Airbnb: "We're a positive force in black and latino areas"

Airbnb says that is why its business is better for black, Latino and other non-white neighborhoods than hotels are -- rather than having places clustered in one neighborhood, as is the case with hotels, its rentals are dispersed throughout cities and that brings in more money to those areas.

"The guests are more likely to spend their dollars in the three to four block radius of where they're staying," former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said in an interview. "It's democratizing the hospitality industry."