Project Lighthouse

[Mike-And-Jane0]

What information will Airbnb be using?

People often base their perception of someone’s race on their name and what they look like, so we’ll be using the first names and profile photos of hosts and guests to help us understand the race that someone else might associate with them.

Great to hear about Airbnb's Project Lighthouse. Hopefully, as well as helping to end discrimination, it will also finally force hosts and guests alike to provide proper profile pictures. I wonder what race will be ascribed to the pictures of sheds, dogs, cats etc. that proliferate on the platform even when people's identity has been verified.

[Anonymous]

@Mike-And-Jane0 Their explanation made absolutely no sense to me, aside from sounding like the title for a dystopian sci-fi.  But we all know Airbnb is hosing the press when they say they're appointing a "dedicated team of specialists" to a project.

Remember that time those ill-fated Airbnb party houses got into the news and suddenly Airbnb put out a big press release claiming to have a "dedicated team" on hand to handle party-related issues? Well, that sure didn't materialize. Dozens of hosts since have posted here about their homes being abused for parties, surely hundreds more out there that haven't used these forums, and nobody has ever mentioned benefiting from this mysterious team.

Apparently, "dedicated" is a secret code word for "non-existent." Actually, they have a few different terms for things that don't exist, such as "security deposit" and "cancellation policy."

No use getting worked up over this one; in all likelihood it's just one of the many ephemeral features that gets a few days of hype until the news cycle moves on.

[Helen350]

@Anonymous You're a star! 👍👍👍👏🏅😀💖

[Diane440]

I just saw this notice in my email inbox this morning. I'm quite confused and distressed and ready to opt out. Just what "information" are they gathering about us? And what will they do with it? And don't we already see first names? Like I can't figure out what ethnicity Juan, Sven, Amalla or Patty might be? Or sense that Brittany is likely under 40 while Karen is over 50?  Yup. All that in a name, with all due respect to Shakespeare. A Rose or Rosemary or Rosalee by any other name will still find lodging at my house, regardless. 

Sure! I could be wrong, and I'm not here to judge but if I wanted to truly be exclusionary I could deduce a fair amount from a first name. Having a picture would be helpful to see a smiling face to put with the name rather than asking some coy questions to see if this is a legit request. And really, when it comes down to it, why be so coy with this info? Would any of us want to stay at the home of a blatant racist? Even if I were welcome, I wouldn't want to stay there on principle and if I wasn't welcome I'd want to shake off the dust and leave asap!  So, I think I'd rather do the vetting, thank you very much, on whether I feel a host is racist or not. Isn't that the chance we all take in the world every day? I thought Airbnb was built on trust! How is Airbnb single-handedly going to now overcome centuries of racism this way? I thought they were already off to a great start with their original business model. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Well, I’m stumped!

All my enquiries are coming through with a “AB” request and the messsage the guest sends has a profile picture!

Probably a system ‘glitch’.

[Anonymous]

Canceled my Airbnb

[Anonymous]

I am tired of corporations becoming political cheerleaders and lecturing their customers.
No AirBnB, you can’t use my info for your political pet projects. I canceled my account today and signed for your competitor. Bye!

[Anonymous]

Hey Airbnb, if you want to be a great rental company, just do that.
If I wanted to be part of a political movement I would have joined a political organization.

If you wan to be political organization then get out of rental business and stop misusing your customers’ info they trusted you to keep safe. 

[Marie22]

The Project Lighthouse might be a laudable endeavor, but seems to be missing a component - the reason for denying a booking. I read the complete "Measuring Discrepancies in Airbnb Guest Acceptance Rates  Using Anonymized Demographic Data". There was no mention of a filter for the reason we deny the booking such as wanting to bring pets to a non-pet place, or children when it is clearly stated no children, or try to have 6 people in a place set up for 2. If the project algorithms are just matching acceptance rate without these filters, the data will be flawed.

[Peta7]

We found this boastfull article in platform contents:

"Introducing Project Lighthouse to uncover, measure, and overcome discrimination.

Our mission has always been to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. Racism, hate, and discrimination go against everything we believe in as a company and a global community. Since 2016, we’ve removed 1.3 million people from Airbnb for declining to treat others without judgment or bias—but there’s still a lot more work to be done."

And we wonder about the many Hosts's left without an income and perhaps a meal tonight due to this insanity, is this actually allowed in modern times?

[Peta7]

CS Agents are now all powerfull to assist disgruntled guests using well advertised tools to destroy hosts at will?