Discrimination and Racism

[Jack-And-Kristy0]

We recently had a white male book for 3 night for a total of 5 people. My business partner who is black showed him the house. A few hours later, the guest said that he was cancelling because he didn't feel safe. Our rental house is in an ethnically diverse older neighborhood. I am white and female and I've never had any issues when I've been alone over at the house. This is over a 9 year period. I think that racism is involved. Now Airbnb has refunded the guest two thirds of his money even though we have a moderate cancellation policy. Any similar experiences?

[Cheronne0]

I have   not had that experience but it sounds pretty messed up.  But on the other hand...they did you a favor by not staying.  I would not be comfortable with someone in my home who held those type of biases.  Hopefully,  your cancellation policy was strict enough that you were not at a total loss.  Good luck in the future. 

[Ephraim0]

Sure, I'm sorry to say it happens time to time to me. I am white and I live in Harlem, Its a very safe neighborhood. Sometimes guests will give me questionable ratings for location (about 5% of the time). Mind you it is a super trendy neighborhood with many amazing jazz bars, resteraunts and just vibrant. Everyone you meet on the street would be happy to give you directions and people here like all people are generally good.  Now when people ask me if its safe on the message system, I say this its a very safe  "urban" neighborhood. Basically thats my nice way of letting them know if you have a problem vacationing in an African American community my home is not for you.  Yes I'm not in Midtown but this is manhattan, and for many NYkers its a very trendy part of manhattan. Often I am asked if the neighborhood is safe when people arrive. Mind you I've lived here 9 years, and I'm not a very big guy or very tough, I walk around at all hours and I've never had an issue. I love my community. Im near 2 subway stations. So whenever I see questionable ratings for location I know that often means they were disapointed it is a "black" neighborhood (sorry to be so blunt). My guests who do not arrive having biases (who are most people) always have the time of their lives, so I do feel bad for those who live judging people they don't know because they look different than themselves.  Mind you most people are cool but I'd say 5% have an issue they probably arent aware of. But again Most people do not think that way, but yes it is upseting when it happens.

[Claudia124]

If someone is not feeling welcome at my home is free to leave. It is not my problem but his/her problem.

[Dee0]

Did he give you any reason to believe it was racists other then he's white?

[Ephraim0]

Unless someone asked him for his wallet, there are broken windows and abandoned homes, vagrants, or tried to fight with him what other reason could there be?

[Eve16]

This is in the news, with the emphasis of the reports being that hosts are rejecting guests for their race.
We just have to keep trying to educate people.

[Andrea9]

@Jack-And-Kristy0

Those kind of guests are unfortunate to have.

In my own experience of having lived in a more provincial city for some years in the past in an area with a population that seemed less experienced or savvy with larger multi-cultural (urban) environments, there seemed to be an innate fear of the unknown.

And then there are those who have never ventured out of their standard (sub)urban and uniformly populated surroundings.

Looking at your listing I wouldn't get any idea of what the neighborhood is like, except that I have been in Harlem before and can guess. Why don't you tout and attract attention to your lovely non-standard neighborhood instead of not mentioning it? Call it multi-cultural (is that still allowed by PC in this crazy times? it's an absolutely normal expression here, so don't mean to offend) in your listing. Is there a central point with stores or cafes close by you can photograph showing all the different kinds of people? Use it to show how close you are to whatever it is. At the same time anybody looking at it should get the message. You might have to sit yourself down for a while to get the right mix in screen. Maybe another picture of the ethnic grocery if it's pitoresque enough.

Such pictures will also flesh out and give your listing more personality!

[Jack-And-Kristy0]

We do mention in our ad older home in ethnically diverse neighborhood. And this was rent of a whole house. The guests were not sharing space in one of our homes. Across the street are 3 new houses built by Habitat for Humanity in which African refuge families live. That's the whole purpose of Habitat for Humanity. The neighborhood is white, black, Hispanic, and refugee at least directly surrounding our property. I choose to feel sorry for the guests. I just don't like that they are being rewarded for their attitudes by getting a bigger refund than what is in our moderate cancellation policy.

[Andrea9]

@Jack-And-Kristy0

Unfortunately, the guest probably wrote a concocted story to ABB upon cancelling that was blown out of proportion, and since there was probably no counter description from your side in the message board the ABB person handling it chose to side with the guest.

Example: If the guest had informed  you beforehand off the message board, and let's say you had reacted in a message reiterating their wish to cancel and that you were sorry to hear that they felt threatened/uncomfortable by the multi-ethnic neighbors; ABB would have been able to see that there was more to it all than what the guest was trying to pass off and probably would have found a slightly different solution. 

There's no guarantee to this and I may have made wrong conclusions, yet I've noticed from other posts that when the whole situation was reflected in the message thread, showing what had happened before with professional reactions by host, guests usually weren't able to push through with  and get the same results with their allegations as if their hadn't been any history on the thread.

I now tend to additionally see the message board as a legal paper trail to cover the bases if required. Happily never needed it, though I recently had guests who were used to much hotter temperatures in their country of origin who asked me about the heating even though the cooler summer temperatures didn't cause the temperature inside the house to go below where heating would be required or would even be kicked on automatically. I tried explaining nicely verbally and gave them blankets, but also sent them an official message about it too and that I was ordering a space heater onn overnight delivery especially for them, because I was afraid they might use the situation against me in some way, possibly for a refund. 

[Helen3]

Why don't you change your listing to strict? Then if they wanted to get their money back they would have needed to provide a reason.

Did you ask them why they cancelled?

Awful for your partner to feel that the guests maybe racist.

[Ann25]

I recently received an email from Airbnb saying that since I had declines the last several listings, they might delist my listings. Yet if Airbnb drilled down, they would see that the guests inquiring did not check my calendar, read my listing (I list a private room for 30-90 days, no men, no smokers, no extra guests, must be verified, etc.). I also have to kick the tires because of SF renter laws -- when somebody rents for over 30 days, they have renter's rights. It can get messy per several people I know at Airbnb. The last woman who inquired accused me of racism and was quite rude when I declined her request. I was stunned. (She obviously didn't read my profile which gives inforamtion about causes I'm involved in.) In fact, the more I thought about it, I realized she was the racist assuming b/c I was white and she was African-American. Shortly after our exchange, I received the email from Airbnb.

My question: To what degree, will their algorithsm and review process Airbnb use to determine how to rank listings protect could good 5-star rated hosts like me who want to use the Airbnb platform b/c of it's insurance coverage etc. rather than just dinging us because somebody accuses us of something we are not?  And is there way to see how our listings are impacted and is there a fair appeal (due) process for hosts that Airbnb goes through before they make adjustments which may impact our income? 

[Kelly87]

Why did you deny the booking and what did you say to the guest? I think the guest cannot book less than 30 days, correct? So was it something else?

To answer you questions, basically, if Airbnb decides they don't want to list your property, they can delist it. I am not aware of any formal process for this, or appeal process. The terms simply state they can delist it at their discretion. From what I have heard from other hosts it seems they often suspend or otherwise temporarily block bookings on a listing, giving the host a chance to come into compliance (from their point of view).

If you want to keep your listing on Airbnb, my personal suggestion would be try to not decline bookings as much as possible. Obviously Airbnb doesn't want guests to be declined, no one wants to tell customers "no"...  I would imagine, though I have no factual data on this, that they are sensitive to guests perceiving they were declined for reasons of race, religion, ethnicity etc. right now. So I it would be wise to tread carefully. If you think about it from Airbnb's point of view, it is not about you personally, but if they are getting guests that FEEL they were declined a booking for an inappropriate reason by you, at some point Airbnb will probably decide --regardless of the actual facts of why you declined-- that Airbnb is not the platform for your listing. Even though you have not declined a guest due to their perceived race, if Airbnb gets multiple complaints of this, what should they do? 

Perhaps if you give some of the reasons you have declined guests, including this recent one, and how you communicated the decline, I can offer some suggestions?

[Ann25]

Hi,

1) I think Airbnb should have hosts click on a reason why they are declining (not necessarily that is shown to the guest) so that the Airbnb data can be more accurate. Reasons could include:

-- I am a woman, rent a private room in my home and don't accept male guests

-- The guest sent a reservation request but made it conditional on a request that runs counter to what I describe in my listing
-- I don't accept requests from 3rd parties because I would not be covered by the Airbnb insurance
-- I don't accept guests for this length of stay
-- I don't accept extra guests (only one person at a time)
-- My calendar was up to date and the dates were not available
-- My calendar was not up to date and the dates were not available
-- I rent a private room and the guest did not seem to be a good fit
-- the guest did not have the level of Airbnb verifications I require in my listings

-- Other

2) Airbnb could improve their mobile app so that updating a listing's calendar is easier. I work long hours during the week and only am able to get on my personal computer during the weekends to update a listing. My last inquiry came from a guest who got frustrated that my calendar was not up to date. Fair enough. But then she started demanding I update it in very strong language and implying I was a racist if I didn't do it on her timeframe. It was very unpleasant. She was treating me like her personal short order cook. During the week, if I get a note from family that is coming to town, it may take me a couple of days to update the calendar on my home computer. 

While I understand that Airbnb wants guest to have a good experience on their site (as do I as both a guest and a host), they also want unique, nice properties in safe, nice neighborhoods. And I would expect Airbnb to extend some benefit of the doubt or be able to get more precise data before rendering judgement (that has economic impact) on hosts. 

There must be a better way that helps the community decrease discrimination while still protecting hosts' rights as well.

Ann

[Kelly87]

Airbnb does offer a list of reasons for why you are declining, including an other option that you can fill in.

I see what you are saying about the app, but really you need to update your calander immediately if something changes availability, and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that. 

"There must be a better way that helps the community decrease discrimination while still protecting hosts' rights as well." What would you suggest?