An nameless reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Airbnb is banning individuals from utilizing its web site due to their mere affiliation with different customers the short-term rental firm has deemed a security threat and faraway from the platform, a call that highlights the imperfect safety protocols that Airbnb employs. In situations the place a consumer is banned due to their affiliation with one other consumer deemed problematic, the consumer can solely return to the platform if their problematic acquaintance efficiently appeals the ban or if they can show they aren’t “intently related.”
In an announcement, Airbnb confirmed to Motherboard that it does generally ban customers as a result of the corporate has found that they “are more likely to journey” with one other one who has already been banned, although a spokesperson would not say when this observe began or how typically it happens. The corporate stated it does this as a “vital security precaution,” and a spokesperson stated referring to such bans as merely a results of affiliation is overly “simplistic.” However the course of seems opaque; simply this month, the corporate apologized and stated it had made a “mistake” in banning the dad and mom of right-wing activist Lauren Southern.
Airbnb has stated that it understands the system is imperfect, and employs an appeals course of for individuals who really feel they’ve been unfairly banned. However the course of is commonly restricted and irritating to banned customers, based on conversations Motherboard has had with banned customers. The bans by affiliation underscore the issue (and maybe impossibility) of preserving harmful events fully out of Airbnb hosts’ properties with out slighting related customers who really feel their very own bans are unjustified.
