Woman sues Airbnb alleging racial discrimination in booking denial

A woman has sued Airbnb and an Atlanta-area host after allegedly being denied a rental booking when the host learned she was black, The Independent has reported.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Georgia last week, the outlet said on Wednesday. Plaintiff Sharona Stewart alleges that Airbnb host George Yu Shihfang and unnamed property managers discriminated against her during the booking process and that the service had failed to act after she reported the incident.

According to the complaint, Stewart exchanged what were described as “cordial” messages with Shihfang after requesting to rent the six-bedroom property. The lawsuit says that after the host asked “racially based questions” and determined Stewart was a black woman, he stopped responding to her inquiries and the reservation request was ultimately rejected.

Stewart later reviewed the listing and found language describing the area as a “peaceful white neighborhood” under the property’s neighborhood highlights section. According to the lawsuit, she reported the wording and the rejected booking to Airbnb but the company closed her complaint and allowed the advertisement to remain on the platform.

“We have to call it out when we see it” Stewart’s attorney Bataski Bailey told The Independent. Bailey said the case was intended to challenge what he described as racial discrimination on the platform.

Stewart's complaint argues that Airbnb had failed to stop discriminatory conduct on its platform and allowed minority applicants to face unequal treatment.

Questions about racial discrimination on Airbnb have surfaced repeatedly over the past decade. A 2015 Harvard Business School study found that guests with African-American-sounding names were nearly 10% more likely to have booking requests rejected than otherwise identical guests, findings that contributed to calls for stronger safeguards.