I Understand Why "No Guest Profile Photo"

[Rubén16]

I am great supporter of knowing who will be entering my little Rusty Cottage in Vermont, and as a host I would love to have a face to the name of the person who is inquiring on booking. I have been hosting on airbnb for several years now and have found out that even with a profile photo the person on the picture may look totally different when they arrive, for example many profile pictures that guests use are when they were in a social function weddings or other events or they used a younger picture of themselves, so my point is that even with a profile picture what you see is not always what you are going to get.

Fortunatly all of my guests have been great eventhough the profile photo they used was of an earlier or different version of themselves.

So that being said I do understand why airbnb has changed the guest profile photo policy, just about all companys make decisions based on the feedback they receive from customers (in this case guests), I am sure that airbnb put this policy in place because of the enourmous amount of discrimination calls and complaints from guests, either real or imagined the numbers of complaints were there for airbnb to make this decision, which they new was going to be overwhelmingly unpopular with hosts.

I am spanish living in the U.S.A. for over 53 years, and have had to deal with discrimination all my life, no matter how subtle it is or was, So I do understand and applaud companys when they make decisions to say NO to discrimination no matter how unpopular the decision is going to be.

I do know that airbnb hears you through this community forum and the company in the past has had implemented change based on your comments and suggestions, I just ask that with this change in guest profile picture, we all understand the big picture of discrimination commend airbnb on their decision and give a chance with this change.

For I am sure this no guest profile picture will frustrate and eventually weed out the hosts from airbnb who practice bigotry and discrimination.

I do know my stance on this subject is going to be unpopular, and there are going to be few thumbs up, however if you have read this hopefully you will have a new understanding of why this change was made to airbnb guest profile photo.

[Ricardo85]

@Rubén16

Let me see if I understand correctly: it is considered discrimination if the host denies the reservation because the guest is Spanish, but it would not be discrimination if the guest does not want to book with a certain host because he is Spanish.

Is this serious?

Ricardo

[Rubén16]

@Ricardo85  I mentioned that I am spanish just to let the community know who I am as the writer of the post, I do believe you misunderstood the meaning of the post itself.

What I am saying is that many use guests photos as a means for discrimination, not just here on airbnb , another example is when a person sends a photo with their resume for a job, there are many ways photos can be used to discriminate.

[Ricardo85]

@Rubén16

Ok.

Let put this way:

"it is considered discrimination if the host denies the reservation because the guest is black, but it would not be discrimination if the guest does not want to book with a certain host because he is black."

I do not understand why discrimination only applies to one side.

Ricardo

[Rubén16]

@Ricardo85  I understand what you are saying, however the guest is the consumer and they should not pick and choose hosts based on race.....etc, however like I mentioned they are the consumer and I am sure it does happen. Airbnb and us as hosts are the business and the guests are the customers, Airbnb has rules and policies for itself and which applies to us as hosts as well. The guests can book freely, however we hope they are not discriminating a host based on race....etc  hopes this makes sense.

[Ute42]

.

@Rubén16

You wrote:

"however we hope they are not discriminating a host based on race.."

Why can't we hope that hosts are not discriminating guests based on race?

Why are You so onesided?

And why is a consumer who has nothing to lose than the rental price more to be considered than a host who puts his $400.000 property at risk?

I don't understand Your point of view at all.

[Rubén16]

@Ute42  I am not sure what you mean with your comment? and I being onesided? did you read my original post on the top of page 1 of this thread? 

And the item you quoted me on ( "however we hope they are not discriminating a host based on race..") I was replying to a comment and agreeing that discrimination is wrong in all forms. 

[Ricardo85]

@Rubén16

"...they are the consumer..."

And being the customer gives them the right to discriminate?

"The hosts can deny a reservation freely, however we hope they are not discriminating a guest based on race....etc  hopes this makes sense...."

Does this make any sense to you?

What I'm trying to say is that discrimination works on both sides. And no one is understanding why one side is being overlooked.

Ricardo

Ricardo

[Kevin940]

This makes no sense at all.  I'm disgusted with Air BnB for using this apparent social issue to garner extra 'sales'.  We as hosts have an absolute right to know who is going to be staying in our homes. 

Air BnB is a business and to that end they want profit and sales they will be constantly changing the goalposts from now on to increase their KPI's.  It will without doubt result in the demise of Air BnB, which is in it's end of life stage anyway.  

I will not accept anyone who does not provide adequate information before staying in my home.

[Rebecca181]

Anyone who is aware of the home-share platform 'Innclusive', and how it came to be (it started as a direct reaction to Airbnb's perceived discriminatory policies and practices) will recognize this new policy of Airbnb's as being eerily similar to Innclusive's own policies designed to prevent discrimination. Not sure if Airbnb  copied it exactly, but it almost seems like they did. Any of this sound familiar? From the Innclusive website at https://www.innclusive.com/why-innclusive:

Discrimination happens on Airbnb and other platforms primarily through folks seeing the names and photos of guests before accepting the booking. On our platform we remove this opportunity for discrimination by introducing the photo only after the booking is confirmed.

Discrimination happens far more likely on properties that require the host to approve properties first vs instant book properties that a guest can book and be instantly approved. 99.9% of our properties are instant book, and this is by design, so there is no opportunity for discrimination in the first place.

We use technology to prevent a host from denying a booking to one guest and then making those same dates available to another guest.

[Patricia55]

@Rubén16

I'm completely with you in applauding companies who are trying to weed out bigotry and discrimination.

Also agree that the guest profile photo tends to be a flattering one and I often struggle to recognise the guest on my doorstep!

I pretty much don't care what a guest looks like, but, as you say, it's nice to have a face-to-the-name at the point of accepting the booking (especially in cases where the guest is new to Airbnb and there's very little other info).

So, if this recent policy is about preventing discrimination, I guess I'll go along with it... though rather reluctantly, given that my personal preference is to have sight of the guest's photo beforehand.

[Rubén16]

@Patricia55  Thanks for looking at the larger picture and understanding how Airbnb is fighting bigotry and discrimination, through the no guest photo at booking.

And like you mentioned we would all love to have guest profile photo's however, we will endure because I am sure in the long run it is for the better of us all:) 

[Patricia55]

@Rubén16

Let's hope so! Though I do wonder if we'll ever be told, whether or not this policy is having the desired effect 😉

[Rubén16]

@Patricia55  I thought about that myself, and I feel that once the discrimination complaints to Airbnb have been drastically lowered , they will let us know by having the guests profile pictures put back at booking.

[Patricia55]

@Rubén16

That would be a great outcome 🙂

PS Just checked out your listing and I want to come!