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Comment by retrac98 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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> 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

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