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Airbnb

Airbnb hosts guilty of racial discrimination claims Harvard study

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

December 13, 2015 | 2 min read

African-American sounding names are being discriminated against on Airbnb when compared with white-sounding names claims a Harvard study.

Surveying more than 6,000 hosts in five US cities, the study showed names that sounded African-American were 16 per cent less likely to get a positive response i.e. get a room.

Conducted by a trio of Harvard Business School researchers, who made profiles that were identical other than the names used, the study revealed white-sounding names like Todd or Allison had a 50 per cent success rate for a positive response but black-sounding names like Darnell and Tamika caused the success rate to drop to 42 per cent.

Results showed black hosts were just as likely to discriminate against black guests as white hosts were and there was no significant difference between male and female hosts.

"[Airbnb] could conceal guest names, just as it already prevents transmission of email addresses and phone numbers," said the authors, adding that the racial discrepancy doesn't exist to the same extent within the hotel industry as bookings are often made automatically.

"Communications of eBay's platform have long used pseudonyms and automatic salutations, so Airbnb could easily implement that approach."

A statement released by Airbnb admitted "significant challenges" over the issue and invited collaboration from "anyone that can help us reduce potential discrimination in the Airbnb community."

Researchers encouraged users to make use of Airbnb's 'instant book' option which allows guests to book rooms without the need for the host's approval.

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