Post: #1

TLDR

Airbnb tells hosts they can't refuse booking requests from people they'd rather not have in their homes.

Got this email from Airbnb today

Quote:Dear Airbnb community,
At the heart of our mission is the idea that people are fundamentally good and every community is a place where you can belong. We don’t say this because it sounds nice. It’s the goal that everyone at Airbnb works towards every day – because we’ve all seen how when we live together, we better understand each other.

Discrimination is the opposite of belonging, and its existence on our platform jeopardizes this core mission. Bias and discrimination have no place on Airbnb, and we have zero tolerance for them. Unfortunately, we have been slow to address these problems, and for this I am sorry. I take responsibility for any pain or frustration this has caused members of our community. We will not only make this right; we will work to set an example that other companies can follow.

In June, we asked Laura Murphy, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington D.C. Legislative Office, to review every aspect of the Airbnb platform, and to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to fight bias and discrimination. Thanks to Laura’s leadership, today we’re releasing a report that outlines the results of that process. You can read the full report here, but I’d like to highlight four changes that will impact the way our platform works:

Airbnb Community Commitment

Beginning November 1, everyone who uses Airbnb must agree to a stronger, more detailed nondiscrimination policy. We aren’t just asking you to check a box associated with a long legal document. We’re asking everyone to agree to something we’re calling the Airbnb Community Commitment, which says:

We believe that no matter who you are, where you are from, or where you travel, you should be able to belong in the Airbnb community. By joining this community, you commit to treat all fellow members of this community, regardless of race, religion, national origin, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age, with respect, and without judgment or bias.

Open Doors

We’ll be implementing a new policy called Open Doors. Starting October 1st, if a Guest anywhere in the world feels like they have been discriminated against in violation of our policy – in trying to book a listing, having a booking canceled, or in any other interaction with a host – we will find that Guest a similar place to stay if one is available on Airbnb, or if not, we will find them an alternative accommodation elsewhere. This program will also apply retroactively to any Guest who reported discrimination prior to today. All of these Guests will be offered booking assistance for their next trip.

Instant Book

We’ll increase the availability of Instant Book, which allows our hosts to offer their homes to be booked immediately without their prior approval of a specific guest. Instant Book makes booking easier for everyone, and our goal is to have 1 million listings bookable via Instant Book by January 1st, 2017.

Anti-bias training

We are working with experts on bias, including Dr. Robert Livingston of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Dr. Peter Glick of Lawrence University, to make anti-bias training available to our community, and will be publicly acknowledging those who complete it.

These steps are just the beginning, not the end, of our efforts to combat bias and discrimination.

While we as a company have been slow on this issue, I am now asking you the community to help us lead the way forward. Every time you make someone else feel like they belong, that person feels accepted and safe to be themselves. While this may sound like a small act of kindness, we are a community of millions of people strong. Imagine what we can do together.

Brian Chesky
CEO, Co-founder

Post: #2

RIP Air BnB. I liked it, used several times.

Post: #3

I hope someone sues AirBnB the next time a crime is committed against either the host, or a member of the community.

Post: #4

"We mean, as long as the group or individual is a devout liberal or protected class of course. If Airbnb management doesn't like the political views of the groups or individuals, then they can be refused service."

Post: #5

AirBnb is trying, clumsily and hopelessly, to run from the harsh facts of reality. Which are, and same is true on Couchsurfing, that nobody is willing to accept into their homes a dirty-looking slouching rasta or a flamboyant gay. Not out of "raycissm", but because, these kind of people are trouble-makers, careless, and nobody would want to host them.

Anyway, it happened to me: When a would-be "guest" who's obviously gay, queer or rasta pot-smoker, wants to book my place (which I sometimes rent out), then I come up with good, carefully crafted white-lies excuses.

But the world is so crazy and PC that I actually have created a dummy profile of a gay rasta (with a separate payment source of course), whom I supposedly hosted. This way, Airbnb has categorized me as a "good SJW", and I am at liberty to reject the ten or twenty next unclean-looking and faggoty-looking "guests"...

I'm serious, it's so bad nowadays in this SJW-infected world, that you need to invent false LGBT or Jamaican (or both, to be safe) friends or guests if you want to have any online commercial activity: Once you have, supposedly, hosted a blue-haired fat lesbian, you are safe for six months with Airbnb, rejecting the real ones... Same on Couchsurfing, add some butch lesbian "friend" to your profile's friends, to make it less obvious that we normal men only host hot, slim, twenty-something chicks.

Post: #6

You'll know they've gone off the deep end when they start sanctioning hosts who are suspected of rejecting trannies, etc. As long as the social & economic costs of this new policy are borne by AirBnB and not the hosts, the impact of this on the right to choose who is allowed into your home is going to be very limited.

Will be interesting to see what they do next.

Post: #7

I don't know how you guys can let randoms get posted up in your homes.

Maybe if I had a separate place that i'm letting out that I don't live in, but no way that i'm going to let someone I don't know stay there.

Post: #8

Is there no escape from this shit? Everywhere you look across the Western hemisphere the Left is working overtime to impose its value system. Fucking sick of it.

(sorry in advance for the outburst but I can only take so much)

Post: #9

The wording posted talks about ways they are going to help the guests who feel they've been discriminated against, how they will help them find a place via booking assistance and pat them on the head sweetly, but there's no real mention of forcing hosts to join Instant Book program or forcing them to take whoever AirBnb says to take.

It seems like fluff for the SJW crowd mostly, at least from the summary posted, and not anything new that will change how things work for hosts. Unless of course hosts will be more vulnerable to being banned if they turn down too many snowflake guests.

I'm sure more is said in the actual documents, but what are the new rules, if any, being imposed on hosts themselves?

Post: #10

Where does it say that they will force host to host or punish them for not hosting?
I don't see that anywhere, thus I see this as just a empty promise.
Does air bnb claim they will subsidize and credit travelers for free lodging? Sounds like they will lose a lot of money?
But I don't see where host will really lose.

Post: #11

(09-08-2016 01:06 PM)Sourcecode Wrote:  Where does it say that they will force host to host or punish them for not hosting?
I don't see that anywhere, thus I see this as just a empty promise.
Does air bnb claim they will subsidize and credit travelers for free lodging? Sounds like they will lose a lot of money?
But I don't see where host will really lose.

You are indeed correct in that it is not stated. But if they follow the common strategic guidelines of the EL then they are simply testing the waters here. Further more stringent policies may be in works, as implied:

Post: #12

(09-08-2016 12:31 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  I don't know how you guys can let randoms get posted up in your homes.

Maybe if I had a separate place that i'm letting out that I don't live in, but no way that i'm going to let someone I don't know stay there.

This is mostly lip service to protect them from being sued or demonized in the media. Sure, they may actually believe in it, but it's not that easy to enforce.

Now, if they really try cracking down hard on people then I could see a lot of people leaving the service. If, for example, they start limiting the number of times you can host people per month unless you turn on the "instant book" feature then I can really see people leaving it in droves.

Instant book from what I understand doesn't allow you any chance to review the person's pictures, nor see if they message you saying it's going to be three people when they sneakily only signed up for 1 (cheap asses trying to game the system and you as a host), and it doesn't allow you to read reviews the person may (or may not) have as well as see what kind of verifications they've bothered to go through.

Post: #13

(09-08-2016 01:22 PM)AneroidOcean Wrote:  

(09-08-2016 12:31 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  I don't know how you guys can let randoms get posted up in your homes.

Maybe if I had a separate place that i'm letting out that I don't live in, but no way that i'm going to let someone I don't know stay there.

This is mostly lip service to protect them from being sued or demonized in the media. Sure, they may actually believe in it, but it's not that easy to enforce.

Now, if they really try cracking down hard on people then I could see a lot of people leaving the service.

Except, of course, they (AirBnb) waited until they are the absolute leaders in the market, to reveal their evil SJW side... too late to turn to another website.

What they will do is, suspend your account with little or no warning, if you turn down too many hosting requests from fat lesbian couples or other troublesome "guests" like that. They will act like Tweeter and Facebook: in a totally stalinist and outrageous way, against Conservative hosts and profiles, banning as they please.

And they don't care about losing money, they're already billionaires.

Post: #14

If you're an Airbnb host who doesn't want to host a particular male guest, just accuse them of sending you a dick pic via Whatsapp and they'll cancel the booking, trust me.

Post: #15

(09-08-2016 02:31 PM)scotian Wrote:  If you're an Airbnb host who doesn't want to host a particular male guest, just accuse them of sending you a dick pic via Whatsapp and they'll cancel the booking, trust me.

No: they'll accuse you of being homophobic.

Post: #16

^i loled

Post: #17

They'd better be REALLY confident in how good their insurance coverage is because I'd be fucking pissed off if some instant-book shitbag trashed my place and they didn't pay the claim quickly.

Post: #18

Can't you treat it like a request from a dating website? Like, just don't respond
Don't say you aren't gonna host them, just don't respond?

inb4 tinder bans you for not swiping right on guys and minorities

Post: #19

With this new "anti-discrimination" AirBnb policy, by the way, it's only a matter of time before terrorists start using AirBnb (much safer than hotels from their point of view, to dodge Law enforcement vigilance) while planning their attacks on foreign cities.

I guess the only reason terrorists did not use AirBnb in Paris this year, and had to rent places or hotel rooms far away in the suburbs, is obviously because no (bad, racist!) Parisian host would accept a request from them, given their, say, colorful profiles.

If we are obliged to host anybody, terrorists will take advantage. And keep in mind that tracking of hotel rooms is a fundamental police tool. With AirBnb, police is crippled. So, AirBnb will be helping terrorists evade the authorities, de facto...

Post: #20

So what was the point of allowing hosts to review guests?

Post: #21

(09-08-2016 03:46 PM)Beijong Wrote:  Can't you treat it like a request from a dating website? Like, just don't respond
Don't say you aren't gonna host them, just don't respond?

Not so easy. If you refuse answering some gay's or lesbian couple's request, then you have to stop answering all requests for like, one week. It'll cost you money. (If you reject a gay by saying, "Oh, sorry duchess, I am out of town, I have issues at the moment", you cannot a few hours or even days later accept a normal dude's request)

Post: #22

The homeowner should have the power to accept or reject whoever. If they are a racist, transphobic, culturally ignorant bigot it should be their loss, foresaking extra profit. AirBnB should let them lose out and let the market do its thing.

Post: #23

This could be a blessing in disguise. If Airbnb decides to go all out with this policy, it will destroy them. Leaving room for another "freedom loving" entrepreneur to take over the market. Or several to bring in some healthy competition.

Post: #24

Cough ** VRBO ** cough...

Post: #25

So, let's pretend for a second that fictional Stanford rapist Brock Turner is actually a real person and not a hired false flag actor. Under AirBnB's new policy, a female host would be required to accept him because that would be "discrimination" otherwise? Unbelievable.

As much as we don't want to admit it, discrimination and prejudice are sometimes valid self-protection mechanisms.