When discrimination comes in shades of gray
Whether you’re a buyer or seller, you know bias happens
The sharing economy discriminates. Don’t believe me? Try renting a vacation home with young kids or a service animal. Or if you’re black. Greg Selden knows what that’s like. A talent agent from Richmond, Va., he says he recently asked about the availability of an Airbnb rental in Philadelphia, but the host told him it was already booked. Selden, who is African American, then created two fake accounts that featured photos of white people, and the accommodations became available.
Selden is suing Airbnb for violating the Fair Housing Act and his civil rights. Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas says racial discrimination is “unacceptable, and it flies in the face of our mission to bring people together.” Last week, Airbnb hired former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder to help it create an anti-discrimination policy.
Whether you’re a buyer or seller in the sharing economy, you know discrimination happens in big and small ways. Usually, it’s a little white lie, like claiming your unit isn’t available when an unwanted guest tries to book or bending a few facts to prod a problematic guest to book some- where else. But Christine Karpinski, author of the book How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner, says, “Everybody does it.” Question is, what can you do about it? If you think the vacation rental owner or Airbnb host is refusing to rent you an apartment or vacation home for discriminatory reasons, what are your options? Unfortunately, the answer is: Other than complain, you don’t have many. But it might be just as well.
First, let’s be clear: Discrimination like the kind Selden claims he experienced is dead wrong and illegal, a fact underscored by legal experts such as Stephen Barth, a Houston-based attorney who specializes in lodging cases.
“Once these rentals are placed into commerce, they would become classified as places of public accommodation and accordingly would need to comply with all civil rights laws,” he says. And if Selden can prove that his would- be host discriminated, a court might side with him. Barth says Airbnb is likely to claim that it is nothing more than the middle man, which is a common defense in the sharing economy.
Karpinski agrees, drawing a hard line between the type of racial discrimination alleged by Selden and the preference vacation rental owners show for certain guests. For example, a family with young children might not be comfortable in a mansion decorated with pricey antiques. “As an owner, I might steer a family to another home, and to be honest, they would probably want to rent a different home,” she says.
But owners dislike confrontations. Among the worst: telling a guest traveling with a pet, even if it’s a service animal, that a property is off-limits. Owners would rather just say the property is unavailable rather than become embroiled in a debate about whether or not your furry little friend is a legitimate service animal or a comfort cat.
That kind of soft discrimination is hard to deny. And it kind of makes sense. You wouldn’t just hand the keys to a half-milliondollar vacation home to just anyone. Owners and hosts screen their prospective guests, and if they don’t like what they see, they find a reason to take their unit off the market.
If you think an owner or host is turning you down for any reason, you don’t have to take “no” for an answer. If you book through a professional, you might be able to appeal to the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA), a professional organization. Article 9 of its ethics code says members “should not deny equal professional services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.”
If your manager is a VRMA member, you can also let the or- ganization know they’re potentially in violation of its ethics code.
“VRMA certainly does not condone discrimination in any way,” says Mike Copps, VRMA’s executive director.
I’m frequently on the road with three kids, ages 9, 11 and 14, and we occasionally stay in vacation rentals. When we tell an owner that we’re traveling with children, it sometimes results in an uncomfortable pause on the other end of the line. It makes us wonder how many rentals became unavailable because the owner really didn’t want any little guests in their home.
Prejudice is wrong, but what about other forms of judgment? It’s a complicated question and one that will continue to pop up for owners and renters alike.