Lodging booking company Airbnb removed a number of listings from its platform after it became apparent that the properties had been used in the past to house slaves.
Earlier this year, a TikTok personality called out Airbnb, pointing out that a cabin at the Belmont Plantation in Greenville, Mississippi, previously listed on the platform as a bed and breakfast room, was actually a slave cabin back in the 1830s.
Following this revelation, the company pulled down around 30 listings, which included properties in the United States where slaves used to live or work when slavery was still legal in the country.
Also, the results of an audit of the company’s “work to fight discrimination and build inclusion”, which were released this month, showed that over 2.5 million people “have been denied access to, or removed from the Airbnb platform” since 2016 due their refusal to agree to Airbnb's Community Commitment and Nondiscrimination Policy.
The audit, however, also shows that “guests perceived to be white” enjoy a higher booking success rate on the platform than guests from “other perceived racial groups”, with the booking success being defined in the document as “the rate at which guests from different perceived racial groups in the US successfully book an Airbnb listing.”