A PHOTO IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: HOSTS UPSET BY THE NEW NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY OF MOVING BEYOND PHOTOS ON AIRBNB

Abstract

In attempting to tackle the alleged digital discriminatory practices, Airbnb has established a series of non-discrimination policies, and the recent one was that guests’ photos will not be disclosed to hosts until they accept the booking requests from prospective guests. This new non-discrimination policy has sparked heated discussion among the hosts. This study sets out to explore the overlooked narratives of Airbnb hosts towards this recent non-discrimination policy. A total of 1,211 posts shared by numerous hosts were collected from the Airbnb community website. These posts were analyzed by undertaking a co-occurrence analysis to identify key concepts and the connections among these key concepts that revolved around the new non-discrimination policy. Nine key concepts, namely, home, safety, stranger, risk, hotel, third-party booking, trust, community, and discriminate, and their connections, were presented in a visual network generated via Gephi to show what concerned the hosts after Airbnb implementing this policy. This study also offers insights into why such a new policy that aimed at fighting against discrimination on Airbnb may put hosts at a disadvantaged position or vulnerable status. It also offers significant practical implications regarding the important roles played by photos on Airbnb.

Keywords

• airbnb
• peer-to-peer accommodation
• profile photos
• digital discrimination
• co-occurrence analysis