The online travel review has become one of the most influential information sources for travelers’ decision making. This research primarily aims to examine the relationship between review textual content concreteness and review helpfulness in the tourism context. In particular, we examine how this relationship plays out under two individual circumstances, namely, temporal distance and risk–benefit tendency. Based on the construal level theory and feeling-as-information theory, two experiments are conducted to test whether the influence of review concreteness is moderated by temporal distance and risk–benefit tendency. The results show that the main effect of review concreteness is significant; however, in contrast to the assumptions of theories and results of relevant studies, both interaction effects of temporal distance and risk–benefit tendency are not. Finally, we interpret the findings and discuss the implications and limitations of this research.
Purpose
This paper aims to explain a guest’s purchase decision in Airbnb from the perspective of Aristotle’s appeals. In host-created information, the authors investigate which information appeals are significantly considered by guests.
Design/methodology/approach
It is hypothesized that a guest’s purchase would be affected by the host-created information’s ethos, pathos and logos.
Findings
For the ethos, the super host badge and host review have positive impacts on the purchase; for the pathos, the positive impact of the use of social words is significant. For the logos, the authors have determined that although the price, place picture and star-rating have positive impacts on the likelihood of a purchase, the occupancy has a negative impact on it.
Research limitations/implications
The dependent variable, the number of place reviews, cannot represent the exact number of purchases. Other possible influential factors, such as direct communications between hosts and guests, are not examined.
Practical implications
The findings suggest guidelines for Airbnb and its host users. Specifically, the management of normal host users is revealed as a necessary process for Airbnb’s development. For host users, several guidelines on how to attract more guests effectively are provided.
Originality/value
In contrast to other studies on Airbnb, various pieces of information are considered from holistic perspectives, and each piece’s impact on the sharing behavior is understood by means of a unique theoretical model that is based on Aristotle’s appeals.
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