--- title: Airbnb Competitors Launch to Serve Black Travelers description: After complaints of racism on the home-letting service authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2016-06-07T14:12:53.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:11:10.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - african american - Airbnb - Black - pubdesk - Race - Racism - Travel word_count: 285 canonical: https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Airbnb Said to Be Raising Funding At $10 Billion Valuation](https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-479904027.jpg) *The Airbnb application and website are displayed on an iPhone and iPad.* Two tech startups with nearly identical names are [launching](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/06/06/noirbnb-noirebnb-compete-airbnb-african-americans/85531202/) to offer Airbnb-like home-renting services for African Americans, following complaints of racism on the service. Airbnb has come under fire recently amid widespread complaints of hosts refusing to rent to black users, who are logging such experiences under the hashtag #[Airbnbwhileblack](https://twitter.com/hashtag/airbnbwhileblack?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Ehashtag). A Harvard Business School [study](https://money.com/airbnb-racism-racist-harvard/) published late last year found that hosts were 16% more likely to accept a reservation request from users with white-sounding names than users with African American-sounding names. Stepping in to fill that need are the new services Noirbnb and Noirebnb, both distinct companies with nearly identical names launching to serve the same need—to create a lodging provider that does a better job of serving black travelers. Tech entrepreneur Rohan Gilkes, who lives in Tampa and Washington, D.C., started working on Noirebnb less than three weeks ago, after an Idaho host declined his reservation request and then accepted one from a white friend of his for the same dates, an experience he described in a post published on Medium. “I felt a responsibility to do something,” Gilkes told [USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/06/06/noirbnb-noirebnb-compete-airbnb-african-americans/85531202/). Noirbnb is being launched by entrepreneurs Ronnie Cherry and Stefan Grant. Last fall the pair was renting a house in Atlanta when neighbors confused them for robbers and police arrived with guns drawn. They ended up taking a selfie with the police, which Airbnb spotted and offered to provide free bookings to the two of them as recompense. Airbnb flew the two from their home in Washington, D.C. to San Francisco to hear their story. “We told them it would happen again,” Grant said. “I am not sure if they thought we were joking or if they didn’t take us seriously.” ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Travel", "item": "https://money.com/travel/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Airbnb Competitors Launch to Serve Black Travelers" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/", "name": "Airbnb Competitors Launch to Serve Black Travelers", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-07T14:12:53.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:11:10.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Airbnb Competitors Launch to Serve Black Travelers", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-479904027.jpg", "width": 4000, "height": 2667, "caption": "Airbnb Said to Be Raising Funding At $10 Billion Valuation" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-07T14:12:53.000Z", "description": "After complaints of racism on the home-letting service", "abstract": "After complaints of racism on the home-letting service", "@id": "https://money.com/airbnb-competitors-noirebnb-noirbnb/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:11:10.000Z", "wordCount": 285, "keywords": [ "african american", "Airbnb", "Black", "pubdesk", "Race", "Racism", "Travel" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Travel", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel" ] } ] } ] } ```