Letter sent to Airbnb re discrimination, forced IB
Jul 20, 2016 4:52:50 GMT
Inanna (Shaun) likes this
Post by High Priestess on Jul 20, 2016 4:52:50 GMT
An Airbnb host sent this letter to Airbnb -- to Brian Chesky, Chip Conley, David King, Donna Boyer:
I have been watching the news regarding the discrimination issues that Airbnb is contending with, and wanted to share some of my observations, both as an in-home host and a participant in the host community for a couple years.
Many media articles have alluded to “racial discrimination” on the Airbnb platform, and there have been a few newsworthy instances of both overt racial discrimination, as well as anti-gay discrimination, and the instance with the transgender guest. As well, there has been a Harvard Study on discrimination on the Airbnb Platform, www.benedelman.org/publications/airbnb-guest-discrimination-2016-01-06.pdf
Airbnb leaders David King, Brian Chesky and others have expressed concern with discrimination on the Airbnb site, stated that you take this issue “extremely seriously” and have “zero tolerance” for discrimination on the Airbnb site.
I am concerned about a few things having to do with these issues. First, I think it is problematic to point to a few instances of overt discrimination on the Airbnb platform and conclude that discrimination on the basis of race or any other category is "widespread" on Airbnb, as biased media reports are claiming. Secondly, the Harvard Study, unfortunately, did not actually study discrimination on the basis of race – it studied discrimination on the basis of user names, which is something quite different. A “black sounding name” may for instance prompt a reaction from an Airbnb host that would not be prompted in them merely by race -- the use of such a name may suggest, more than standard names, something such as socioeconomic class, or a political orientation to one’s racial identity. Hence, the results of the Harvard study cannot be said to truly provide results about race only, since other variables were involved.
Third -- some of those prospective Airbnb guests claiming they are experiencing discrimination will say things like, “I can’t book an Airbnb for the life of me”. We have to consider that this is not likely completely owing to their race. In the host community, we have done a lot of education with hosts about how to best present themselves in their profile and how to communicate with guests. If hosts don’t’ always know these things, and sometimes have poor judgement about the type of photo they use on their Airbnb profile, or how to communicate well with an inquiring guest, it stands to reason that guests would have the same issues at times, and could use some help in presenting themselves to hosts in ways that facilitate their being accepted to stay at the host’s home. A couple of those prospective Airbnb guests who have gained attention in the media over their allegations that they were declined on the basis of their race, were using profile photos that could have been better. Also, I think it’s a truism in many areas of life, that people will find what they set out to find. So if an individual sets out expecting to find racism, they are more likely to interpret their experiences through that lens, than if they had a different lens through which they viewed the world.
I wanted to mention, too, that I'm a lesbian and have on the basis of sexual orientation, been discriminated against in both housing and employment. This was in years past, before discrimination suits became a whole industry. Even if these experiences had occurred in the present time, my response to being discriminated against, would not be to call a newspaper or file a lawsuit. It would be to just move on. Why would I want to be in the house of someone who doesn’t want me there? I think this is one of the strangest aspects of these situations of alleged discrimination: the idea that anyone would argue about or demand to stay in a home where they weren’t wanted. That strikes me as a sort of bullying.
If I were rejected by a host , I would feel that their rejection of me had demonstrated what a small person they were, and would be eager to show myself the bigger, kinder and stronger person by not holding a grudge, not clinging to feeling aggrieved, not calling up the media, not filing a lawsuit, and not demanding their removal from Airbnb as a host -- but simply moving on. Letting go and moving on makes us large in spirit. Fixating on small injustices makes us petty, and makes us angry, and too much anger can be unhealthy. In this time in the world, (and in this year of strange presidential politics!), we are ever more in need of largeness of spirit, rather than punitive responses to relatively small injustices. As upsetting as it might be to a prospective guest to not be accepted by a given host, this is after all, in the scheme of things, a relatively trivial issue. There really are other fish in the pond.
Something else to keep in mind is that, after all, hosts are in business of renting out property to have guests – not to decline them. Hosts want to accept guests and make money, not turn down people and lose money. I can speak for the many hosts I have encountered in the host community and say that we are quite heavily biased towards accepting guests. I personally hate to turn anyone down because I hate the thought i might hurt someone's feelings. I think many hosts feel the same. Between such genuinely welcoming hosts and those hosts who want to use instant book, and the continually increasing number of hosts and listings, there are just so many options for guests, particularly guests who plan in advance and have some flexibility about where they stay.
Finally, while it is laudable for any business or organization to work to overcome issues of prejudice, it is also the case that Airbnb has been and will continue to be scapegoated as responsible for problems which existed long before Airbnb began in 2009. And discrimination or prejudice of various types are not only endemic to society at large, but have been endemic to the human race since the dawn of time. It would be unreasonable to think that Airbnb or any other business would be completely free of these issues which have existed in society for thousands of years. It would also be a sign of hubris for any one company to think that they can completely eradicate these issues, or use technology or apps to solve these issues. I think the best that can be done is to address overtly discriminatory statements when they arise, (which are illegal under US housing law at least) which Airbnb has been doing, and continue to do education of hosts and support hosts to be as welcoming as they can be.
I am concerned about some things that I have seen lately within Airbnb, which are or may be related to this discrimination issue. First, I am quite concerned about the fact that many new hosts signing up with Airbnb, are being forced to use Instant Book. ( community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/Disable-Instant-Book-can-t-find-option-anywhere/m-p/97293#M10427 and community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/Disable-Instant-Book-can-t-find-option-anywhere/td-p/96135/highlight/false and community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/instant-booking/m-p/95902#M10302 and community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/Remove-instant-booking/m-p/115547#M12066 ) Some hosts believe that this has to do with the discrimination issue, and that Airbnb will eventually require all hosts to use Instant Book, thus removing the ability of any host to screen guests, and taking away their right to choose who they want to stay at their own home. Whether or not this development has to do with the discrimination issue, it is of grave concern to me, because it seems quite disrespectful to hosts to remove their right to decide whom they want in their own home. Or even --in their own bed, as one host put it who, when she found that she was being forced to use instant book, announced that she would have to give up hosting.
For Airbnb to compel hosts to use Instant Book seems to me to be an expropriation of other people’s property for Airbnb’s use, and does not seem right. It also would seem to blur the line about whether we are hosts, or employees of a large corporation. It also seems to me that forcing hosts to use Instant Book contradicts Airbnb’s own Terms of Service where it is stated that the host and the host alone is responsible for their listing. Then too, I think there are some serious liability concerns, both for the host and Airbnb, if hosts are being told that they cannot turn down guests. Each host has their own unique circumstances with respect to insurance and liability, as well as their own preferences for exposure to liability. To force hosts to accept guests whom they may not want, and whom in their own analysis, may present too much risk of liability, is to put that host at risk in a way that I don’t consider ethically right for a company to do. These are hosts’ own homes, these are the places where they need to be comfortable, and safe, and I strongly advocate that Airbnb trust us and allow us as hosts to make the decisions that we need to make to be comfortable and safe.
While most guests are perfectly decent people, there are a considerable number of guests who cause problems, sometimes even quite serious ones. Some guests are disrespectful and don’t’ follow the rules that they agreed to follow, have parties that are not permitted, sneak in extra guests, damage or vandalize hosts’ property, steal their property, or are abusive towards the host. These kinds of situations are bad enough when the host themselves has actively chosen and welcomed these guests. Such circumstances would be quite a bit more disturbing and much more problematic if the host actually had been forced by Airbnb to accept these guests. It is never acceptable to have people forced into our homes against our better judgement. The three “penalty-free” host cancellations of instant book reservations that Airbnb allows, may not be sufficient to undo the potential problems created if hosts cannot screen their own guests.
It should also be mentioned that hosts could be put in a legal dilemma and potentially incur legal liability or greater exposure to lawsuits, by being forced to use instant book. When hosts can do adequate screening before accepting a guest, they can ensure, for instance, that a guest isn’t planning to bring children, when the host doesn’t permit guests to bring children. Before accepting the guest, they can ask for names and ages of everyone in the party. IF the guest indicates they plan to bring children, the host can decline the guest without stating a reason for the decline.
But if the host is not able to ask this before accepting the reservation, because they are forced to use instant book, a guest planning to bring children could book a listing where the host does not want children. Under US Law and the Fair Housing Act, hosts in many areas of the US (laws differ somewhat state to state) who live in their own home and rent 4 or fewer rooms, are legally allowed to discriminate on ANY basis in renting their space. fairhousing.foxrothschild.com/2010/06/articles/fha-basics/the-mrs-murphy-exemption-to-the-fair-housing-act/ So it would be legal for them to decline a family with children. However, what is NOT legal for them to do, is to make discriminatory statements. Yet if a family instant books their place, and they now have to cancel that reservation because they do not accept children, they are now put into a position where they may have to state the reason why they are cancelling – in other words, they could end up forced by instant book, to make an illegal discriminatory statement. Note that although discrimination on the basis of familial status (eg, whether or not a renter has children) is not nearly as “red-hot” a topic as racial discrimination or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, it is equally prohibited under US or state Law. Hosts should not be put into a position where they are exposed to greater legal liability and greater potential for lawsuits.
Hosts can be put into another type of serious legal dilemma if forced to use instant book. Which is that many hosts take long term reservations (eg over 30 days long). In the USA, reservations of such length will give the renter “tenants’ rights” , including the right to not be evicted without court action. Only a fool of a property owner would offer a long term rental to anyone who merely clicks a button, with absolutely no screening whatsoever. To put someone in such a situation is both to roll a red carpet out to scammers and squatters, while exposing the host to great risk, and potential legal costs to remove a squatter. In the vast majority of cases, I would think that hosts would not permit guests to book long term reservations via instant book, and in no case should Airbnb force a host to use instant book for long term reservations.
Finally, it contradicts the spirit of hospitality and welcoming, to force hosts to accept guests. The welcome that hosts extend to guests, should be freely extended, without force, or it cannot be considered a true gesture of welcome, a sincere and meaningful welcome. Airbnb is certainly a company oriented to hospitality and belonging, and extending a welcome to people of all kinds from all over the world. But this welcome that is offered, must be freely offered to have genuine meaning. As well, guests who know that they have been chosen to stay in a hosts’ home, (when they could possibly have been declined) are likely to have more respect for that host and their home, and to be more grateful, than those guests who feel that they have a right to stay in someone else’s home, and that the host has no right to turn them down. As hosts, we don’t’ want bully guests, who feel entitled to anything – such as being invited into our houses. We want grateful guests. To make a positive choice to accept a guest, is to honor that guest, and this is something hosts cannot do if they are forced to use Instant Book. I would ask that you reconsider the decision to force any hosts to use Instant Book, as I feel that this action is not in keeping with the true spirit of hospitality.
I have heard Brian say (http://fortune.com/2016/07/12/airbnb-discrimination-hiring/ ) that one of the problems having to do with discrimination, is that hosts make decisions based on subjective reasons, and that he would like hosts to make decisions about accepting guests for objective reasons. It’s my hope that what Brian is referring to, would have to do with efforts to educate hosts about how to make decisions, rather than Airbnb taking it upon itself to compel hosts to make their decisions in any particular way. I strongly believe that hosts, particularly those who are sharing space in their own homes, need to be trusted to make their own decisions in ways that they deem best.
I think for the most part hosts do make decisions based on objective reasons, but as someone who’s been a very active participant in the host community for the last 2 years, I have to say that it does sometimes happen that a host will receive an inquiry from a guest, and be concerned with something about how the guest presents themselves. The concern that the host has may or may not be something that they can easily articulate. Some hosts are not so good at being able to find the rational basis for their unease. They may just feel “uncomfortable” but not really be able to say why. One of the best pieces of advice that hosts give to each other in such circumstances is, “go with your gut” or “go with your gut feeling about it.” Many people make important decisions based on intuition, particularly those of us who are intuitive types. For instance, I am a Myers Briggs type INFP, and use a combination of objective information, facts, as well as emotion and intuition to reach many decisions.
I bring this up, because a friend of mine, also an Airbnb host, said that she was interviewed by Airbnb regarding how feasible she would consider it to run her hosting business on instant book, but have the opportunity to require potential guests to check off various boxes stating that they agreed with her house rules, etc. She was incensed that Airbnb would think that it could reduce the complex decision-making process, to a software app. There are things involved in making decisions about whom we wish to have in our homes, which absolutely cannot be reduced to software apps, or objective measures. One of the reasons for this is that we need to be able to evaluate the entire “presentation” of the guest, not just any particular objective statements they may make. This holistic evaluation of the entire guest presentation is something only a human being who can apply reason, feeling, and intuition in wise measure, is able to “grok”. It is not something that a computer can do.
Hosts can perform a holistic, multi-function assessment of the guest by putting the photograph together with their initial communication, the way they have responded to our questions, and assess if this is someone we want in our home. There are many things we can intuit, which software cannot analyze. We can get a sense if they are asking too many questions, or making too many demands, asking for exceptions, or appear confused, or seem to not be telling the truth, or hiding something. We can sense whether they come across as friendly, whether they seem to appreciate that they are asking to stay in a shared home, rather than a room in a hotel. We can get a sense about whether they appear to be sincere and forthcoming, or whether they seem a little resistant to answering our questions. With their photo, we can see if they appear to be a smiling, pleasant person, or have an appearance that “gives us pause”.
As someone who has been in the business of renting out rooms in my home for more than a decade, I have learned the hard way that I cannot always take what prospective renters say at face value. For years, I have asked renters to read my house rules to see if what I am offering, will suit their needs. Many times, renters will say they have read the rules and agree to everything – and I only find out later on that they read the rules, but did not actually intend to follow them!. The majority of renters and Airbnb guests are honest, but a few are not. This is a problem that many Airbnb hosts have noticed and it is a recurrent theme in the host community – the fact that guests simply don’t read what they are presented with in the listing description and/or house rules. Or they read it and it goes in one ear and out the other. What we can conclude about this, is that some guests will simply say whatever they think they need to say to get what they want – namely to get the rental. Therefore, in the screening process as hosts screen prospective guests, we cannot simply assume that if a guest says they read the rules and agree to follow them, that this is the case. We have to take in the entire presentation of the guest, all their communication, their photo, everything, and use this to determine whether we feel they are someone we can trust, who means what they are saying. Or are they someone who simply wants what they want and will say anything to get it…sort of like lying on a resume to get the job? IN other words, we have to use more than merely “objective” criteria to screen guests --- we have to use our intuition and often subtle, nuanced criteria.
I think it is a laudable and worthy goal to educate and support hosts so that the number of hosts who would discriminate against guests on the basis of such things as race , sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, religion, and so on, is lessened. However, it would be problematic and in my view would violate the spirit of hospitality, for Airbnb to seek to override hosts’ own decisions about whom they are comfortable renting to. Not everyone is at the same level of trust, openness, maturity, or experience in doing property rentals, to be able to be as open to guests as we might consider ideal. The right to freely choose to whom to rent, even in instances where choices may involve some level of “discrimination”, is a right that people have under US Law when renting space in their own residence. I would prefer not to see host’s rights or freedoms under the law abridged by any corporation. Hosts’ homes are not hotels, nor are they public accomodations as some have asserted.
As a person who has been trained as a psychotherapist, I also want to offer that one of the best ways that I find of respecting people, is to respect “where they are at” and the limits they have at the present time. What would seem easy for one person, may present a challenge to someone else. Differences that people in sophisticated urban settings may be quite used to, may be very new for people in more homogeneous regions. I think it’s useful to support people to be open to welcoming a diverse array of guests, but at the same time to respect people’s own limits. I also think that hosts will have more respect for and genuine openness to a wide diversity of guests, and more potential for their choices to rise above decisions made by the crude means of discrimination, will be more authentic and heartfelt, if they do not feel that their decisions are being policed by government or a corporation. Again, I believe that the best and most authentic hospitality that hosts can offer, is the hospitality that they freely offer, from their own heart.
I have been watching the news regarding the discrimination issues that Airbnb is contending with, and wanted to share some of my observations, both as an in-home host and a participant in the host community for a couple years.
Many media articles have alluded to “racial discrimination” on the Airbnb platform, and there have been a few newsworthy instances of both overt racial discrimination, as well as anti-gay discrimination, and the instance with the transgender guest. As well, there has been a Harvard Study on discrimination on the Airbnb Platform, www.benedelman.org/publications/airbnb-guest-discrimination-2016-01-06.pdf
Airbnb leaders David King, Brian Chesky and others have expressed concern with discrimination on the Airbnb site, stated that you take this issue “extremely seriously” and have “zero tolerance” for discrimination on the Airbnb site.
I am concerned about a few things having to do with these issues. First, I think it is problematic to point to a few instances of overt discrimination on the Airbnb platform and conclude that discrimination on the basis of race or any other category is "widespread" on Airbnb, as biased media reports are claiming. Secondly, the Harvard Study, unfortunately, did not actually study discrimination on the basis of race – it studied discrimination on the basis of user names, which is something quite different. A “black sounding name” may for instance prompt a reaction from an Airbnb host that would not be prompted in them merely by race -- the use of such a name may suggest, more than standard names, something such as socioeconomic class, or a political orientation to one’s racial identity. Hence, the results of the Harvard study cannot be said to truly provide results about race only, since other variables were involved.
Third -- some of those prospective Airbnb guests claiming they are experiencing discrimination will say things like, “I can’t book an Airbnb for the life of me”. We have to consider that this is not likely completely owing to their race. In the host community, we have done a lot of education with hosts about how to best present themselves in their profile and how to communicate with guests. If hosts don’t’ always know these things, and sometimes have poor judgement about the type of photo they use on their Airbnb profile, or how to communicate well with an inquiring guest, it stands to reason that guests would have the same issues at times, and could use some help in presenting themselves to hosts in ways that facilitate their being accepted to stay at the host’s home. A couple of those prospective Airbnb guests who have gained attention in the media over their allegations that they were declined on the basis of their race, were using profile photos that could have been better. Also, I think it’s a truism in many areas of life, that people will find what they set out to find. So if an individual sets out expecting to find racism, they are more likely to interpret their experiences through that lens, than if they had a different lens through which they viewed the world.
I wanted to mention, too, that I'm a lesbian and have on the basis of sexual orientation, been discriminated against in both housing and employment. This was in years past, before discrimination suits became a whole industry. Even if these experiences had occurred in the present time, my response to being discriminated against, would not be to call a newspaper or file a lawsuit. It would be to just move on. Why would I want to be in the house of someone who doesn’t want me there? I think this is one of the strangest aspects of these situations of alleged discrimination: the idea that anyone would argue about or demand to stay in a home where they weren’t wanted. That strikes me as a sort of bullying.
If I were rejected by a host , I would feel that their rejection of me had demonstrated what a small person they were, and would be eager to show myself the bigger, kinder and stronger person by not holding a grudge, not clinging to feeling aggrieved, not calling up the media, not filing a lawsuit, and not demanding their removal from Airbnb as a host -- but simply moving on. Letting go and moving on makes us large in spirit. Fixating on small injustices makes us petty, and makes us angry, and too much anger can be unhealthy. In this time in the world, (and in this year of strange presidential politics!), we are ever more in need of largeness of spirit, rather than punitive responses to relatively small injustices. As upsetting as it might be to a prospective guest to not be accepted by a given host, this is after all, in the scheme of things, a relatively trivial issue. There really are other fish in the pond.
Something else to keep in mind is that, after all, hosts are in business of renting out property to have guests – not to decline them. Hosts want to accept guests and make money, not turn down people and lose money. I can speak for the many hosts I have encountered in the host community and say that we are quite heavily biased towards accepting guests. I personally hate to turn anyone down because I hate the thought i might hurt someone's feelings. I think many hosts feel the same. Between such genuinely welcoming hosts and those hosts who want to use instant book, and the continually increasing number of hosts and listings, there are just so many options for guests, particularly guests who plan in advance and have some flexibility about where they stay.
Finally, while it is laudable for any business or organization to work to overcome issues of prejudice, it is also the case that Airbnb has been and will continue to be scapegoated as responsible for problems which existed long before Airbnb began in 2009. And discrimination or prejudice of various types are not only endemic to society at large, but have been endemic to the human race since the dawn of time. It would be unreasonable to think that Airbnb or any other business would be completely free of these issues which have existed in society for thousands of years. It would also be a sign of hubris for any one company to think that they can completely eradicate these issues, or use technology or apps to solve these issues. I think the best that can be done is to address overtly discriminatory statements when they arise, (which are illegal under US housing law at least) which Airbnb has been doing, and continue to do education of hosts and support hosts to be as welcoming as they can be.
I am concerned about some things that I have seen lately within Airbnb, which are or may be related to this discrimination issue. First, I am quite concerned about the fact that many new hosts signing up with Airbnb, are being forced to use Instant Book. ( community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/Disable-Instant-Book-can-t-find-option-anywhere/m-p/97293#M10427 and community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/Disable-Instant-Book-can-t-find-option-anywhere/td-p/96135/highlight/false and community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/instant-booking/m-p/95902#M10302 and community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/Remove-instant-booking/m-p/115547#M12066 ) Some hosts believe that this has to do with the discrimination issue, and that Airbnb will eventually require all hosts to use Instant Book, thus removing the ability of any host to screen guests, and taking away their right to choose who they want to stay at their own home. Whether or not this development has to do with the discrimination issue, it is of grave concern to me, because it seems quite disrespectful to hosts to remove their right to decide whom they want in their own home. Or even --in their own bed, as one host put it who, when she found that she was being forced to use instant book, announced that she would have to give up hosting.
For Airbnb to compel hosts to use Instant Book seems to me to be an expropriation of other people’s property for Airbnb’s use, and does not seem right. It also would seem to blur the line about whether we are hosts, or employees of a large corporation. It also seems to me that forcing hosts to use Instant Book contradicts Airbnb’s own Terms of Service where it is stated that the host and the host alone is responsible for their listing. Then too, I think there are some serious liability concerns, both for the host and Airbnb, if hosts are being told that they cannot turn down guests. Each host has their own unique circumstances with respect to insurance and liability, as well as their own preferences for exposure to liability. To force hosts to accept guests whom they may not want, and whom in their own analysis, may present too much risk of liability, is to put that host at risk in a way that I don’t consider ethically right for a company to do. These are hosts’ own homes, these are the places where they need to be comfortable, and safe, and I strongly advocate that Airbnb trust us and allow us as hosts to make the decisions that we need to make to be comfortable and safe.
While most guests are perfectly decent people, there are a considerable number of guests who cause problems, sometimes even quite serious ones. Some guests are disrespectful and don’t’ follow the rules that they agreed to follow, have parties that are not permitted, sneak in extra guests, damage or vandalize hosts’ property, steal their property, or are abusive towards the host. These kinds of situations are bad enough when the host themselves has actively chosen and welcomed these guests. Such circumstances would be quite a bit more disturbing and much more problematic if the host actually had been forced by Airbnb to accept these guests. It is never acceptable to have people forced into our homes against our better judgement. The three “penalty-free” host cancellations of instant book reservations that Airbnb allows, may not be sufficient to undo the potential problems created if hosts cannot screen their own guests.
It should also be mentioned that hosts could be put in a legal dilemma and potentially incur legal liability or greater exposure to lawsuits, by being forced to use instant book. When hosts can do adequate screening before accepting a guest, they can ensure, for instance, that a guest isn’t planning to bring children, when the host doesn’t permit guests to bring children. Before accepting the guest, they can ask for names and ages of everyone in the party. IF the guest indicates they plan to bring children, the host can decline the guest without stating a reason for the decline.
But if the host is not able to ask this before accepting the reservation, because they are forced to use instant book, a guest planning to bring children could book a listing where the host does not want children. Under US Law and the Fair Housing Act, hosts in many areas of the US (laws differ somewhat state to state) who live in their own home and rent 4 or fewer rooms, are legally allowed to discriminate on ANY basis in renting their space. fairhousing.foxrothschild.com/2010/06/articles/fha-basics/the-mrs-murphy-exemption-to-the-fair-housing-act/ So it would be legal for them to decline a family with children. However, what is NOT legal for them to do, is to make discriminatory statements. Yet if a family instant books their place, and they now have to cancel that reservation because they do not accept children, they are now put into a position where they may have to state the reason why they are cancelling – in other words, they could end up forced by instant book, to make an illegal discriminatory statement. Note that although discrimination on the basis of familial status (eg, whether or not a renter has children) is not nearly as “red-hot” a topic as racial discrimination or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, it is equally prohibited under US or state Law. Hosts should not be put into a position where they are exposed to greater legal liability and greater potential for lawsuits.
Hosts can be put into another type of serious legal dilemma if forced to use instant book. Which is that many hosts take long term reservations (eg over 30 days long). In the USA, reservations of such length will give the renter “tenants’ rights” , including the right to not be evicted without court action. Only a fool of a property owner would offer a long term rental to anyone who merely clicks a button, with absolutely no screening whatsoever. To put someone in such a situation is both to roll a red carpet out to scammers and squatters, while exposing the host to great risk, and potential legal costs to remove a squatter. In the vast majority of cases, I would think that hosts would not permit guests to book long term reservations via instant book, and in no case should Airbnb force a host to use instant book for long term reservations.
Finally, it contradicts the spirit of hospitality and welcoming, to force hosts to accept guests. The welcome that hosts extend to guests, should be freely extended, without force, or it cannot be considered a true gesture of welcome, a sincere and meaningful welcome. Airbnb is certainly a company oriented to hospitality and belonging, and extending a welcome to people of all kinds from all over the world. But this welcome that is offered, must be freely offered to have genuine meaning. As well, guests who know that they have been chosen to stay in a hosts’ home, (when they could possibly have been declined) are likely to have more respect for that host and their home, and to be more grateful, than those guests who feel that they have a right to stay in someone else’s home, and that the host has no right to turn them down. As hosts, we don’t’ want bully guests, who feel entitled to anything – such as being invited into our houses. We want grateful guests. To make a positive choice to accept a guest, is to honor that guest, and this is something hosts cannot do if they are forced to use Instant Book. I would ask that you reconsider the decision to force any hosts to use Instant Book, as I feel that this action is not in keeping with the true spirit of hospitality.
I have heard Brian say (http://fortune.com/2016/07/12/airbnb-discrimination-hiring/ ) that one of the problems having to do with discrimination, is that hosts make decisions based on subjective reasons, and that he would like hosts to make decisions about accepting guests for objective reasons. It’s my hope that what Brian is referring to, would have to do with efforts to educate hosts about how to make decisions, rather than Airbnb taking it upon itself to compel hosts to make their decisions in any particular way. I strongly believe that hosts, particularly those who are sharing space in their own homes, need to be trusted to make their own decisions in ways that they deem best.
I think for the most part hosts do make decisions based on objective reasons, but as someone who’s been a very active participant in the host community for the last 2 years, I have to say that it does sometimes happen that a host will receive an inquiry from a guest, and be concerned with something about how the guest presents themselves. The concern that the host has may or may not be something that they can easily articulate. Some hosts are not so good at being able to find the rational basis for their unease. They may just feel “uncomfortable” but not really be able to say why. One of the best pieces of advice that hosts give to each other in such circumstances is, “go with your gut” or “go with your gut feeling about it.” Many people make important decisions based on intuition, particularly those of us who are intuitive types. For instance, I am a Myers Briggs type INFP, and use a combination of objective information, facts, as well as emotion and intuition to reach many decisions.
I bring this up, because a friend of mine, also an Airbnb host, said that she was interviewed by Airbnb regarding how feasible she would consider it to run her hosting business on instant book, but have the opportunity to require potential guests to check off various boxes stating that they agreed with her house rules, etc. She was incensed that Airbnb would think that it could reduce the complex decision-making process, to a software app. There are things involved in making decisions about whom we wish to have in our homes, which absolutely cannot be reduced to software apps, or objective measures. One of the reasons for this is that we need to be able to evaluate the entire “presentation” of the guest, not just any particular objective statements they may make. This holistic evaluation of the entire guest presentation is something only a human being who can apply reason, feeling, and intuition in wise measure, is able to “grok”. It is not something that a computer can do.
Hosts can perform a holistic, multi-function assessment of the guest by putting the photograph together with their initial communication, the way they have responded to our questions, and assess if this is someone we want in our home. There are many things we can intuit, which software cannot analyze. We can get a sense if they are asking too many questions, or making too many demands, asking for exceptions, or appear confused, or seem to not be telling the truth, or hiding something. We can sense whether they come across as friendly, whether they seem to appreciate that they are asking to stay in a shared home, rather than a room in a hotel. We can get a sense about whether they appear to be sincere and forthcoming, or whether they seem a little resistant to answering our questions. With their photo, we can see if they appear to be a smiling, pleasant person, or have an appearance that “gives us pause”.
As someone who has been in the business of renting out rooms in my home for more than a decade, I have learned the hard way that I cannot always take what prospective renters say at face value. For years, I have asked renters to read my house rules to see if what I am offering, will suit their needs. Many times, renters will say they have read the rules and agree to everything – and I only find out later on that they read the rules, but did not actually intend to follow them!. The majority of renters and Airbnb guests are honest, but a few are not. This is a problem that many Airbnb hosts have noticed and it is a recurrent theme in the host community – the fact that guests simply don’t read what they are presented with in the listing description and/or house rules. Or they read it and it goes in one ear and out the other. What we can conclude about this, is that some guests will simply say whatever they think they need to say to get what they want – namely to get the rental. Therefore, in the screening process as hosts screen prospective guests, we cannot simply assume that if a guest says they read the rules and agree to follow them, that this is the case. We have to take in the entire presentation of the guest, all their communication, their photo, everything, and use this to determine whether we feel they are someone we can trust, who means what they are saying. Or are they someone who simply wants what they want and will say anything to get it…sort of like lying on a resume to get the job? IN other words, we have to use more than merely “objective” criteria to screen guests --- we have to use our intuition and often subtle, nuanced criteria.
I think it is a laudable and worthy goal to educate and support hosts so that the number of hosts who would discriminate against guests on the basis of such things as race , sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, religion, and so on, is lessened. However, it would be problematic and in my view would violate the spirit of hospitality, for Airbnb to seek to override hosts’ own decisions about whom they are comfortable renting to. Not everyone is at the same level of trust, openness, maturity, or experience in doing property rentals, to be able to be as open to guests as we might consider ideal. The right to freely choose to whom to rent, even in instances where choices may involve some level of “discrimination”, is a right that people have under US Law when renting space in their own residence. I would prefer not to see host’s rights or freedoms under the law abridged by any corporation. Hosts’ homes are not hotels, nor are they public accomodations as some have asserted.
As a person who has been trained as a psychotherapist, I also want to offer that one of the best ways that I find of respecting people, is to respect “where they are at” and the limits they have at the present time. What would seem easy for one person, may present a challenge to someone else. Differences that people in sophisticated urban settings may be quite used to, may be very new for people in more homogeneous regions. I think it’s useful to support people to be open to welcoming a diverse array of guests, but at the same time to respect people’s own limits. I also think that hosts will have more respect for and genuine openness to a wide diversity of guests, and more potential for their choices to rise above decisions made by the crude means of discrimination, will be more authentic and heartfelt, if they do not feel that their decisions are being policed by government or a corporation. Again, I believe that the best and most authentic hospitality that hosts can offer, is the hospitality that they freely offer, from their own heart.