Cape Town Airbnb hosts accused of denying guests based on race

Yet again, Cape Town has been thrust into a racism row.

By / / Cape Town Buzz / 3 minutes of reading
Cape Town airbnb hosts

Twitter has been abuzz with accusations levelled against Cape Town Airbnb hosts who allegedly accept accommodation requests based on race.

Cape Town Airbnb hosts accused of being racist

Two prominent social media users sparked the debate this past weekend when, on two separate incidents, their application for a short-stay in Cape Town was rejected on the accommodation marketplace.

One user, Bongani Bingwa, a popular radio host and presenter of Carte Blanche, sent shockwaves across the social media platform when he tweeted that “racism is alive and thriving on Airbnb.”

This viral tweet was followed by an endorsement from another user who specifically accused Cape Town Airbnb hosts of rejecting his application for accommodation based on race.

The accommodation platform responded to the complaint, making it clear that “Airbnb does not condone discrimination in any way.”

Does Airbnb protect South Africans from racist hosts?

The heated discussion has divided opinion on the stance Airbnb ought to take against hosts who seemingly reject accommodation requests without providing a good-enough reason.

The online accommodation marketplace’s nondiscrimination policy prohibits hosts from discriminating on the grounds of race, colour, ethnicity sexual orientation, religion and gender identity. However, these policies are explicitly enforced in the United States, European Union and Canada.

Outside of these regions, the policy only encourages accommodation owners to not “accept guests that could expose the hosts to a real and demonstrable risk of arrest, or physical harm to their persons or property.”

The section of the policy that applies to South Africa further reads:

“Hosts who live in such areas should set out any such restriction on their ability to host particular guests in their listing, so that prospective guests are aware of the issue and Airbnb can confirm the necessity for such an action. In communicating any such restrictions, we expect hosts to use clear, factual, non-derogatory terms. Slurs and insults have no place on our platform or in our community.”

There is a clear disparity in how Airbnb deals with hosts from different regions of the world. In the US, EU and Canada, hosts are strictly prohibited from declining requests based on race. The policy goes as far as discouraging US, EU and Canadian hosts from making “statement that discourages or indicates a preference for or against any guest on account of race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.”

The consequence of flouting the policy? Well, hosts may be suspended from the platform. However, quite interestingly, hosts from regions outside of the US, EU and Canada, who, for example, indicate preference for guests based on race “will be asked to remove the language and affirm his or her understanding and intent to comply with this policy and its underlying principles.”

“If the host improperly rejects guests on the basis of protected class, or uses language demonstrating that his or her actions were motivated by factors prohibited by this policy, Airbnb will take steps to enforce this policy, up to and including suspending the host from the platform,” the policy reads.

Airbnb was not available to respond to our questions on the disparities of the nondiscrimination policy at the time this article was published.