Airbnb's Quest to Tackle Racial Discrimination

12/18/2024

Airbnb, which has been developing an internal program to reduce racial discrimination on its platform, announced the results. In 2020, Airbnb launched an internal research tool, dubbed Project Lighthouse, that sought to measure the difference in the way users of different perceived races experience Airbnb’s platform. Airbnb announced that thanks to the initiative, not only has the difference between Black and White guests’ booking success rate been halved, but the rate has risen for users of all races. Users who are perceived to be Black by hosts now have an almost 95% success rate when they try to book an Airbnb, higher than the 2021 success rate for those perceived to be White.

Bloomberg (12/12/24) Claire Suddath