Home sharing services like Airbnb and Vrbo are marketed as platforms for sharing, community and joy. Its ads feature guests from diverse ethnic backgrounds happily gathered in sunny settings, looking like they’re at home—or, better yet, on vacation.
But some people of color – particularly black guests – say that despite the policies and partnerships set by home-sharing platforms, they still face discrimination when booking or staying in vacation rentals. They are frustrated by what they call a lack of understanding and reliability.
In a report released in early December, Airbnb acknowledged the issues and offered the first public data on steps taken to reduce racial disparities, including removing some human factors from the booking process.
Laura Murphy, a civil rights expert who headed the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union and is now a senior adviser to Airbnb, wrote the report’s introduction. It reveals some of what has been learned from Project Lighthouse, an effort publicly initiated in 2020 by Airbnb and Color of Change, an internet anti-discrimination group, to use internal company data to measure patterns of discrimination.
The report focuses on what the company calls the booking success rate, a measure of how often guests are able to make the reservations they want on Airbnb. Previous research has shown that guests perceived to be black by hosts are more likely to have their booking requests rejected than those perceived to be white.
Since 2016, the company has required all guests and hosts to accept its Community Commitment to “agree to treat each other with respect and without judgment or bias” and to follow a policy of non-discrimination.
In 2018, Airbnb stopped showing guest photos to hosts before a reservation was confirmed. That change “slightly increased” the rate at which black guests are able to book accommodations, the report said. Enabling more guests to use the so-called Instant Book feature, which enables individual users to make reservations without specific host approval, was also effective.
Still, guests who are considered white (Airbnb users are not asked to identify their race; The Lighthouse Project uses race-determining data that one might associate with a first name and profile picture to measure potential discrimination) get the location they want 94.1% of the time. Asian and Latino renters have slightly lower success rates, while guests perceived as Black get what they chose 91.4% of the time. The data does not measure discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.
To overcome this difference, the company said it was testing changes to guest and host profile pages; allowing more people to use Instant Book; allowing users other than the primary account holders to receive reviews, to accumulate more reviews about black guests (who tend to be newer to the platform); and strengthening its ability to audit booking denials.
“This is not the beginning of our journey,” said Janaye Ingram, director of programs and community partner engagement at Airbnb. “It’s not the end of our journey either. We are excited to be on this journey to fight discrimination. This has no place on our platform and in our community.”
The report is more vague about what the company does to oversee hosts and guests who show bias after a home is booked. Several black guests complained on social media of being mistreated; The New York Times has interviewed some who have given accounts of what they see as racism from the hosts.
interrupted family trip
Tecsia Evans, a psychologist from Oakland, Calif., who is black, traveled to New Orleans in July 2021 for four nights with her husband, mother and two young children. Before booking on Airbnb, she told the hostess that the trip was to celebrate her mother’s 75th birthday and confirmed that they could have family members.
On the first night, the hostess, who lived on the ground floor of the two-unit building, complained that the Evans children made noise at 11 pm. The next day, on the platform, she said she would like quiet time from 10 pm. Communications were polite.
On the third day, the Evans family found the hostess. They had a brief conversation during which, according to Evans, she suggested that the restrictions be written into the house rules so guests would know them in advance.
That night, Evans invited his three sisters and two nephews to dinner. At 9:30 pm, Airbnb contacted her: the family would have to leave. The company did not explain why and, according to Evans, it ignored her requests to speak with a supervisor. Later, Airbnb told Evans that, according to the hostess, she had thrown a party, which was against the rules. The company refunded one night of Evans’ stay and suspended her account for 90 days.
Evans, who believes the host treated her unfairly because she is black, said she called the company more than 30 times and sent a letter to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. She sent photos of her dinner for ten people and a large framed map of “plantations” [sistema de exploração agrícola de monocultura], hanging over the couch; she reports that the work celebrated slavery and indicated the hostess’ mindset.
The hostess did not respond to interview requests. In a heated conversation on the Airbnb app the day after Evans was evicted, the host told her, “Some of my best and dearest friends are African American, gay and lesbian, and even one person who has transitioned. has absolutely nothing to do with the color of your skin or mine”.
At various times, Airbnb told Evans that it was investigating — or that it had investigated and supported the host. She insisted, and six months later, she received a full refund.
The company later banned “the promotion of slavery-related features as a selling point of a stay”.
Ben Breit, Airbnb’s global director of trust communications, said the company took Evans’ complaint seriously, conducted a thorough investigation and took disciplinary action against the hostess. Evans was told in September that the hostess had received a warning.
In the report, Airbnb said it recently made it easier for guests who feel discriminated against to book alternative accommodation through the company’s 24-hour security line, part of the AirCover program. Security line agents “will immediately offer assistance in finding an alternate location and may refund or rebook the guest, as they prefer,” the report reads. The company also said it is making it easier for guests to report discrimination before or after a trip.
This year, Airbnb also created an online guide, “How to Be an Even More Inclusive Host,” which addresses issues like implicit bias. In it, social psychologist Robert W. Livingston, from Harvard University, explains that people are more likely to discriminate, even unconsciously, in ambiguous situations – in which they can attribute their decisions to factors other than race.
Airbnb is not the only
Airbnb is the biggest company in the vacation rental industry, but it’s not the only one fighting discrimination. Vrbo, part of the Expedia Group, has also taken steps to combat prejudice, including educating hosts, creating more diverse and inclusive marketing campaigns, and demanding that words like “plantation” be used without celebrating slavery. Each home listing has a “Report this Property” link, which allows users to identify issues, which are reviewed and escalated to Vrbo’s trust and safety team, where appropriate, the company said.
“We removed photos and last names from profiles, which previous studies have shown can contribute to discriminatory behavior,” said Melanie Fish, head of global public relations for Expedia Group Brands. “We have a trust and safety team that works around the clock to root out discriminatory behavior and also react when guests and hosts report bad behavior.”
Yet in April 2021, Dallas and Shirley Smith, who are both black, said they faced racism when they booked an apartment in Montgomery, Alabama, for a weekend to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary. Vrbo does not require guests to have a profile picture. When the Smiths arrived and asked the host for the front door code, he said they had to leave because the apartment had been rented to someone else. Dallas Smith pointed out that it appeared to be empty.
“He said, ‘I can’t rent it to you,'” before hanging up, recalled Smith, 80, a former employee of the US Department of Agriculture. The Smiths believe that when the host saw that they were black, he changed his mind about the location. The host could not be reached for comment.
The Smiths are no strangers to racism. Traveling across the American South in the 1960s, they packed a shoebox of food and chose only hotel chains and gas stations that had anti-discrimination policies. But since then they have suffered almost no prejudice on their travels to 54 countries and 50 US states.
“It kind of took us back 50 years,” Smith said.
The Smiths’ daughter called Vrbo and was told the company would look into the situation and that she should call back on a weekday; didn’t offer to rebook from her parents, she said. The Smiths ended their celebration trip early. Vrbo promptly refunded the money without an explanation or apology, they said.
The company investigates complaints in parallel ways, Fish said, connecting with hosts and guests to try to determine what happened, but first taking care of guests, settling them in a place where they feel safe. Contrary to what the Smiths’ daughter remembers, the company claims it offered them alternative accommodation, which they declined.
“We definitely take any reports of discrimination seriously,” Fish said. “A bad experience means the problem hasn’t been eliminated.”
Vrbo says less than 1% of customer calls it receives each year involve discrimination.
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