Black Airbnb users have found it harder to book stays than white users, company research shows

• Black Airbnb users have found it harder to book stays than white users, company research suggests.
• The study found that Black users had a success rate of 91.4% compared with 94.1% for white users.

Black Airbnb users have found it harder to book stays than white users, anti-discrimination research suggests.

As part of its mission to fight discrimination and make the company more open and inclusive, Airbnb released its findings on Wednesday.

The findings revealed that guests who made bookings in 2021 and were perceived to be Black had a 91.4% acceptance rate while those perceived to be white had a 94.1% acceptance rate.

The research was the result of an initiative undertaken in 2020 in partnership with Color of Change, the online racial justice organization.

Project Lighthouse, led by former civil liberties union attorney Laura Murphy, found a discrepancy in how guests who are perceived to be Black are approved for short-term bookings on its platform, compared with their white counterparts.

Discrimination against Black people using the platform has made headlines on many occasions.

Earlier this year, the company said it would only show the guests' initials until their bookings are confirmed. The change was made in Oregon, following a 2019 settlement in which three Black women sued, saying hosts could discriminate, including by denying guests bookings, based on race.

In 2015, a 23-year-old business consultant living in Chicago, who is African-American, started the hashtag #AirBnBWhileBlack after noting how often she was declined by hosts when seeking a place to rent. After Quirtina Crittenden created the hashtag, she started hearing about other similar experiences.

And this year, on October 2, a Black Airbnb guest was shot dead as he walked to a grocery store, according to officials, per NBC News. Prosecutors called it an "unprovoked attack" and authorities are investigating potential hate crime allegations.

In 2016, Airbnb undertook a civil rights audit of the platform, in which Murphy took the lead. The 32-page report detailed changes the company asked members to abide by to root out racial discrimination.

For its research project, Airbnb sampled 750,000 random reservation requests. The study determined the perceived race of guests by using a first name and profile photo.

The findings also revealed that guests perceived to be Asian and Latino, or Hispanic, had success rates of 93.4%.

Following the report, Airbnb said it removed nearly 4,000 accounts worldwide in 2022 for violating its nondiscrimination policy, as reported by Insider's Sarah Jackson.

A spokesperson for Airbnb told Insider that the report, which includes the first data of its kind, will help the company "uncover and address disparities in how people of color experience our platform. It also includes an update on our policies to address US-based properties associated with slavery."