Airbnb guests with distinctively African American names are roughly 16% less likely to have their rental requests accepted than guests with distinctively white names, finds a field experiment by Benjamin Edelman, Michael Luca, and Dan Svirsky at Harvard Business School. The difference persists whether the host is African American, white, male, or female; whether they share the property with the guest or not; and whether the property is cheap or expensive. This discrimination is costly for those who do it: hosts who reject African American guests are able to find a replacement guest only 35% of the time. While having more information about users is intended to facilitate Airbnb transactions and build trust among users, it can also facilitate discrimination, the researchers caution.
Source: Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment
