The offenses cited as the reason for Ashley's ban.
Airbnb says it understands its system’s flaws. “We know that no background check system is perfect,” the company told Motherboard—and that it tries to continually make the system “as effective and thoughtful as possible.” Airbnb has stated, for example, that disorderly conduct and marijuana possession are two offenses it does not consider worthy of removal, and that the company considers “evidence of rehabilitation” during the appeals process. The company also reviews published research and works with criminal justice experts, academics, and advocates to improve its policy and appeals process, it says.Airbnb does not perform the checks itself. Since 2016, those have been done by a company called Inflection, which claims on its site to complete more than 1 million background checks per month at a speed of less than 0.3 seconds on average. (The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Such speed may be efficient considering Airbnb’s size—the site has 6 million active listings—but it also makes mistakes an inevitability.Do you have a tip for Motherboard to investigate? We want to hear from you. From a non-work device, contact our reporter at maxwell.strachan@vice.com or via Signal at 310-614-3752 for extra security.
“I cannot begin to comprehend why they do not have a way to talk to a live person in real time about why these minor incidents of my past are suddenly about to bankrupt me.”
Over the years, Zac Smith had built up a reputation on Airbnb as a courteous and clean guest. Then without warning, he was permanently banned from the platform.

