Is AirBnB Allowing Legal Discrimination?
AirBnB has transformed how I travel. It’s opened up new travel experiences for me by allowing me to forego the typical “credit card deposit” I’ve always been scornful of traditional hotels charging me. It allows me to truly experience a new place by fully integrating myself. Lastly, it’s transformed a whole industry in my opinion.
However, there’s an extremely ugly side to AirBnB.
AirBnB, by no deliberate fault of their own, allows hosts to participate in unprecedented amounts of systematic discrimination and racism. I cannot imagine this amount of discrimination has been seen in the American hospitality industry since the civil rights movement ended, due to its inherently diverse nature. As long as you pay, you can usually stay.
Emphasis on “usually”. Unfortunately for many people of diverse backgrounds, this is not the case while patronizing AirBnB and it seems more people are beginning to take exception. I know I personally take exception, but I’m also not sure how it can be “fixed”, if racism can even be fixed at all.
Disclaimer: my experiences are by no means indicative of that of the majority. These are simply my experiences and I have heard some bloggers, journalists, and online forum users echo my sentiment. My experiences generally center around my experience renting through AirBnB in the Miami, FL and Queens, NY areas and are by no means a representation of all markets.
My negative impression began to form around the time I first attempted to use AirBnB outside of New York City while in South Miami Beach for business. I had decided to make a trip on a days notice and needed a place to stay. I had previously rented a unit in Queens, NY that I ended up having to cancel. It’s safe to say that my experience was limited at the time. The night before, i proceeded through the process of browsing AirBnB while favoriting a few units i felt were in my price range. Once I settled on a unit that fit my criteria, I paid the total fees and waited for approval. An hour later around 11pm, I was rejected: “Sorry, the unit is booked for tomorrow”. Understandable right? There are other ways a unit can be booked outside of AirBnB, most notable of which: HomeAway (an AirBnB competitor).
However, it’s important to understand that I frequent South Beach. Similar experiences occurred on an additional THREE separate occasions. It got worse each time with me ultimately having to make four different bookings before getting approved for one on the most recent occasion.
“Sorry, i’m staying in the unit tomorrow”
“Sorry, someone already booked the unit”
“Sorry, the cleaning staff wont be available to clean it before checkin”
“Sorry the sink is broken”
I began to wonder why I was getting the “run around”. My profile picture includes myself in business attire as the photo was taken at work. Over time, i’ve built a solid profile with 100% positive feedback from all past hosts who DID want to approve me. I’m black.
I asked a friend who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is mixed with white and hispanic (but generally has pale skin and would pass for white on any occasion), and frequents South Beach to let me know if he was having the same trouble. He has never been denied for a booking. He generally books at the same time of day, and is even two years younger with a less mature AirBnB profile. No trouble, he’s always approved on the first go.
We decided to test the theory on my last two trips. Both times, I was rejected for my first booking. Both times, I asked him to book the same unit on my behalf to see if I had some sort of deficiency i wasn’t aware of. Sure enough, the first time, where I received a response about the cleaning crew not being available, he was subsequently booked for the exact same unit and day, without the slightest bit of scrutiny. This pattern followed on the second trip as well. On the second trip, the sink excuse was used for me. He was booked for that same unit, once again for the same day, without a hitch.
I have reason to believe that this is solely based on my appearance. I have brown skin. I am black. There are few things on my profile that can truly identify the quality of my character. At a minimum, my profile actually lends to my character.
I run my own electronics business in New York City and work in Finance during the day. I’m clean, respectful, and promise to treat the unit as if it were my own
Check me out on Facebook
Take these experiences as you please. i understand that an AirBnB unit may be dear to its owner. As such, they have certain rights to make requests to preserve it’s value. However, discrimination should not be tolerated by AirBnB just as the U.S. Government and all states have laws against housing discrimination that apply to landlords and even Real Estate Agents. I should know, I am one. In a sense, allowing continued discrimination is akin to a real estate agent only screening christians because the seller has something against Jews.
@AirBnB ? Do you hear me?
