General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment • Hacker News Board

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#31

Post by redditmigrant » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 6:59 AM UTC

nvahalik wrote: post #12

People discriminate every day. I discriminate against restaurants and babysitters and businesses all the time. Sometimes those discriminations are because of a feeling. Sometimes they are are based on my internal biases. Sometimes I disagree with the choices a business has made and if affects whether or not I do business with them. Why do we make such a big deal about "discrimination?" It's built into who we are as p…

If some of us weren't constantly trying to get over our base instincts of discrimination we would still be in the times of segregation.

If your subconscious discrimination is constantly being pointed out through various channels, it starts causing you to question it. Obviously it's slow and might take generations, but that's the nature of the process. I will give you a personal example - I grew up in a country where making fun of gay/transgender people is very common. So subconsciously I judged and probably discriminated against gay/transgender people. When I moved to California and I heard and saw the messages of marriage equality I started to question my subconscious. Now I'm at the point where watching movies from my home country makes me cringe every time a crass gay joke gets cracked.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#32

Post by arabGuy » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 6:59 AM UTC

zeroer wrote: post #29

arabGuy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rent two studios in Paris. And I always decline requests coming from people that come from my country or neighboring ones (Tunisia, Morroco) unless they have stellar reviews. That includes people who were born in France but have ancestry from those countries (which is pretty easy to guess). That's because a) past history w. poor experiences b) I know too well they become overconfident when they see you are from the…

I'm totally ignorant. What does "do the ramadan" entail for you? Can you just continue to refuse to rent to Tunisians and Moroccans? Does AirBnB have any way to detect that? Does AirBnB have recourse against guests who leave the apartment trashed? Insurance, etc.? I wouldn't rent to people who would trash my place, either.

>What does "do the ramadan" entail for you?

Basically you feast all day and eat big at night and in the morning. And best case they look at you funny and take a moralistic tone about your haram behavior and worst case, well there is a lot of different worst case scenario when it comes to those folks. I don't want them to leave me a bad review because they are bitter about my "haram" behavior

>Does AirBnB have recourse against guests who leave the apartment trashed?

They do but I would rather not go through that, plus it is a hassle and I don't want to invest more time than I already do

>Does AirBnB have any way to detect that?

I don't know... but Paris is Paris. AirBnb is convenient but I won't have trouble finding an alternative if I have to

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#33

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:02 AM UTC

zeroer wrote: post #29

arabGuy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rent two studios in Paris. And I always decline requests coming from people that come from my country or neighboring ones (Tunisia, Morroco) unless they have stellar reviews. That includes people who were born in France but have ancestry from those countries (which is pretty easy to guess). That's because a) past history w. poor experiences b) I know too well they become overconfident when they see you are from the…

I'm totally ignorant. What does "do the ramadan" entail for you? Can you just continue to refuse to rent to Tunisians and Moroccans? Does AirBnB have any way to detect that? Does AirBnB have recourse against guests who leave the apartment trashed? Insurance, etc.? I wouldn't rent to people who would trash my place, either.

[deleted]

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#34

Post by sonink » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:04 AM UTC

Somehow Airbnb mostly doesnt work for me. You find a nice/cheap place to stay, message the host and wait for 24 hours for a revert. Fairly often, the host declines for seemingly specious reasons. The bigger problem is the wait than the refusal.

An Indian startup called OyoRooms has a much better solution to this problem.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#35

Post by gottam » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:05 AM UTC

if someone is turning you down on airbnb based upon some arbitrary discriminatory factors, do you think you'd really want to stay with a person like that to begin with?

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#36

Post by onewaystreet » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:09 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #20

angrow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think this would be against the agreement? Is crust a religion? An disability? "Dirty" isn't a protected class. I've personally experienced that some hosts refuse to rent to unmarried couples. It was inconvenient and silly, but perfectly legal and nearly harmless (unless their actual problem was that only one of us was white, but who can say).

The problem is this "sharing economy" facade. You have a right to pick and choose who you want in your home, even if you don't like LGBT folks, African Americans, caucassions, whatever. But the sharing economy isn't about sharing. It's about business platforms that monetize slack capacity of different resources. So you're operating a business now (yes, really). And a business can't discriminate against a protected cl…

> You have a right to pick and choose who you want in your home

You don't if you are renting your home. Whether Airbnb hosts legally classify as renters is something that each state is dealing with. Airbnb is choosing to get ahead of the issue by adding this requirement.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#37

Post by lucaspiller » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:09 AM UTC

angrow wrote: post #17

sergiotapia wrote: post #6

I don't use Airbnb and most likely never will. However, let's say for argument sake I do want to rent my extra bedroom out. What if I don't want rent to some weirdo crust punk? I wouldn't feel like my children are safe. I would probably only rent out to single professionals only. I guess Airbnb is not a good fit for hypothetical people like me.

What makes you think this would be against the agreement? Is crust a religion? An disability? "Dirty" isn't a protected class. I've personally experienced that some hosts refuse to rent to unmarried couples. It was inconvenient and silly, but perfectly legal and nearly harmless (unless their actual problem was that only one of us was white, but who can say).

> I've personally experienced that some hosts refuse to rent to unmarried couples.

In a lot of cases this is due to the host's religious beliefs. In that case, who is discriminating against who?

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#38

Post by eli » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:11 AM UTC

angrow wrote: post #17

sergiotapia wrote: post #6

I don't use Airbnb and most likely never will. However, let's say for argument sake I do want to rent my extra bedroom out. What if I don't want rent to some weirdo crust punk? I wouldn't feel like my children are safe. I would probably only rent out to single professionals only. I guess Airbnb is not a good fit for hypothetical people like me.

What makes you think this would be against the agreement? Is crust a religion? An disability? "Dirty" isn't a protected class. I've personally experienced that some hosts refuse to rent to unmarried couples. It was inconvenient and silly, but perfectly legal and nearly harmless (unless their actual problem was that only one of us was white, but who can say).

Uh, where I live in DC marital status is a protected class for housing. You can't require a couple be married.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#39

Post by eli » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:12 AM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #28

toomuchtodo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is this "sharing economy" facade. You have a right to pick and choose who you want in your home, even if you don't like LGBT folks, African Americans, caucassions, whatever. But the sharing economy isn't about sharing. It's about business platforms that monetize slack capacity of different resources. So you're operating a business now (yes, really). And a business can't discriminate against a protected cl…

You can legally discriminate in some categories in shared living situations in many places although. You can legally say you want only female or male roommates, or no couples and so on. And you can do it for money, it doesn't matter if your renting or own the place. If you are renting a place outright, then you cannot. So in that aspect you are allowed to do that.

What percentage of airbnb rentals are roommates vs short term subletters?

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#40

Post by Pinckney » Sat, Oct 29, 2016, 7:15 AM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #28

toomuchtodo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is this "sharing economy" facade. You have a right to pick and choose who you want in your home, even if you don't like LGBT folks, African Americans, caucassions, whatever. But the sharing economy isn't about sharing. It's about business platforms that monetize slack capacity of different resources. So you're operating a business now (yes, really). And a business can't discriminate against a protected cl…

You can legally discriminate in some categories in shared living situations in many places although. You can legally say you want only female or male roommates, or no couples and so on. And you can do it for money, it doesn't matter if your renting or own the place. If you are renting a place outright, then you cannot. So in that aspect you are allowed to do that.

Right, but how many people actually rent their own residence on Airbnb?