Many feel that going the Airbnb route is easier than staying in a hotel – more room availability and a more homey experience. But those perks are balanced out by the gamble both the host and guest take when it comes to staying in another person’s home. As a host, you could come back to pipes clogged with who-knows-what; as a guest, you never really know what you’re going to get until you check in.
The service isn’t without systemic flaws either. A recent study from the Harvard Business School showed that the “sharing economy” method of room renting reveals racism amongst its users. (A pretty glaring flaw, obviously.)
In the experiment, researchers made 20 fake profiles to contact hosts in five major cities – Baltimore, Dallas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. – about renting up to 6,400 listed properties. Everything about the profiles were practically identical, except for the names of the guests. And that’s where the problems started.
It was found that the profiles with traditionally African American names were only accepted 42 percent of the time. This is apparently the case across the board, even when the hosts themselves are African American.
This is obviously a moral issue first and foremost, but this racism is also hurting peoples’ pockets. According to the study, “casual” racism costs hosts between $65 and $100 every time they reject a potential guest and have to try and find someone else to fill the room.
Of course, Airbnb can’t really be held responsible for any of this because this is just another example of people showing their true colors now that there are less barriers to entrepreneurial enterprise — but the company still released a statement to clear the air.
“We recognize that bias and discrimination are significant challenges, and we welcome the opportunity to work with anyone that can help us reduce potential discrimination in the Airbnb community,” the company told The Independent. “We are in touch with the authors of this study, and we look forward to a continuing dialogue with them.”
