The information provided by users of Airbnb Inc. leads to racial discrimination by hosts, researchers report.

According to a field study conducted by Harvard University researchers, there was a 16% difference in acceptance rates for names perceived to belong to potential black guests versus white-sounding names. The researchers found discrimination by hosts regardless of their race, number of properties and gender, and say that Airbnb could eliminate the discrimination by no longer including the names and photos of potential guests.

On the home-sharing platform, guests often have to request to book a listing, and the host decides whether or not to accept the request. Some listings have an “instant book” option, in which the guest can book without approval from the host.

For the working paper, researchers chose “distinctively white” names and “distinctively African-American” names based on previous research and created 20 Airbnb accounts without pictures. These accounts, which were identical other than in name, sent 6,400 messages to hosts across five cities in July.

Across these accounts, prospective guests created to appear black received a “yes” response 42% of the time, compared to 50% for white guests. The race effect of eight percentage points was consistent when the authors controlled for the hosts’ gender, race, number of listings, type of property, host experience and property price.

The cities in the field study were Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Washington D.C.

Joe Feagin, a distinguished professor of sociology at Texas A&M University who studies sexism and racism, said the level of discrimination in this study actually seems a bit low compared with previous studies that use names to show bias across several sectors.

“These things cue up deep racial stereotypes,” Feagin said.

Benjamin Edelman, one of the authors of the paper along with Michael Luca and Dan Svirsky, said they weren’t placing as much importance on how big the percentage was, but rather on the fact that they believe they can eliminate the discrimination.

“We know how to get it to zero,” Edelman said.

Edelman and the authors suggest that Airbnb could eliminate host biases by removing the guests’ picture and name on their profile, while still keeping some verifying metrics like reviews and ratings, and increasing the number of “instant book” listings.

Airbnb said it was aware of the potential for bias and had been in contact with the study’s authors.

“We recognize that bias and discrimination are significant challenges, and we welcome the opportunity to work with anyone that can help us reduce potential discrimination in the Airbnb community,” an Airbnb spokesman said. “We are in touch with the authors of this study and we look forward to a continuing dialogue with them.”