Impacts of peer-to-peer accommodation on the hotel industry: Hoteliers’ perspectives

Terminator or accelerator? Lessons from the peer-to-peer accommodation hosts in China in responses to COVID-19

“…The findings highlighted the roles of host-guest interaction, handling legalisation issues and financial resources in response to the COVID-19 and were consistent with those of previous research ( Farmaki & Kaniadakis, 2020 ; Guttentag, 2015 ; Jiang et al, 2020 ; Kreeger & Smith, 2017 ; Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2016 ). However, compared with other studies ( Jiang et al, 2020 ; Quattrone et al, 2016 ; Ranzini et al, 2020 ), platform collaboration lost its role among hosts during the pandemic. This might be because guests began to seek accommodations in uncertain context through trusted personal relationships rather than through user-generated content on a platform ( Liang et al, 2020 ; Yannopoulou, 2013 ).…”

“…In addition, the findings revealed that providing a unique value proposition and linkages with other hospitality experience were considered the key capabilities for P2PA hosts’ survival during the pandemic. These findings complemented prior research on the competitiveness of P2PA with the hotel industry ( Gutiérrez et al, 2017 ; Jiang et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Recent research highlighted that internal and external capabilities of P2PA both play essential roles in decision making. External capabilities include host-guest interaction ( Mao & Lyu, 2017 ; Moon et al, 2019 ) and platform collaboration ( Jiang et al, 2020 ). Internal capabilities include the ability to handle legalisation issues ( Belarmino & Koh, 2020 ) and financial resources ( Dann et al, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2019 ).…”

“…According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA, 2020), a staggering 70% of hotel employees have been laid off or furloughed as eight in ten rooms remain empty due to the pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 is especially severe on the peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) sector, which involves longer and more intensive interactions between peer guests and peer hosts by offering private accommodation ( Jiang et al, 2020 ). For instance, new bookings through Airbnb—the largest firm in the P2PA industry with over six million listings of entire homes and private rooms (Dogru et al, 2019)—have dropped 85%, and the cancellation rate is 90% during the pandemic.…”

“…Specifically, the findings reaffirmed the impact of the owner motivation on hosts ( Belarmino & Koh, 2020 ; Renuka, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2019 ) and revealed that owner motivation and capabilities shape the awareness of hosts. Also, the study highlighted the impact of capabilities, such as host-guest interaction, financial resources and the handling of legal issues, on survival under COVID-19 ( Farmaki & Kaniadakis, 2020 ; Guttentag, 2015 ; Jiang et al, 2020 ; Kreeger & Smith, 2017 ; Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2016 ), while exploring that platform collaboration failed to provide support ( Liang et al, 2020 ; Yannopoulou, 2013 ). Meanwhile, some potential capabilities that are essential in responding to COVID-19 were uncovered, such as having a unique value proposition and linkages with other hospitality experience.…”