REDLIKING: WHEN REDLINING GOES ONLINE

Airbnb's structure, design, and algorithm create a website architecture that allows user discrimination to prevent minority hosts from realizing the same economic benefits from short-term rental platforms as White hosts, a phenomenon this Article refers to as "redliking." For hosts with an unused home, a spare room, or an extra couch, Airbnb provides an opportunity to create new income streams and increase wealth. Airbnb encourages prospective guests to view host photographs, names, and personal information when considering potential accommodations, thereby inviting bias, both implicit and overt, to permeate transactions. This bias has financial consequences. Empirical research on host earning rates found that White hosts earn significantly more than minorities, even when controlling for location, size, and amenities. Airbnb's algorithm augments the effects and propensity of individual user bias, creating a system wherein allegedly race-neutral variables serve as proxies for discrimination. Contemporary redliking perpetuates historic inequality related to housing wealth. In the early twentieth century, redlining maps were used to justify withholding investments from Black communities. Today, redliking continues the practice of directing wealth to White communities, reinforces systemic real property barriers by depriving minority hosts of important revenue streams, and exacerbates the racial wealth gap.