Reports of racism spur new websites

Accusations that Airbnb has been ignoring complaints of racism have led several black entrepreneurs to create two new vacation rental websites where they say racism will not be tolerated.

The new sites, Innclusive.com and Noirbnb.com, say they are enrolling hosts around the world and hope to open their platforms for bookings toward the end of this summer.

The sites are launching after months of allegations from travellers who say they’ve been rejected by Airbnb hosts because they are black. Many have posted their experiences on Twitter with the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack.

Among the stories that have made headlines was Gregory Selden’s.

He was rejected for a stay in a property that later accepted him when he used a fake profile for a white man requesting the same dates.

Selden has since filed suit against Airbnb. Another case got attention in June when Airbnb removed a host in North Carolina who purportedly used a racial slur to reject a booking by a black woman.

Airbnb has a long-standing policy prohibiting discrimination, but in January, a study by researchers from the Harvard Business School found African-American guests were less likely to be approved for Airbnb bookings than white guests.

This week, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in a statement on Airbnb’s blog that allegations of racism are “the greatest challenge we face as a company” and pledged to “create new tools” to prevent bias.

A review of company practices is underway, headed by Laura Murphy, former head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s legislative office.

The company has also hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as an adviser on the efforts.

Murphy said the company’s findings and new policies will be made public around Labour Day, and that they will focus on becoming more responsive to complaints, implementing anti-bias training and preventing discrimination in bookings. She could not provide details on how many complaints of racism have been received or how many hosts have been removed.

Asked why profile photographs are required when so many people say they’re being rejected based on their race, Airbnb spokeswoman Courtney O’Donnell said the photos “have been an important tool to help connect hosts and guests,” as well as a security feature so users can recognize each other at checkin. But, she added, “we are reviewing every aspect of our platform, including the use of photos.”

Innclusive.com founder Rohan Gilkes’ experience with Airbnb began when his attempts to book a property in Idaho on several different dates kept being rejected. He had a white friend book for the same dates and she was approved. This led Gilkes, an entrepreneur, to found Innclusive.com with Zakiyyah Myers.

“It really grew out of the lack of response I got from Airbnb,” Gilkes said.

“If their response had been a little more empathetic, or where I felt they were taking the problem seriously, I would be doing something else with my time.”

Among Innclusive.com’s innovations is a tech tool that prevents hosts from seeing pictures of guests until a booking has been approved.

If the host cancels a booking after seeing the photograph, they will not be able to book the property for those dates with someone else.

Stefan Grant and Ronnia Cherry were renting an Airbnb house in Atlanta, where Grant was playing at a music festival, when neighbours called the cops. Police showed up with their guns drawn.

“They saw black people in the house and assumed we were robbing the place,” Grant said.

Airbnb gave them a voucher “to smooth things over,” but Grant felt the response was “lackadaisical.”