Airbnb hires former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to address host discrimination

Short-term rental company Airbnb has hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in an effort to address allegations of racial bias on the platform.

Holder will work with noted civil rights attorney John Relman to help the company put in place an official anti-discrimination policy.

In a blog post, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky addressed the controversy and Holder's new position.

"This is the greatest challenge we face as a company," Chesky wrote. "We will not simply ‘address the issue’ by doing the least required for liability and PR purposes. I want us to be smart and innovative and to create new tools to prevent discrimination and bias that can be shared across the industry.”

Airbnb has recently been the recipient of harsh criticism. Detractors of the company claim that by allowing hosts to pick and choose who they rent their space to, Airbnb has facilitated discrimination against users -- a notion backed up by studies of the company's hosts.

The controversy gave rise to the hashtag #airbnbwhileblack on Twitter, where people proceeded to share their experiences of bias while using Airbnb.

A civil-rights lawsuit was also launched against Airbnb when a black user alleged that his complaints of being discriminated against were ignored by the company. He claims that a host rejected his bid due to his race.

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Chesky acknowledged that the company had not moved quick enough to address the issue.

"This process isn’t close to being over, but we want to be as transparent as possible along the way because I know we’ve failed on that front previously," he wrote.

"After speaking to many of you, I have learned that there have at times been a lack of urgency to work on this, and we need to rectify that immediately," he added.

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