Stung by criticism over alleged discriminatory practices by hosts, home sharing platform Airbnb has updated its terms of service.
An updated non-discrimination policy now specifically states Airbnb hosts cannot decline a stay request based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Hosts will be given reminders of the rule during the booking process.
"Discrimination has no place in the Airbnb community. We have launched an aggressive effort to ensure our platform is fair for everyone and we will continue to work as hard as we know how to fight bias," said spokesman Nick Papas.
"We won’t do the bare minimum to address this issue. We have seen how Airbnb can bring people together and our goal is to connect more people from different countries, communities, and cultures"
To ensure fairness, Airbnb will block off dates on hosts’ availability when a prospective guest is declined for any reason.
The only exceptions are for shared homes when a host can stipulate same-gender guests only and decline disabled guests if there are accessibility issues.
An African-American man had attempted to sue Airbnb for racial discrimination in housing but it was this week blocked by a judge after the site’s terms of service say all hosts and guests are required to seek arbitration through its online mediation service and cannot bring legal action against the company.
