Bringing Smart Home Technology to Peer-to-Peer Accommodation: Exploring the Drivers of Intention to Stay in Smart Accommodation

Abstract

COVID-19 has caused disruptions in the sharing economy for both platforms and owners, who are typically micro-businesses. Lower demand and ample supply means that users have a great deal of choice. Finding ways for properties to differentiate themselves has been a pressing need. Against this background, this paper pursued two objectives: firstly to explore the perceived functional and emotional value of smart accommodation and the factors contributing to this by adopting the Theory of Consumption Values, and secondly to examine the role of perceived value in driving intention to stay in smart accommodation in the future. 430 responses were collected to analyse the relationships among antecedents, value and intention. The results showed that the functional value of smart accommodation is associated with the perception that such accommodation represents good value for the price, smart devices are useful, they can enhance control of stay experiences, and there are resources and opportunities facilitating the use of technology. Emotional value is determined by the perception that staying in smart accommodation represents sustainable behaviour, the integration of smart home technologies offers control over the stay experience, improves the entertainment experience, aesthetics and playfulness of using technology. Emotional values are inhibited by the perception of surveillance in smart accommodation. Also, the study offers evidence of the correlation of intention with functional and emotional value. The evidence contributes to the literature by explaining the potential implications of innovative technologies for business recovery in the post-pandemic reality, exploring the applications of smart technologies in delivering tourism services, and identifying the factors in the adoption of smart homes in the hospitality sector. The findings provide practical implications for facilitating the applications of innovative technology and its adoption in home and non-home environments.

Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: A systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era

“…virtual technology in tourism) and are willing to use it even after the pandemic because it is viewed as a new form of entertainment. Also, tourists who have already experienced tourism through some digital technologies will always look for the same level, or more, of the experience with functional and emotional values, compared to traditional tourism customers ( Lu et al, 2021 ; Papagiannidis and Davlembayeva, 2021 ; Van et al, 2020 ). The adoption of digital technologies is also driven by the growing interest, and preferences, of tourists in sustainable development issues ( Dick-Forde et al, 2020 ; Fennell, 2021 ; Galvani, Lew and Perez, 2020 ), like green destinations and ecological accommodation establishments ( Saseanu, Ghita, Albastroiu and Stoian, 2020 ).…”

Rethinking the influence of the Intelligent Building Systems on productivity, health, and well-being for enhancing the quality of life during mandatory working from home: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The residential buildings are one of the factors affecting occupants' mental health [78] which is a state of well-being in which an individual can work productively [79] and there is a strong relationship between productivity and the indoor environment in working spaces [80]. In addition to that, some studies [81,82,83] point that there are more household activities due to the pandemic, which increased the willingness of occupants to adopt intelligent building systems especially for energy savings and enhanced life quality (by maximum efficiency, occupant satisfaction, occupant centric control and data feedback, and minimum costs and cybersecurity risks) [2]. Occupants who work from home need a healthy and safe environment equipped with ICT to be productive, especially such as the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Sharing at social distance: “clay-footed giants” coping strategies for navigating the pandemic

“…Interestingly, the sharing economy was already well-equipped to deal with many of the issues faced by traditional companies because of the lockdown, for example, with the digitalisation of procedures, the social ties built within a community, and the empowerment of single users exploiting the intrinsic power of platforms. However, even if features of the sharing economy safeguard the platforms from some of the issues that are currently challenging traditional companies, the critical aspect is that the "sharing" principle has been severely undermined both at the normative level, by legislative decrees, and at the behavioural level, by people's response to the pandemic, such as a reduced demand for goods or services that are likely to place consumers at risk of infection (del Rio-Chanona et al, 2020;Papagiannidis and Davlembayeva, 2021). It is then worth investigating how are sharing economy companies responding to this challenge.…”

“…In the last two years several papers examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sharing economy. Many of them are focused on a specific industry such as accommodation, food and online job (Atsız and Cifci, 2021;Papagiannidis and Davlembayeva, 2021;Umar et al, 2021). Case studies on sharing economy platforms (usually Airbnb and Uber) have also been proposed through the analysis of their actions in a definite geographic area (Atsız and Cifci, 2021;Gaber and Elsamadicy, 2021;Gossen and Reck, 2021;Katta et al, 2020;Ndaguba, 2021;Vinod and Sharma, 2021).…”

“…However, the pandemic led the sharing economy “giants” struggling to prove that their feet were not made of clay, and turning to recovery actions to navigate the pandemic. Recent studies stated how the pandemic questioned the ability of the sharing economy to survive (Hossain, 2021; Papagiannidis and Davlembayeva, 2021). Interestingly, the sharing economy was already well-equipped to deal with many of the issues faced by traditional companies because of the lockdown, for example, with the digitalisation of procedures, the social ties built within a community, and the empowerment of single users exploiting the intrinsic power of platforms.…”