Harvard professors allege that Airbnb hosts discriminate against African-American guests

Three Harvard Business School professors have suggested that Airbnb hosts discriminate against African-American guests, making it harder for non-whites to successfully book their accommodations through the site. In a working paper called "Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment," lead author Ben Edelman and his colleagues share the results of an experiment they conducted by creating 20 fake Airbnb profiles and attempting to book a place to stay through the site. Ten of the nonexistent guests were given either stereotypically white (Allison, Brett) names, while the other 10 were assigned stereotypically black names (Lakisha, Jermaine). The two groups were each composed of five male and five female profiles.

While posing as those fake users, the researchers sent out more than 6,400 messages to Airbnb hosts to inquire about the availability of properties in five cities: Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. When they examined the results, the researchers discovered that the white guests received a positive response from the hosts 50% of the time, while the African-American guests were given positive responses only 42% of the time.

Their data also showed that the African-American female with the most positive responses (Tamika) still received fewer positive responses than the white female (Kristen) with the least amount of positive responses. The same was true of the African-American males with the most positive responses (Darnell, Rasheed), as they were still outnumbered by the white male (Brad) with the fewest positive responses. The study authors wrote:

"The difference persists whether the host is African American or White, male or female. The difference also persists whether the host shares the property with the guest or not, and whether the property is cheap or expensive. Discrimination is costly for hosts who indulge in it: hosts who reject African-American guests are able to find a replacement guest only 35% of the time."

Edelman told Bloomberg Business:

"Life is tough if you’re a black guest on Airbnb. Particularly when you compare it to the baseline of the way things used to be. If you’re a black guest, you just make a reservation at the Marriott."

This isn't the first time Edelman and his colleagues have alleged a racial bias on Airbnb. In 2014, Edelman and Luca wrote a paper alleging that African-American hosts charged 12% less for their listings than their non-black counterparts. In that study, the researchers examined all of the available listings in New York City on a randomly selected date in July 2012 and learned that the African-American hosts earned less per-night than non-black hosts in similar neighborhoods, even those with similar user ratings and property photos. Their conclusion was that African-American hosts had a more difficult time renting their properties through the platform and had to charge a lower rate in order to get guest bookings.

Airbnb lists its Anti-discrimination policy on its website, writing that it prohibits any content that promotes discrimination, bigotry or racism, but what happens when the problem isn't with the listings or the photos, but is an inherent bias in the users themselves? Edelman has suggested that Airbnb might consider anonymizing its profiles and eliminating user pictures, much like users on eBay or Etsy are allowed to do. "While information can facilitate transactions, it also facilitates discrimination" he wrote.