I heard the tenor saxophone before Cynthia Mackey opened her door.

She always has jazz or classical music playing on the stereo. She likes the soothing background sounds — and her guests do, too.

Mackey is an Airbnb host. This month, Airbnb released a report showing that 62 percent of hosts in Oakland are women who earn an average of $5,510 per year.

I thought I’d check on one.

Mackey, 56, has been hosting for four years. She rents an upstairs bedroom in the craftsman house she owns with her brother near Lake Merritt. Guests who pay $70 to $75 per night to stay with Mackey get more than a large room with a bed, couch and a walk-in closet that has been converted into an office.

They get an Oakland tour guide.

“I interact with people. I like that part,” Mackey said as we sat at her dining-room table. “It gives you the opportunity to make an income, but it engages you. You interact as much as you care to.”

Mackey represents the brightest side of Airbnb. She is friendly and unbuttoned. We talked about our families. Most of hers arrived in California from Mississippi and Louisiana, part of the black migration west in search of jobs unavailable in the segregated South.

But the debate over whether Airbnb exacerbates the housing crisis — with hosts listing nonoccupied condos and apartments all year — is making the rounds in the East Bay.

In January, Oakland began the process of regulating Airbnb and other short-term rental sites amid concerns the rentals siphon supply from an already scarce housing stock. The Oakland City Council is considering rules that could include taxes and permits on short-term rentals, as well as a monitoring and enforcement system that limits the number of nights a home can be rented. The council could pass the rules by the end of the year.

In San Francisco, ground zero for Airbnb regulatory skirmishes, the law allows hosts to rent a room in their house or apartment for an unlimited number of days, or entire homes for up to 90 days a year.

Airbnb says it has been collecting hotel taxes in Oakland since 2015 and has paid more than $2.5 million to the city. But Airbnb has to be even more up front with its data. If it can champion female hosts in Oakland, it can also be more vigilant rooting out hosts who want to game the system, thus depriving renters access to much-needed space.

Because hosts like Mackey, who are willing to play by the rules, shouldn’t be deprived of showing people around Oakland year-round.

Mackey was born in Los Angeles, but she was raised in Oakland. Her father owned a pet grooming salon on Park Street in Alameda. She and her brother saved for seven years before purchasing their three-bedroom house in the Adams Point neighborhood 18 years ago.

“No matter who went first — that’s how we look at the things — the other would have this home,” Mackey said.

They rented the basement apartment until the renter moved to Arizona to be closer to her grandchildren. Her brother wanted his own space, so he moved downstairs. That’s when Mackey began playing the jazz music so the house wouldn’t feel empty.

Mackey has an engineering degree from USC, but hasn’t had a full-time job since 2001. She works from home in marketing. She learned about Airbnb while reading an article in Essence, a lifestyle magazine for black women.

That’s ironic because Airbnb repeatedly has had to respond to allegations that hosts discriminate against black guests. Racism on the platform might be an even greater problem to solve because like many technology companies, Airbnb has struggled to promote diversity internally. In September, the company announced a plan to eradicate discriminatory hosts from its network.

Many of Mackey’s guests don’t realize she’s black until they arrive.

“That’s been interesting to see,” she said.

Do they visibly react to the sight of her?

“Some people do. They never say anything,” Mackey said. “I’ve never had anybody say anything rude. I don’t react to that. I’m like, ‘Welcome to my home,’ because that’s what I’m doing. I’m welcoming you into my home.

“I like to think — maybe they have a positive spin when they leave the home.”

Mackey sees Airbnb as a steady, recession-proof source of income. As she gets closer to retirement, she knows the property taxes will still have to be paid. And what if health care costs go through the roof? As you age, the cost of living doesn’t come down, but your earning potential certainly does.

And because Mackey works from home, it limits how much she socializes. But as an Airbnb host, the party comes to her. When a woman from South Africa came to visit her son, who is a chef at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, she and Mackey took walks around Lake Merritt.

When a large family from Mexico City, in Oakland for a wedding around Mexican Independence Day, rented several places in the neighborhood, they asked Mackey if they could have a party at her house.

“And I asked the matriarch, ‘Are you cooking?’” Mackey said.

Yes, she cooked. And instead of jazz, traditional Mexican music boomed from the living-room speakers.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr