Private -> Public: Airbnb and Discrimination

When Moreton Rolleston filed a lawsuit to continue discriminating against Black customers at The Heart of Atlanta Motel in 1964, the Supreme Court’s decision was swift and decisive. Though the case focused on Congress’ role in regulating interstate commerce, the Court upheld Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawing discrimination on the basis of race and other protected classes for individuals seeking services such as a hotel.

Fast forward to 2016, and Gregory Selden felt a similar injustice was taking place on Airbnb. As documented in the Independent, Selden inquired about a listing in Philadelphia, was rejected, but then was subsequently accepted by the same host when he made two dummy accounts under the names “Jesse” and “Todd”. Unlike The Heart of Atlanta Motel, Airbnb has individual arbitration clauses on their side and have steered Selden’s case away from class-action. While Airbnb can keep lawsuits relatively quiet through this mechanism, they've been unable to silence the many customers describing their problems with discrimination on the platform using hashtags like #AirbnbWhileBlack.

While the fault lines have shifted from the lunch counters of Birmingham to the picture you upload on Airbnb, the problem is the same: when people are given choice and information, explicit and implicit bias can come together in the form of discrimination.

This reality is backed by extensive data. In December of 2015, Ben Edelman, Michael Luca, and Dan Svirsky shared the first paper documenting discrimination on Airbnb and found that guests with traditionally Black names were 16% less likely to be accepted when compared to identical guests with traditionally White names.

Building on this research, Ronan Lyons and I recently published an analysis in Oxford Economic Papers finding that male same-sex couples were 20-30% less likely to get accepted in Dublin, Ireland on Airbnb using a similar strategy. While the residents of Dublin were eager to make Ireland the first place to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote, those values have not permeated the personal sphere.

Work by Jessica Min at Harvard (and shared on Ben Edelman’s blog) further illustrates the case that bias on Airbnb is a persistent problem. Seven research papers have been released since 2015 confirming statistically significant examples of discrimination on the platform.

While Airbnb pledged to combat discrimination in 2016, their approach has been lacking. Though the push for increasing 'Instant Book' listings and the exploration of other product tweaks to limit discrimination are welcome, the single most important step Airbnb can take to reduce discrimination is to remove profile pictures and names when hosts make decisions. While that data can be introduced after the hosting decision has been made to build trust and facilitate cohesion, there is no reason why hosts should be making decisions with that data in mind.

I would argue that when you decide to take your home from the private to the public and economic sphere, you relinquish certain rights. You can choose who comes over for dinner, but you can't choose which customers you serve at your new hotel business.

While Airbnb’s arbitration clause has limited high-profile litigation from consumers, governments around the world should consider intervening to prevent the ongoing discrimination that, by all indications, is taking place daily by hosts on Airbnb. If the Supreme Court could get this right in 1964, surely we can do the same, and hopefully better, in 2019.