Just two and a half years ago, Airbnb settled a lawsuit with three Black women who alleged that, in spite of Oregon’s public accommodation laws, the site allowed hosts to discriminate against Black guests by revealing their full names and photos.

“This update is consistent with the voluntary settlement agreement we reached in 2019 with individuals in Oregon who raised concerns regarding the way guests’ names are displayed when they seek to book a listing,” said the company in a statement.

In 2018, Airbnb updated its photo policy and began to wait until a guest was fully booked before sharing their photo with the host. It also left it up to hosts to choose whether to require guest photos or not.

The issues didn’t just start there, in 2016, Harvard Business School conducted a field study on behavioral patterns on the platform which lead to the revelation that guests with “distinctly African-American names are roughly 16% less likely to be accepted than identical guests with distinctively White names.”

At the time, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky issued an apology to users.

“Bias and discrimination have no place on Airbnb, and we have zero tolerance for them,” said Chesky.

Other updates to the company’s process included the requirement of users to accept a nondiscrimination pledge along with the launch of the Instant Book feature allowing hosts to offer booking of their homes immediately without the prior approval of a specific guest.

Rental Property

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