• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechBrainstorm Tech

Fixing Airbnb’s Discrimination Problem Is Harder Than It Seems

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 12, 2016, 10:18 PM ET

Airbnb is finding out that fixing discrimination is a really long and difficult road.

The home-sharing company has come under fire in the last few weeks over the racism and discrimination against some of its customers while they used the service. Even a hashtag—#AirbnbWhileBlack—emerged on social media amid the flood of conversations about the topic.

Of course, Airbnb quickly denounced racism in public statements and apologies. During its annual engineering conference in San Francisco, co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky declared that the company had started a 90-day review of its entire service and that, “We have zero tolerance for any discrimination.”

Now, more than a month later, the company doesn’t seem to have any new answers. Chesky and Airbnb chief of business and legal affairs, Belinda Johnson, took the stage at Fortune‘s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colo. on Tuesday and offered much of the same statements: That Airbnb has no tolerance for discrimination, that it’s reviewing its design, and is focused on making its company as diverse as possible.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

In fairness, Airbnb’s challenge is incredibly difficult. Its service asks people to open their home to strangers and to trust that it’s going to be okay. And it will never be able to eradicate the discrimination that exists in our society.

But Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girls Code, an non-profit that organizes a variety of programs to teach coding to girls of color, thinks there’s more it can do.

“I wonder, do you not recognize that some of the issues in the design of the product, as is, is being driven by the fact that it’s not inclusive design,” she told the executives during a question and answer period after the panel. “Perhaps [it’s] because there’s only 2% black people that work at Airbnb, there’s only 3% of Hispanics that are part of the Airbnb community and if we go down further into the tech ranks it’s like 1%.” (Check out Airbnb’s workforce diversity report here.)

She continued: “So while I appreciate the redesign efforts, I really would challenge you to look at what are the employee makeups at your companies and how can you do more to hire engineers, to hire designers that would be able to look at your product from this lens.”

Airbnb, which recently hired its first diversity chief after a half-year-long search, agrees. “There’s no question this is a problem in tech, this is a problem at Airbnb,” Chesky conceded.

The company is still at the beginning of its efforts to fix all this, so whether it succeeds remains to be seen. But it’s undoubtedly turning out to be a complicated and multi-layered challenge.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Sergey Brin
SuccessEducation
Google’s Sergey Brin admits he’s hiring ‘tons’ of workers without degrees: ‘They just figure things out on their own in some weird corner’
By Preston ForeJanuary 12, 2026
17 hours ago
Photo of Jeff Bezos
SuccessJeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos tells Gen Z entrepreneurs to gain work experience before launching new companies: ‘I started Amazon when I was 30’
By Sydney LakeJanuary 12, 2026
20 hours ago
paramount
CommentaryM&A
A cautionary Hollywood tale: the Ellisons’ lose-lose Paramount positioning
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen HenriquesJanuary 12, 2026
21 hours ago
CryptoCryptocurrency
How a Harvard grad helped make Hyperliquid the biggest new player in crypto—with just 11 people and no venture funding
By Ben Weiss and Leo SchwartzJanuary 12, 2026
22 hours ago
EuropeEurope's Most Innovative Companies
Help Fortune find Europe’s Most Innovative Companies 2026
By Fortune EditorsJanuary 12, 2026
22 hours ago
NewslettersTerm Sheet
World Liberty Financial’s bid for a U.S. bank charter raises new questions about Trump’s crypto conflicts
By Leo SchwartzJanuary 12, 2026
22 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
Treasury spent $276 billion in interest on the national debt in the final three months of 2025, says the CBO—up $30 billion from a year prior
By Eleanor PringleJanuary 12, 2026
22 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
‘Sell America’: Investors dump U.S. assets in fear of the end of Fed independence
By Jim EdwardsJanuary 12, 2026
23 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
An exec at $62 billion giant Colgate says Gen Z workers, despite getting flak for being woke and lazy, are actually ‘pushing us to get better’
By Emma BurleighJanuary 10, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
AI
This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he'd do it again
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 11, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
A Supreme Court ruling that strikes down Trump's tariffs would be the fastest way to revive the stalling job market, top economist says
By Jason MaJanuary 11, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Commentary
I run one of America's most successful remote work programs and the critics are right. Their solutions are all wrong, though
By Justin HarlanJanuary 11, 2026
2 days ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.