Airbnb vows site overhaul with racism at forefront
‘We have zero tolerance for it,’ CEO Chesky says
Airbnb CEO SAN FRANCIS CO Brian Chesky opened the company’s Open Air technical conference Wednesday by addressing recent racist incidents that have taken place on the $25 billion company’s home-sharing site.
Beyond expressing outrage at the incidents that have impacted African Americans and transgender guests, Chesky said the company plans to pursue technological innovations to guard against future discriminatory events. He did not get specific about what they would be.
“There’s been a lot of news about prejudice and bias on our platform, and this is a huge issue for us,” Chesky said in a brief statement before handing the microphone to vice president of engineering Mike Curtis.
“We have zero tolerance for it, and we will take swift action,” Chesky said. “In the next months, we will be revisiting the design of our site from end to end to see how we can create a more inclusive platform. We’re open to ideas. It’s a really, really hard problem, and we need help solving it. We want to move this forward. I myself have engaged with people who have been victims of discrimination on the platform. We take this seriously.”
On Airbnb, users identify themselves with their real name and a photograph — information some hosts use to avoid renting to African Americans.
A Harvard Business School study found widespread discrimination by Airbnb hosts against guests whose names sounded distinctly black. Black Airbnb users have shared their stories of discrimination under the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack, and entrepreneurs have started temporary lodging services in response called Noirbnb and Noirebnb. “Noir” is “black” in French.