Airbnb hosts more likely to reject guests with disabilities
A new study says Airbnb hosts are more likely to reject prospective guests who have disclosed a disability.
Rutgers University spent six months looking at 4,000 booking requests in 48 states and found booking requests by disabled customers were up to 40% more likely to be rejected.
It looked at rates of pre-approval compared to able bodied guests.
Three-quarters were pre-approved when not disclosing any disability.
Disabilities were grouped into four areas for the study – spinal cord injuries, which were approved only 25% of the time, cerebral palsy, dwarfism and blindness.
Guests suffering from dwarfism were approved 61% of the time, while half of blind travellers were approved.
The Rutgers study looked at the reasons behind the numbers and found many hosts were upfront about its accessibility limitations and happy to work to accommodate travelers with disabilities, while some were clearly violating Airbnb policy.
It also found some hosts tacked on extra charges such as an extra cleaning fee for guests with guide dogs.
"What the sharing economy is doing is practically undoing all the progress … where public accommodations are not necessarily accessible to people with disabilities who have a right to these spaces," said Mason Ameri, lead author of the study.
Last year Airbnb released a new anti-discrimination policy and CEO Brian Chesky called the issue of discrimination in its various forms ‘the greatest challenge we face as a company.’
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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