Innclusive's Anti-Discrimination Practices - Sound Familiar?

[Rebecca181]

Anyone who is aware of the home-share platform 'Innclusive', and how it came to be (it started out as a direct reaction to Airbnb's perceived discriminatory policies and practices) will recognize the new (and controversial) 'anti-discriminatory' practices and policies 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.

[Deborah614]

You hit the nail on the head:  "WE ARE NOT HOTELS OR INNS WHO HAVE SECURITY MEASURES IN PLACE".   

This sums it up.   Having someone we've never met into our homes is always going to be a risk we take as a host.   To deny us a slight advantage into being able to exercise our discretion (not discrimination), is not a level playing field.    

I wonder though, given that Airbnb have put all members, guests and hosts alike, through a screening process, whether there are any hosts who have had a truly terrifying experience?   Beyond a guest who has broken something, partied till the wee hours, broken something, which are irritations but not threats to our own personal safety?   

I chose to go Airbnb because I advertised for "room mates / flatmates  / house mates" and got a string of very unpleasant, even threatening, nasty, dishonest people.    Through Airbnb, to date I've only ever had very nice people who come to stay, and enjoyed every minute so far.  

[Kate668]

I agree with the "discrimination out of frustration"... for me, the presence or lack of a photo used to indicate a level of seriousness on the guest's part that I would take into account when accepting the booking. If a guest with no photo had multiple verifications and wrote me a proper message, I would usually accept. If no other info was provided, but they did have a picture, that made me MORE likely to accept.

Now I get booking requests from guests with no photos, 0-1 verifications, no reviews, no profile info, no month in which they joined, and little to no message accompanying their booking request. While I'm sure some of these requests are legitimate and from kind and respectful people, I tend not to accept.

I then get messages from Airbnb telling me my booking is in danger of being deactivated because my response rate is too low.

Why do I owe a response to someone who has not taken the time to provide ANY information to me? This is my home. I wish, particularly with the removal of the photo, that we could require verifications and additional information to go on.

My only requirement in staying with me is respect: not skin color, age, gender, etc. Guests are allowed to be careless with their profiles and requests and hosts are held to ridiculous standards.

[Barbara1450]

@Rebecca181Thank you for sharing. Yes, I understand discrimination happens, and AiBnb sets policies (which they may have plagiarized :--) to the lowest common denominator (ie, not to those of us who have long been thoughtful hosts, but to the masses now joining the platform who may be otherwise). That said, guests are discriminating in the properties they choose to visit, so hosts should be allowed to "discriminate" on the guests they invite to spend time in their properties. I know I'm preaching to the converted; but it's so frustrating being considered "racist" or "ageist" or whatever-ist when I'm merely trying to assure that the people querying (if they even see my property, I'm so low down in the listings) are good matches...I wouldn't even care about the photo if AirBnb still required profiles.

Opening another thread here (sorry, I've been thinking about AirBnb a lot this week) my guess is that AirBnb is going in the direction of becoming a contract-based "hospitality" company. Owner occupied premises will be eliminated as the company expands into tours and travel and "experiences" that they will "contract out" (without benefits or protections) to the individuals providing such--sort of like adjunct professors or Uber drivers/Fiverr/Task Rabbit/Door Dash/etc employees. They will settle on a particular "aesthetic" and it will be the "contracted" entrepreneurs responsibility to adhere to it. (Or maybe there will eventually be enough anger from gig economy workers that regulation will be passed that assures a bigger piece of the pie from the corporate, um, overlords--we can only hope.) (I digress, but I think this is also important.)

[Rebecca181]

@Barbara1450 Yes, I have felt this way for some time (see my response to Mariann, above) - It has been my sense based on policy and practice changes this past year that Airbnb could give a hoot about traditional hosts and that our nearly uniform protests about many of these changes are viewed as nothing more than collective 'whining', versus the last gasps and death throes of long-term, successful hosts who are beginning to realize there is no longer a place for them on the platform.

The fact that Airbnb customer service increasingly mimics John Malkovich's numb utterances to an anguished Michelle Pfieffer in 'Dangerous Liasions' ("It's beyond my control....") just confirms my observations that we are little more than a nuisance, versus the work-horses that Airbnb originally built it's entire business on. As I've said elsewhere, I could stomach this travesty with more equanimity if Airbnb Corporate dropped this charade of caring about it's host's security, peace of mind, and safety. Because at this point, they so obviously don't.

[Deborah614]

Well said, Rebecca.    I'm retired, living alone.   I receive advice that someone has "instant booked" my two guest rooms.   And that person looks like a GOLD FISH and there is absolutely none of the information about that person that there used to be.      Years ago, I loved knowing that my guests had traversed the Pyrenees or climbed with Llamas to Maccu Piccu....   you get the drift.      I felt like there was a genuine warmth already there.   

I guess I'm hooked into this beast now, until something comes along to replace Airbnb.   In future, I will ask for full I.D. - drivers licence/passport etc,  at the doorstep, take a picture on my camera of the guest, and withdraw all of the homely touches I used to provide - antique bone china on the breakfast tray, sterling silver milk jug, pure Irish linen sheets, original artwork on the walls.   ALL OF THIS GOES.   

Guests will be cordially received, and get a room which looks like a standard "Bates Motel".   

Sadly.   

Deb

[Rebecca181]

@Deborah614 Yes, I agree this is likely the direction most hosts will have to take - Request a government-issued photo ID at the door; thoughtful personal touches and possible valuables removed. If we remain on the platform at all. 

[Ben551]

@Deborah614   hey, I'll save you the trouble of having to come up with a new design concept.  Attached is a picture of your new, simplified Airbnb room:

[Sarah977]

@Ben551  But the candles are a no-no. Fire hazard. Better photoshop that out. And that vase could fall on the guest's head. I opt for just the bed, bare nightstand, and the stone walls. And a chamber pot.

This could be a whole new category for Airbnb- the Ascetic collection. Geared to those guests who want to experience a simpler life, those into self-flaggelation, or who are trying to kick addictions. Lock on the door from the outside. Meager meals slid under the door once a day. Also all the guests with violent criminal records which airbnb didn't bother to check out and allow to remain on the platform could be directed to these.

[Ben551]

@Sarah977 @Deborah614  ahhhh I see your point, yes those are hazards.

Fixed it:

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 I see we are thinking along the same lines here (see my comment to Ben, below). I can see it now: 'Ascetic Plus: Minimal Decor For The Minimalist Person'.

[Deborah614]

*** rollin on the floor laughing my freakin' head off!  ****  

The Ascetic Collection!       

I'm laughing so much because a crystal bowl of apricots in juice was sloshed onto red velvet and gold brocade furniture cloth, which was underneath the blue linen breakfast cloth.   guests didn't advise me of the spill, it just stayed there for hours staining the french polish underneath.    (Note To Self:   Get a plastic table cloth for people who bring kids.  ) 

[Rebecca181]

@Ben551 @Sarah977 @Debs - Ben, not to be critical of your obviously pristine aesthetics, but I myself would add a 'bed of nails' over the modest mattress displayed. And, instead of spa robes, how about including 'His' and 'Her's hairshirts and making them prominent in the listing header photo? Oh, and of course, if this is a 'Plus' listing (do they still have those, btw, or did they go the way of the Dinosaur?) you MUST remove the stained glass window - Only muted, monochrome decorative tones allowed!

[Deborah614]

With a sharpened oak stake by my own bed, hmmmm?   

Very goth you are, Ben.  I like your thinking.  

[Ben551]

Glad it made you smile @Deborah614  🙂

PS: if guests give you any trouble, give me a shout and I’ll drive over from Wellington to give them what for 🙂  I say they’ll take their stone walls, bare side table and chamber pot and they’ll bloody well like it!

[Deborah614]

Hi Ben,    Well, you might just be on to something there.   Basil Fawlty would no doubt be able to be of much help with our interior decorating and customer disservice manual.  

Actually, no guests have given me a jot of trouble, thus far.   (What am I doing wrong?)    

The last guests haven't given me a review, so I'm thinking the stone walls and chamber pot just might be the way to go.   The Royal Doulton Irish Linen sheets were perhaps a little OTT, (Basil Fawlty would keep me in after hospitality-school to write 100 lines), so I'm tucking them away for when I get a courting couple, or newly engaged, or Just Married ...         The 400 thread count Egyptian cottons will do I suppose.