@Anonymous Thank you for your reply. I too would naturally have those questions and observations that you made, however, there is a lot more to this narrative that I didn't fully flush out for the sake of brevity, however, I can assure you, Airbnb is and was fully aware of all of your concerns.
Also, some of these issues may not fully resonate with those outside of the U.S. as it would with those that live here. Just like every culture, there are certain aspects that would not easily be understood by those in other nations without a more elaborate explanation.
For example, "how would they know the race?" Here in the States, there is a small subset of certain [racial groups] that travel essentially in packs. By no means all! Not even most! But the US, with it's large and diverse population, allows essentially independent cultures to develop within the larger culture as a whole. All with their own value system and ethics.
I think sometimes this is hard to comprehend from the vantage point of a nation with a more homogeneous population, not large enough to not strongly encourage individuals to eventually integrate into the broader culture.
Contrary to popular belief, television shows like Friends, although absolutely representing the better part of the US where races integrate together, are by no means representative of the vast and diverse experience that is the United States. The same reason Universal Health care will not work here. For that to work, the nation must have a more homogeneous value system that that of the United States.
I could detail the issues raised in your post, but I'm just not. Not that I don't care about explaining, rather, those here in the US, in general, will intuitively know without me having to fill in all the blanks.
Regarding your sentiment that these are financially driven decisions, that is patently obvious and a large part of why I'm leaving. I don't make decisions based upon what's the most financially advantageous, rather, what harmonizes with my values.
Money never was my motivator. Raised one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I took to heart the scriptural admonition to 'store my treasures in heaven, rather than on earth, where rust and moths consume' [I paraphrase] A side effect of this mindset is success in business. My lifes goal was and is to live a life of integrity. Years later, I realized that a side effect of that is material wealth as who doesn't want to do business with a man of integrity? Never the goal, just the result of doing the right thing, all the time, fully, to the extent humanly possible.
That now gives me the ability to leave Airbnb as I realize our values are not the same. This was never a primary source if income for me. Rather an endeavor to afford my spouse autonomy as all of that profit went into a separate account over which I do not even look at.
There is a website called AirDna , it analyses the data from Airbnb and gives more insight into the data. They will accumulate the data and list the highest rated Airbnb's, in order, in any given city or region. I don't know where we stood before I quit, but before they started charging for content, (the last time I looked) our listing was tied for first place as the highest rated Airbnb in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. I'm confident this was partly because since I wasn't doing this for the money, guests recieved a lot more than they would normally expect. Also, Having free time on my hands, I would enjoy going the extra mile to please guests. It was just fun. Also, owning an art galleries for over 30 years I'm used to dealing with the most entitled guests. The "one percent". That, in combination with the fact that my husband has a degree in hotel management and worked both at the Four Seasons resort on Samui Island, Thailand, where he catered to Russian oligarchs and their mistresses that enjoyed daily baths in Evian water, (yes, poured from hundreds of bottles) made for a winning combination.
We were fully booked at a rate triple the price recommended by Airbnb.
There is an expression, likely in Germany too, or some variant of it: "Don't chop of your nose to spite your face". That's is what I believe Airbnb is doing. "Zwei Gesichter haben"