Airbnb will hide guests’ names to fight discrimination (but only in Oregon) (opens in new tab)

Sad but needed - it was not so long ago my wife had to resort to changing her picture to a blond caucasian women in order to book stays on Airbnb. If she used her actual picture the properties would suddenly be unavailable or had just been booked by someone else. She would always put her picture back after she booked and more then one jaw dropped when a non-blonde non-caucasian showed up - “how did I miss that?” But otherwise polite.

Airbnb proper seems to have a much different attitude and not afraid to challenge their hosts.

She would have the same problem renting apartments - in one case she walked into the rental office just two minutes after hanging up the phone and suddenly they had no units available and the rental agents were all at lunch and not expected to return until the next day.

Airbnb users can pick whatever profile name they want, even if it doesn't match their photo ID.

> Your legal name: This is what appears on a government ID or official document. It could be different than your Airbnb profile name. What you enter as your legal name won’t change your profile name.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2379/why-am-i-being-aske...

Guests, even those outside of Oregon, can change their profile name if they believe it is causing them to be discriminated against.

I think Vrbo also allows the same.

Hiding the name by default does protect people who aren't aware of this option. Hosts don't really benefit from seeing the guest's profile name when it doesn't need to be a real name.