I'm confused by the responses in here so far. How does discriminating based on race, gender, age, etc guarantee that your property will not be damaged?
If you want the access and business that using AirBnb's platform provides then you need to adhere to their rules. Pretty simple. If that's a problem use craigslist or some other service so you can use whatever prejudices you have to screen guests.
I would be very surprised if the probability of a guest damaging your property is not a function of gender, age, and economic class. There is a reason car insurance costs for young male drivers with bad credit are higher.
> How does discriminating based on race, gender, age, etc guarantee that your property will not be damaged?
It doesn't but depending on where you are on the political spectrum it's either called "trust" or "prejudice". That's how people assess personal risk. While a legal hotel has proper insurance, do you really think that's the case for most airbnb rentals? furthermore an hotel manager doesn't have to sleep in the same room/appartement as his guest.
> If you want the access and business that using AirBnb's platform provides then you need to adhere to their rules. Pretty simple
The real question is whether these rules are seriously enforced or not. I bet they aren't, because most hosts are biased, like everybody else and airbnb business strategy is based on shifting risk upon hosts (and guests). If it wasn't the case it would only list legal hotels.
AirBnB places are not hotels. In the end as an Owner you should be free to select whoever you accept, just like you are free to decorate your place the way you wish. It's down to personal preference because it's the Owner's place in the end.
> In the end as an Owner you should be free to select whoever you accept
You generally aren't legally in the US, with very narrow exceptions, especially if you have a commercial service involved with you in arranging the rental. AirBnB doesn't make the laws, but they are bound by them, and are visible enough that simply ignoring them may no longer be tenable.
"Often" is a stretch. I've never seen anything I would classify as a hotel in the US. I have seen them in other countries, e.g. SE Asia, and those were completely legal.
