see an societal issue that Airbnb can mitigate, and so do many of the commenters on this thread and on the article. I understand that you disagree, but some of us will gladly support alternatives that take a harder stance against what we see as injustices.

I used to not believe this happened. Then I saw saw several instances of taxis refusing to pick up blacks in New York, and realized that racism was still hiding below the surface.

haha crissie is hilarious LOL ROFLMAFAO that expectation vs reality pic at the end jajajajaja

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