Airbnb's host tends to refuse accommodation requests from people with disabilities compared to those from those without obstacles

ByJohn Smith

Rutgers UniversityResearch team showed that Airbnb's hosts tend to decline accommodation lists from "people with disabilities" in comparison with accommodation requests from "people without obstacles".

NO ROOM AT THE INN? DISABILITY ACCESS IN THE NEW SHARING ECONOMY
(PDF file)http://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/smlr.rutgers.edu/files/documents/PressReleases/disability_access_in_sharing_economy.pdf


Airbnb hosts more likely to reject guests with disabilities, study finds | Technology | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/02/airbnb-hosts-disabled-guests-rejected-study

The research team created profiles of five fictitious men "blind", "cerebral pediatric paralysis" "dwarfism" "spinal cord injury" "no obstacle", and from June to November 2016, 3847 hosts on Airbnb We sent an accommodation request to the hotel, and investigated the correspondence.

As a result, we found a tendency to refuse the accommodation request from people with these disabilities compared to the accommodation request from people without obstacles.

For Airbnb, hosts who received an inquiry to stay stay are recommended to correspond within 24 hours, and "Preapproved"If you want to respond on a case-by-case basis by guests, you can choose four responses:" Respond to inquiries "," Accommodation denial "," Reject inquiries ". In the case of pre-approval, the guest's reservation for that day will be confirmed on the spot.

According to the survey, while the percentage of "pre-approval" for accommodation requests from people without disabilities was 75%, 61% for dwarfism, 50% for blindness, 43% for cerebral palsy paralysis, , It is said that it is 25% if it is spinal cord injury.

The graph divides into 3 groups what reactions to the inquiries were. In the case that the group on the left is "pre-approved", the group in the middle is "there was no prior approval, but there was a reply to the inquiry", the group on the right is "no refusal to inquiries or reply to inquiries" Case. Inside the group shows "no obstacles", "blindness", "cerebral palsy paralysis", "dwarfism", "spinal cord injury" from the left, and correspondence to "no obstacle" and "dwarfism" is a similar trend , While the case of being rejected or ignored as "spinal cord injury" is conspicuous.


On Airbnb on September 8, 2016, we have agreed to give the host "Do not discriminate", but no significant change in the pre-approval ratio before and after this policy was announced It is said that.

The research team says that people with disabilities do not have the environment to access the Internet in the first place, even if they can access it, accessibility is low and services can not be used often, and "new social exclusion I am worried about what happens.

Although it is not for persons with disabilities, in April 2017, student Dain Su who tried to use Airbnb on a ski trip, despite being able to make a reservation in advance, became "Asian That's why we are canceling our accommodation from the host because of that. This host is permanently banished from Airbnb.

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