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General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

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Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#141

Post by gaius »

boards2x wrote: post #88
Lucadg wrote: post #42

I used to work in a camping site in Northern Italy many years ago. We were openly told not to accept people from the south of Italy as they statistically were more noisy. I didn't like it but it actually made sense. It just wasn't viable to mix Germans and Napoleteans in a tight space. I guess Germans earned that right with politness. Then one day I let gipsies in and I almost got fired.

What a sad and pathetic excuse for discrimination based on culture and values. You're not only generalizing you seem to be in denial. Pay a visit to any popular vacation holiday in Spain or Portugal and test for yourself who are the loud, abnocious and ugly Europeans. We are doing our best to avoid any concentration of brits, Germans and Dutch on our holidays for the exact reason. We recently bought a house in Spain…

What a sad and pathetic excuse for discrimination based on culture and values

And

avoid any concentration of brits, Germans and Dutch

Make an interesting juxtaposition. You might want to think about that.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#142

Post by ryuker16 »

dazc wrote: post #61
zabeltech wrote: post #56

I have personally experienced that many hosts do not like to rent to young males. Some even restrict this in their description i.e "only for females". I hope this discrimination ends now

As a male (who is not actually young) I accept a hosts preference not to rent males (young or old). It would save a lot of time if they clearly stated such (some don't for obvious reasons). If they have a lot of reviews it's easy to see but if (as is often the case) they don't then you don't know until they reject your booking. And, even then, it isn't so clear cut.

Usually the reason I reject is to jack up the price...

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#143

Post by gaius »

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 if I don't want rent to some weirdo crust punk?

The actual answer is, it depends entirely on their membership of protected classes - and if they are a member of such a class, then that fact that your discrimination against them was on grounds of weirdness, crustiness, or punkiness, won't protect you from accusations of racism or whatever.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#144

Post by rokhayakebe »

jacquesm wrote: post #47

Airbnb can do whatever they want in property they own/lease. However since they 'share' (funny word that) people's private homes they will have to live with the fact that those people will refuse guests for whatever reasons they feel like, this is the flip side of the coin of not having a relationship where they are in control (employer, employee, owner of the premises). Airbnb wants to have its cake and eat it too,…

Wrong logic. This is the VERY reason we have societies so that we can agree to certain standards (laws). Laws cannot stop anyone from doing anything, they just exist so you understand there are consequences to certain actions. If we follow your logic everything will be left as is and we'll have anarchy.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#145

Post by rokhayakebe »

tjic wrote: post #95
boards2x wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad and pathetic excuse for discrimination based on culture and values. You're not only generalizing you seem to be in denial. Pay a visit to any popular vacation holiday in Spain or Portugal and test for yourself who are the loud, abnocious and ugly Europeans. We are doing our best to avoid any concentration of brits, Germans and Dutch on our holidays for the exact reason. We recently bought a house in Spain…

> What a sad and pathetic excuse for discrimination based on culture and values Discrimination based on skin color seems self evidently bad, but discrimination based on culture and values seems not just not bad, but actively good! Why should i associate with someone who regards theft as okay? Why would i want to hire someone who thinks that disagreements should be solved with yelling or fistfights?

How do you know someone's culture when they are booking a hotel room online?

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#146

Post by rokhayakebe »

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…

You are obviously not being discriminating against where it matters. Here are a few examples that wouldn't be a big deal to you accordingly:

1) School says they won't accept your daughter, but hey it's not a big deal according to you

2) Neighborhood won't let you buy a house you like because they don't like your wife's skin color, but hey it's not a big deal

3) You are getting paid less at work and skipped for promotion in favor of Elmud because he is one of them and you are not, but hey it's not a big deal

Discrimination IS NOT ok. It IS NOT built into us. It is an acquired taste. Bad taste. First we accept the issue then we work on fixing it.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#147

Post by dmurray »

Canada wrote: post #75
Vintila wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Airbnb can do what they want with their property, namely their website and business. If you don't like it then they even outline what you can do in the linked article. This knife cuts both ways.

True, though I think this is a dick move: "If you cancel your account as a guest, any future reservations you have will be refunded according to the hosts' cancellation policy." So, if you don't agree to this demand by AirBnB that wasn't on the table when you agreed to your booking, then you just lose your money. If AirBnB was fair about this then it would let the user off the hook and pay out any cancellation fees/c…

It looks like you can "decline the commitment" but not exercise "the option to cancel your account" according to the language on the announcement. So I think they will let you honour existing bookings without agreeing to the new commitment.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#148

Post by JBReefer »

csallen wrote: post #133
redthrowaway wrote: post #80

It's sad to see the tech community, which used to be very libertarian, move towards a hard-left progressive view of social issues. It wasn't that long ago that Friedman's arguments against equal pay laws[1] would have held sway here. The idea that the market punishes bigotry and so can be relied upon to advance freedom and equality used to be a core belief of the tech community. Now, it seems companies are falling ov…

This is the market punishing bigotry. People are making noise and demanding change, alternative businesses are being created to address these people's needs, and Airbnb is modifying its policies in response.

Ding ding ding! This is what private industry advancing equality looks like - there wasn't a Brown v Board required here.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#149

Post by JBReefer »

empath75 wrote: post #87
redthrowaway wrote: post #80

It's sad to see the tech community, which used to be very libertarian, move towards a hard-left progressive view of social issues. It wasn't that long ago that Friedman's arguments against equal pay laws[1] would have held sway here. The idea that the market punishes bigotry and so can be relied upon to advance freedom and equality used to be a core belief of the tech community. Now, it seems companies are falling ov…

It's sort of surprising how many people on hacker news apparently want the right to be racist.

I want the right to be racist. I'm not a bigot- my girlfriend is Hispanic, I'm from a majority black neighborhood, my parents are gay, etc. But thoughts and words should never be forbidden.

That's basically the whole point of liberalism. You're free to be someone that pisses me off.

Re: General questions about the Airbnb Community Commitment

#150

Post by JBReefer »

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).

The Episcopal Church made my parents get gay married or they'd fire them for having a long term live in significant other and children out of wedlock.

The future is funny. That might be considered discrimination?

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