No Bigots Need Book An Airbnb Room

How does the other person prove to Airbnb that you called them x?

What's to stop someone smashing your house up now and claiming that you were trying to imprison them? If the answer is "they'd need evidence for that claim" then there's your answer to your question above. If you've successfully hosted guests before and received good reviews, why would Airbnb think that you turned into Hitler overnight?
 
Fubsy said:
What's to stop someone taking the ****, wrecking a place, then pressuring a host to keep quiet by saying "You say anything to Airbnb and I'll tell them that you called me X and you are a bigot" ?
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Really coming up with some convoluted logic now.

What's to stop someone wrecking the place and then threatening them with far worse things? Accusations of physical or sexual assault to the Airbnb? That would have a bit more weight than some verbal abuse.

Harassment etc. was always dealt with by Airbnb previously (although there are examples where they have been crap). These T&C changes isn't to cover that. It is to prevent illegal prejudice in the selection of customers.
 
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Tosno said:
If an Airbnb host only wants to make her property open to women, or LGBTs ect, or Muslims, or any other designation, Airbnb should grant them that right out of respect to their sovereignty over their home.
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Yea, but your opinion is wrong.

The airbnb host loses 100% of private sovereignty over their home when they open it up for business transactions to the general public.

Then they have to conform to the legal business framework, which covers illegal discrimination.

So either don't put your home up for rental and be as bigoted as you like, privately, or run a business and follow the rules
 
muon said:
Really coming up with some convoluted logic now.
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I thought it would have been clear I was playing devils advocate.

I know that people are starting to wake up to the advent of social media and how much damage it can cause if things go viral. How many times have we seen crappy Trip Advisor reviews and their responses go through this public process?
 
So they're just saying you can't discriminate. There's nothing in there about letting people disrespect your home etc.

So if you want to exploit the user base of airbnb you have to play by their rules, or you can find another way of finding clients.

Seems fair to me.
 
diamount said:
Your abode becomes a bnb once you accept lodgers for payment. Doesn't matter if you do it on the sly like a lot of airbnb hosts are doing, and when you take payment when offering a service you are bound by the Equality Act 2010, more specefically Part 3 of Services and Public Functions. So yes - this is not a private ruling, you can get into serious trouble if you refuse service that constitues discrimination but knowing racists they would be far too cowardly to say that and rather say it's booked/whatever falsehood they feel like coming up with.
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Just out of interest what are your thoughts on the prostitute example/dilema.

Is a female sex worker supposed to service women if she provides services to men (sexual discrimination)?

Is she required by law to service people over 50 even if she doesn't want to?

Is she required by law to sleep with black guys even if she specifically states she doesn't want to see them?

Seems like there could be an interesting clash between consent and discrimination there.

Obviously not the same as choosing what sort of people come into your home but rather an even more personal issue - still one that involves providing a (very personal) service to the general public.

I think the more 'personal' the service gets the more likely you are going to find people quite blatantly discriminating.

Someone booking into a chain of hotels is much less likely to face discrimination than someone booking into a small independent hotel... which is less likely than a small BnB which again is less likely than an AirBnb renting space in their own home (much more personal).... and then at the bottom of the pile you've got say spending an hour with a lady of negotiable affection - about as personal as you can get in terms of a business providing a service.

I'm not condoning airbnb users who are blatantly racist etc.. or those who are inevitably making minor prejudicial judgements but I can see why it is more likely to occur on such a service. I've only booked whole apartments through the service but if I was to book a spare room and certainly if I was to book a sofa then I'd probably make hosts in their 20s-30s a priority over retirees and couples a priority over some random single bloke. I probably would be making judgements like 'do they look a bit weird?' in their photo.
 
Caged said:
I would imagine that Airbnb are doing it to protect themselves in the event of a host sueing them due to a guest making them feel uncomfortable on the basis of their beliefs. They have terms and conditions they can point to and say "see, we tried".
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exactly, if they really wanted to crack down they could make it so you could only screen based on the below:

muon said:
Here's some advice.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/13/how-do-reviews-work

Screening based on this might be more useful than what they look like.
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I wonder if it might be best to go a level deeper take into account the ratings/comments the rater themselves got...

i.e. if someone is running a cheap **** hole and doesn't care about some messy guest... both give each other good ratings. However other guests will rate that host badly... ergo a badly rated host who rates someone highly isn't really as valuable as a well rated host who has rated your prospective guest highly
 
Freakbro said:
Yea, but your opinion is wrong.

The airbnb host loses 100% of private sovereignty over their home when they open it up for business transactions to the general public.

Then they have to conform to the legal business framework, which covers illegal discrimination.

So either don't put your home up for rental and be as bigoted as you like, privately, or run a business and follow the rules
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Narrow Western Centric views aside

The legal business framework being the law of the land, not a private business doing sudden *global* SJW stances, blackmailing saying it is our way or the highway and we take all your money as well, when the current system works very well. If they are so worried for example Orthodox Jews are refusing homosexual couples, they can contact the local police about illegal discrimination instead. And yes, many are shutting up shop on Airbnb so they can be as 'bigoted' as they like.
 
Begbie said:
You can reject any customer though right? On different circumstances? [..]
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The terms as given clearly state that you can't reject any customer on any basis. Not even if, for example, they are a self-confessed serial killer who has rope, gags and knives delivered to your house before they arrive. The new rules state that you are not allowed to judge. They don't say you're not allowed to judge on specified criteria. They say you're not allowed to use judgement at all.
 
Angilion said:
The terms as given clearly state that you can't reject any customer on any basis. Not even if, for example, they are a self-confessed serial killer who has rope, gags and knives delivered to your house before they arrive. The new rules state that you are not allowed to judge. They don't say you're not allowed to judge on specified criteria. They say you're not allowed to use judgement at all.
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IF that's the case, it's utterly ridiculous. PC so far gone off the insanity charts it's almost actually hilarious if it's not true, and even if it is true. Don't use ANY judgement at all, just open your arms and home and accept anybody.

Probably a good time for someone to set up a competing business, run by mature and intelligent people not completely consumed by the SJW/social media culture.
 
tom_e said:
It's defined as a psychological disorder not a sexual orientation.
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Yes, for the moment.

So was being gay not too long ago. Now we have little easily-offended types running around practically willing to go to fisticuffs to protect the 'rights' of gay people.

Give it a few years. You never know what cause these types will champion next.
 
regulus said:
IF that's the case, it's utterly ridiculous. PC so far gone off the insanity charts it's almost actually hilarious if it's not true, and even if it is true. Don't use ANY judgement at all, just open your arms and home and accept anybody.[..]
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That's exactly what the command states. Maybe that's not what they meant, but it is what they wrote.

As far as I can tell, "don't judge" actually means "irrational prejudice and discrimination is fine if it's against biological groups we're prejudiced against" and "if you're in what we consider to be a wrong biological group you're wrong by default". I've not seen the phrase used with any other meaning, although I have seen it used without any meaning at all. It's never, ever, used to mean "don't judge". I doubt if it's possible for a conscious human to not judge. Even a bona fide sociopath who is utterly devoid of empathy and completely amoral must make some judgements.
 
Angilion said:
The terms as given clearly state that you can't reject any customer on any basis. Not even if, for example, they are a self-confessed serial killer who has rope, gags and knives delivered to your house before they arrive. The new rules state that you are not allowed to judge. They don't say you're not allowed to judge on specified criteria. They say you're not allowed to use judgement at all.
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regulus said:
IF that's the case, it's utterly ridiculous. PC so far gone off the insanity charts it's almost actually hilarious if it's not true, and even if it is true. Don't use ANY judgement at all, just open your arms and home and accept anybody.

Probably a good time for someone to set up a competing business, run by mature and intelligent people not completely consumed by the SJW/social media culture.
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More hyperbole.

It doesn't state you must accept convicts or people with a criminal past.

And don't give me the 'being gay was criminal until the 60's' rubbish.
 
Angilion said:
The terms as given clearly state that you can't reject any customer on any basis. Not even if, for example, they are a self-confessed serial killer who has rope, gags and knives delivered to your house before they arrive. The new rules state that you are not allowed to judge. They don't say you're not allowed to judge on specified criteria. They say you're not allowed to use judgement at all.
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That's not what the rules say, at least not the ones posted by the OP. :confused:
 
Werewolf said:
No, if you're taking payment for having someone stay you're required to follow the same basic rules (some would say of decency and courtesy) that any business would have to follow.

It shouldn't do, but it still surprises me how many people don't seem to realise that once you start to take payment for providing goods and services to stranger that you suddenly start to have to abide by the laws and obligations that come with that.

If you don't want to abide by those laws you don't offer to provide the services that require you to.
As Aleksandr would say "Simples"
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Of course, those that feel the laws regarding sales of goods and services force them to deal with those they might not wish to have a converse in that so far no law enforces them to buy goods or services from those they prefer not to deal with.... Elementary young man ;)
 
Whilst I'm all for equality and treating people without prejudice/discrimination, I think in a situation like this, applying it by "force" is inappropriate.

If I'm booking a room/apartment/etc. and the host doesn't like me because of my sexual orientation/skin colour/religion, i'd rather find out in advance and book somewhere else than have my holiday ruined because I'm staying with someone who hates me but is forced to pretend they don't.
 
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