Shine a light... on racial bias. Like many other platforms, Airbnb has not been free from implicit (and explicit) discrimination. The rental booking platform connects guests and hosts. Unfortunately, some users get turned down for no other reason than their name and the color of their skin.
- Since 2016, Airbnb has removed 1.3M users for "declining to treat others without bias." It also added an objective Instant Booking feature and profile pic protections (your photo isn't shown until a host confirms the booking).
- Enter "Project Lighthouse": Now, Airbnb is collecting data on user behaviors to measure discrimination. The project is in partnership with Color of Change, America's largest online racial justice org.
Airbnb's problem is harder to solve... Hotels are required to accept any paying customer if there's a vacancy. Hospitality platforms like Airbnb can't force hosts to accept a person into their house.
- That's why data is key — the info Airbnb collects will help it measure bias, so that it can then tweak its products/features to fight it.
- Think: Emphasizing guests' ratings over pictures or informing users of selection patterns that could potentially be discriminatory.
- Privacy: Airbnb is working with privacy experts to help ensure that the data collected isn't associated with individual accounts.
If Airbnb can help solve this, other gig companies could too... Bias is also a problem for other gig-like platforms (where users can accept/reject a person for no reason). Airbnb has pledged to publish the data and policies that come out of Project Lighthouse. We're thinking this could help Airbnb's buddies like Uber, Wag, and TaskRabbit reduce discrimination, too.