CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 12 (UPI) — When Harvard researchers sent out fictitious rental requests to several thousand Airbnb hosts in the United States, those with “black-sounding names” were less likely to be accepted than those with “white-sounding names.”
Distinctively African American names used by researchers included Lakisha, Latoya, Rasheed, Darnell and others. Distinctively white names included names such as Anne, Kristen, Brad and Todd.
Black-sounding names earned an approval rate of 43 percent, while white-sounding names were approved 50 percent of the time. Researchers say the discrepancy was consistent whether the host reviewing applications was white or black, male or female.
“Discrimination is costly for hosts who indulge in it,” Harvard researcher Benjamin Edelman wrote in a blog post. “Hosts who reject African-American guests are able to find a replacement guest only 35 percent of the time.”
The research was limited to hosts in Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Washington D.C.
In response to news of the findings, Airbnb said it was committed to facilitating an open and trusting community.
“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 said in a released statement. “We are in touch with the authors of this study and we look forward to a continuing dialogue with them.”
Researchers say the solution to Airbnb discrimination is simple: shield the names of would-be renters.
“Airbnb’s site carefully shrouds information Airbnb wants to conceal, such as hosts’ email addresses and phones numbers, so guests can’t contact hosts directly and circumvent Airbnb’s fees,” Edelman said. “But when it comes to information that facilitates discrimination, including name and photo, Airbnb offers no such precaution.”
The sharing economy mainstay — valued at $24 billion — says sharing at least some personal details is essential to the establishment of trust between two people.
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