Exploring Airbnb service quality attributes and their asymmetric effects on customer satisfaction

With the rise of the sharing economy, Airbnb has become the predominant example of the online peer-to-peer accommodation market in the hospitality industry. This study adopts a mixed method approach to systematically and comprehensively capture various service aspects of Airbnb. Two main studies are conducted to identify key service quality (SQ) attributes of Airbnb, verify the dimensionality of the SQ attributes, and examine the effects of these attributes on customer satisfaction (CS). The first qualitative study generated a list of SQ attributes by collecting and analyzing 16,430 online reviews. In the second study, online survey (N = 322) is conducted to identify multiple dimensions of SQ attributes and examine their asymmetric effects on CS using impact-range performance analysis and impact asymmetry analysis. Findings suggest that Airbnb has multiple SQ attributes associated with website, host, and facility that produce distinctive effects on CS.     

What prevents consumers that are aware of Airbnb from using the platform? A mixed methods approach

The hospitality sector is now characterised by the co-existence of traditional providers and sharing economy enterprises. It is important to better understand what prevents the use of peer-to-peer accommodation rentals in the tourism marketplace. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, this study first examines travellers’ Airbnb use constraints, and then profiles 252 Airbnb non-users based on their constraints and characteristics. The findings suggest that travellers do not use Airbnb because of distrust in the providers, in the platform and in other users, as well as perceived risk and unfamiliarity. Loss of service quality, lack of local experience, legal and regulatory issues, and disinterest also prevented consumers to book Airbnb accommodations. A cluster analysis divided non-users into three segments: Traditional travellers, Sharing economy misbelievers and Airbnb prospective users. Significant differences based on age confirmed that young travellers are more confident in using peer-to-peer accommodation platforms and more interested in the philosophy.     

Experiencing P2P accommodations: Anecdotes from Chinese customers

This study explores the key dimensions and attributes of Chinese customers’ experiences with peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations through Airbnb in China. Thirty-four in-depth interviews were conducted with Airbnb customers. Results suggest that seven dimensions underpin the customer experience with P2P accommodations: physical utility, sensorial experience, core service, guest-host relationship, sense of security, social interaction, and local touch. This indicates that unlike traditional commercial hotels, P2P accommodations appeal to customers to a larger extent for their social and cultural characteristics. Implications are provided for stakeholders, including P2P accommodation practitioners and users, to co-create experiential value.     

The application of Aristotle’s rhetorical theory to the sharing economy: an empirical study of Airbnb

ABSTRACT

Sharing economy businesses require extensive trust-based communication between users and service providers to facilitate users’ positive persuasion processes. Based on Aristotle’s rhetorical theory, this study identifies three key persuasive cues (credibility, emotional bonding, and accommodation characteristics) and validates their roles in establishing users’ trust in an Airbnb setting. The moderating role of interactivity is further analyzed. Research findings from a survey sample of 171 Airbnb users indicate that persuasive cues are positively associated with trust in Airbnb hosts, which significantly leads to Airbnb brand trust. Interestingly, the moderating role of interactivity is only found in the relationship between emotional bonding and trust in Airbnb hosts. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that affect users’ trust building in the sharing economy context, and it offers guidance for platform providers to better operate their businesses by highlighting the important roles of persuasive cues and interactivity in users’ trust-building processes.     

Treatment of the Airbnb controversy by the press

Airbnb is one of the most transformative developments in the traditional accommodation system. Due to the social impact it entails, Airbnb is currently a present topic in the press, although studies on how Airbnb is treated in the press are very scarce. Thus, this article aims to analyse the treatment of Airbnb controversial issues in the press and its evolution. The analysis method is first to follow the evolution from 2016 to 2018, second, to conduct a computerised quantitative content analysis, and finally to analyse the importance of information published through compositional data analysis. Results show that topics appearing most in the news are legal issues and regulations followed by gentrification, new forms of tourism and sharing economy, mainly being treated from a negative perspective, although are evolving towards a more positive vision. Results can be useful for local and national authorities to understand and manage this phenomenon.     

Core and supplemental elements of hospitality in the sharing economy: Insights from semantic and tonal cues in Airbnb property listings

Advances in peer-to-peer sharing, made popular by platforms like Airbnb, have altered previous conceptualizations of the lodging hospitality product. This study performs semantic and tonal analyses on a large-scale dataset collected from Airbnb. Our results support a concept of lodging hospitality that comprises core products and services, supplemental customer care, and a third factor we term ‘host sharing.’ Furthermore, the study offers insight into the topics and rhetorical tactics currently defining lodging hospitality marketing on the Airbnb platform. These findings can be used to provide guidance for Airbnb hosts to provide suitable information in their listings.     

Stakeholders’ views of travelers’ choice of Airbnb

This study investigated the views of travelers’ choices of informal accommodations, Airbnb in Hong Kong from the perspectives of three stakeholders. A qualitative approach was applied, both interviews and focus group discussions were conducted. A total of 69 participants shared their views on why users choose Airbnb over traditional hotels. The findings highlighted that hoteliers and Airbnb users presented different rankings on the determinants of accommodation choice. The implications of the destination image and the population density were discussed. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for any city/country where has a similar cultural background and population density.     

Measuring Personal Service Quality

Abstract

This study examined the personal service quality of international tourism hotels in China by measuring international hotel customer's satisfaction level and their perceived importance evaluation of personal service attributes. Six international hotels in Beijing and three departments (reception, food and beverage, and housekeeping) in each hotel were selected in this study. Responses from 472 customers were used for the data analysis of this study. It was found that customers identified friendliness and willingness to provide service in all three departments as service attributes with which they were very satisfied. Foreign language ability was identified as the least satisfactory in the reception and food and beverage departments. Customers also regarded friendliness and willingness to provide service as very important.     

Visual Data Mining: Analysis of Airline Service Quality Attributes

The objectives of the study are to identify the key airline quality attributes from online review posts and to examine the effect of identified airline quality attributes on eWOM communication. This study employed data-mining techniques and logistic regression on 901 passenger reviews to evaluate the service quality of passenger airlines. The major contribution was identifying the most salient topics of travelers complimenting and complaining reviews. Passengers’ comments support that service, staff, cabin seat comfort, and entertainment are among the most discussed themes in positive and negative reviews. Additionally, value, seat comfort, staff/service, and catering were found to be significant predictors of airline eWOM.     

The effects of Airbnb on hotel performance: Evidence from cities beyond the United States

Although Airbnb's impact on hotels has been quantified for major hotel markets in the United States, these effects have not been quantified in international hotel markets. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Airbnb listings on key hotel performance metrics in an international context. In particular, we examine the effects of Airbnb listings on hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR), average daily rate (ADR), and occupancy rate (OCC) in major international hotel markets, namely London, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo. The results show that Airbnb listings in these major cities have been increasing more than 100% year over year and that the effect of Airbnb on hotel RevPAR and OCC is negative and statistically significant. In particular, a 1% increase in Airbnb listings decreases hotel RevPAR by between 0.016% and 0.031% in these hotel markets. The implications of these findings for destinations and hoteliers are discussed.     

Sources of distrust: Airbnb guests' perspectives

The present study explores sources of distrust in the Airbnb context. The study focuses on Airbnb customers' negative reviews posted in English on Trustpilot's website. The search for posts was employed with the keyword ‘trust’ to find online narratives from customers who had negative experiences of trust with Airbnb. Of the 2733 online reviews screened, the study concentrated on 216 negative reviews. The data analysis followed the grounded theory approach, which resulted in two themes that reflect the sources of distrust: Airbnb's poor customer service and the hosts' unpleasant behaviour. The managerial implications are that Airbnb should invest additional resources into minimising customers' negative experiences by focusing on trust-based relationships and maintaining quality in its core service elements. When customers report their complaints, their concerns should be addressed with prompt apologies, positive actions, and a willingness to compensate these customers to neutralise their distrust in the company.     

Location advantages of lodging properties: A comparison between hotels and Airbnb units in an urban environment

This study aims to investigate various types of location advantages that contribute to lodging property performance. Using monthly revenue data for individual urban hotels and Airbnb units in Houston, Texas from 2014 to 2016, we apply the Hausman-Taylor model to estimate the effects of location factors. Several factors are confirmed, including accessibility to points of interest, transport convenience, the surrounding environment, and market conditions. The overall effect of location advantage is more substantial for urban hotels than Airbnb units. Findings do not reveal a sizable competition effect between urban hotels and Airbnb units. Furthermore, we unveil factors associated with location advantages for different hotel classes and Airbnb types by estimating the model using different sub-samples.     

The evolution of ‘Airbnb-tourism’: Demand-side dynamics around international use of peer-to-peer accommodation in Australia

This paper investigates the evolution of Airbnb and other peer-to-peer accommodation use by international visitors in Australia over 12 quarters, from 2015 to 2017. It applies a dynamic logistic regression to investigate how user characteristics associated with peer-to-peer accommodations evolve over time. This study contributes to understanding the development of consumption patterns around the Airbnb phenomenon. It is also the first paper to investigate the consumer dynamism in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector beyond Airbnb. Findings indicate that Airbnb consumption has evolved, showing patterns of convergence and ‘normalisation’, supported by a growing Asian participation and increasing regional stays. This dynamism is not shared by other platforms, which suggests peer-to-peer accommodation is becoming a single-platform story rather than a thriving broader accommodation-category.This article also launches the Annals of Tourism Research Curated Collection on Peer-to-peer accommodation networks, a special selection of research in this field.     

Determinants of Airbnb prices in European cities: A spatial econometrics approach

We examine the determinants of Airbnb prices in 10 major EU cities, focusing on the role of location. The results confirm that attributes related to size, quality, and location are all significant drivers of Airbnb rates. Novel indices based on TripAdvisor data are used to measure the attractiveness of neighbourhoods, and the results show a more robust impact on price than standard location variables based on selected points of interest. The analysis confirms that Airbnb prices are spatially dependent, requiring the implementation of spatial regression models. Following recent studies on spatial econometrics, we examine various spatial models, including specifications with multiple sources of spatial dependence. The results show significant differences between the coefficients estimated with OLS and the various spatial models, especially in the case of location-specific variables. As well as having managerial and policy implications, our study contributes to the hedonic price literature by providing a methodological guide on spatial regression models.     

Bridge the Gaps: From Deficiency to Superior Service

In the face of ever intense competition and limited resources, it is management's primary concern to seek out accurate and effective ways for uncovering deficient service quality attributes and the real causes behind them. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to develop a two-phased service quality strategy model to identify defective service attributes and uncover their root causes by integrating the importance-performance gap analysis model, service triangle and gap analysis. A survey conducted on the guests, front-line servers and managers from nine different restaurant outlets of three similar international hotels in Taiwan is presented to empirically substantiate the suitability and practicality of this proposed model. The findings demonstrated that the model was fitted for the hotel in question to identify its defective service quality attributes, prioritize their order of improvement and consequently reveal the causes behind by analyzing the existence of the gaps among customers, managers and front-line servers. The managerial implication for restaurant managers is to reallocate resources and efforts in service areas that require immediate improvement. With this particular model, management now can serve their customers well even with limited resources.     

Lord,please save me from my sins! Can CSR mitigate the negative impacts of sharing economy on consumer trust and corporate reputation?

The explosive growth of Airbnb not only provides travelers with novel accommodation experiences at prices that suit their budget, but also challenges the existing regulatory and market structures. While Airbnb with its distinct peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation business model is considered a disruptive innovation in the hospitality industry, little is known about its negative side. This gap in extant literature has motivated the present study, aiming to establish whether the negative aspects of Airbnb undermine consumers' overall trust in the company and its corporate reputation, and whether this link is moderated by corporate social responsibility (CSR). Data required to answer these questions was collected via a survey in which 348 potential Airbnb users in Taiwan, selected using a nonprobability purposive sampling technique, took part. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that consumers' overall trust in Airbnb is negatively affected by various factors, ranging from legal, regulatory, and taxation issues to fake reviews/listings. The moderation analysis findings further reveal that, while the overall trust−corporate reputation link is strengthened by the environmental and philanthropic CSR, it is weakened by economic CSR, which can lead to unfavorable consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions.     

The effects of Airbnb’s price positioning on hotel performance

This study examined the relationship between the price positioning of Airbnb listings, measured in price difference between a hotel property and the nearby Airbnb listings as well as price dispersion among these Airbnb listings, and the performance of nearby hotels. An exploratory analysis using field data points collected from the Airbnb listings and their hotel counterparts in the metropolitan area of Austin, Texas between Quarter 3, 2008 (debut of Airbnb in Austin) and Quarter 2, 2011 reveals intriguing findings. The entry of Airbnb listings was penetrative to local hotels. However, the price positioning of Airbnb, manifested in higher average price as compared to nearby hotels, as well as larger price dispersion among individual listings, significantly mitigated such penetration. Important theoretical contributions and practical implications for hotels are discussed.     

Does Airbnb impact non-hosting Residents' quality of life? Comparing media discourse with empirical evidence

In addition to disrupting the hotel industry, Airbnb has been portrayed in the media as significantly diminishing the quality of life of residents in neighborhoods where it is available. There is little empirical research to support such rhetoric, particularly as provided by the residents themselves. To address this gap, the present study uses the social exchange theory framework to develop and test two alternative models of residents' attitudes towards Airbnb. Findings indicate that residents are generally positive towards Airbnb, perceiving higher positive than negative impacts. Moreover, those residents who possess more knowledge of Airbnb, engage more with their communities, and perceive potential benefits from Airbnb also perceive higher positive impacts, while the need for regulation serves as the key determinant of residents' perceptions of Airbnb's negative impacts. The positive impacts, in turn, have a stronger direct effect on residents' support for Airbnb, and tourism more generally, than the dampening effect of Airbnb's negative impacts. Quality of life was not found to have a significant mediating effect on these relationships, a finding that contradicts previous discourse and opens up avenues for future research on the role of this important construct.     

What makes Airbnb likeable? Exploring the nexus between service attractiveness,country image,perceived authenticity and experience from a social exchange theory perspective within an emerging economy context

As a result of the growth of the notions of collaborative consumption and sharing economy in the tourism industry, this paper applies social exchange theory to investigate how the Airbnb platform influences the Airbnb experience and authenticity, which might lead consumers to like Airbnb and influence their behavioural patterns. By recruiting 466 tourists who had stayed in Airbnb accommodation in Istanbul, Turkey via travel-related Telegram, Twitter, travel blogs, and Facebook groups, this study revealed the importance of the platform and its features in enhancing service attractiveness, perceived authenticity and experience. Furthermore, the results revealed that visitors’ experiences have an influence on Airbnb likability, where Airbnb likability influences their intention to re-visit and to recommend. Significant implications for tourism planning, management and researchers are highlighted.