Under a new agreement with the California Department of Fair Employment, online marketplace and hospitality service Airbnb has vowed to continue efforts in fighting discrimination, including training its employees, hosts and guests to identify and combat bias and discrimination.
The announcement comes months after Korean American Dyne Suh accused an Airbnb host of canceling her cabin reservation three minutes before her arrival because of her race. After Airbnb found out about the incident, which occurred during this year’s President’s Day weekend in Big Bear, California, the service permanently removed the host from its platform.
“Fighting discrimination is fundamental to our mission and we are committed to creating a community that is open to everyone,” Airbnb General Counsel Rob Chesnut said in a statement. “Our work with the state of California builds on our ongoing efforts to fight bias and we look forward to continuing to work with state leaders to ensure the Airbnb community is fair for everyone.”
Airbnb said it has been working with the department for more than 10 months and that the agreement builds off of a 2016 review of Airbnb’s work to fight discrimination. A list of Airbnb’s vows can be seen below:
-Airbnb will continue its ongoing efforts to publicize its nondiscrimination policy, including preserving its pre-existing requirement that all users agree to the Airbnb Community Commitment, which requires users to certify that they will not discriminate against anyone when using the Airbnb platform.
-Airbnb will continue its pre-existing efforts to train its employees, hosts and guests to identify and combat bias and discrimination.
–Airbnb will continue to expand its efforts to make it easy for users to file discrimination complaints, and offer additional information for users who seek to file complaints with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
