Engineering Trust: A Case Study of Airbnb

Airbnb is a peer-to-peer online marketplace that connects property-owners (“hosts”) with short-term renters (“guests”). The company’s founders regarded fears of “stranger danger” as their chief design problem, and they intended for features such as a multiple step-reservation process and profiles that highlighted real names and photos to build trust between hosts and guests. However, user complaints, academic studies, and Airbnb’s internal research have all highlighted ways that these decisions facilitated racial discrimination.

In response, Airbnb has introduced new policies and resources for users, iterated on product features, and allocated more organizational resources to understanding and fighting discrimination on the platform. This case explores the unintended consequences of Airbnb’s early design decisions, considers why those problems arose, and analyzes the effectiveness of Airbnb’s attempts to address them.

Create an Account to Download

Image Credit: Illustration of Airbnb guest profile by Yen Azzaro, 2026.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, students will be able to:

• Describe how broader societal biases can be reproduced within technologies and services if not explicitly countered
• Identify factors that contributed to design decisions at Airbnb that facilitated racial discrimination by the platform’s users
• Evaluate Airbnb’s response to evidence for discrimination and assess the degree to which its strategies addressed the underlying causes 

Key Themes

• User Interface Design
• User Experience Design
• Socially Engaged Design Process
• Trust & Safety
• Problem Definition

What Do You Get?

Facilitated Learning Package

For instructors teaching the material in an 80 minute session.

• Instructor Orientation Guide
• Lesson Plan for 80-minute Class Session
• Student Pre-Work 
• Slide Deck with Facilitation Notes and Supplemental Annotations
• Small Group Handouts
• Student Worksheet
• Assessment Questions
• Independent Learning Version of Case Text
• Supplemental Reading for Instructors
• References

Independent Learning Package

For learners to complete asynchronously.

• Instructor Orientation Guide
• Independent Learning Version of Case Text, with embedded Student Analysis Activities to Complete Independently
• Supplemental Reading for Instructors
• Assessment Questions
• References