Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks

Abstract

Not in our wildest dreams would we have imagined, a decade ago, that providers of short-term accommodation would regularly refuse to sell rooms to tourists despite having a vacancy; that thousands of tourists and residents displaced due to a cyclone or an earthquake would be offered emergency accommodation in people’s homes at no cost, with one click of a button; that tourist accommodation would compete with residential rental properties to the point of pushing residents out of their own cities; or that facilitators of online trading platforms would use their direct access to millions of people around the globe to push for societal changes, such as marriage equality. The effects of peer-to-peer accommodation networks entering the hospitality sector have surpassed our wildest dreams. Peer-to-peer accommodation networks are pushing boundaries we did not even know existed.

The effect of type of lodging and professionalism on the efficiency of P2P accommodation

“…Platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo offer alternative accommodation to hotels in most urban and tourist destinations. These platforms have a business model configuration called a multi-sided platform model (Reinhold & Dolnicar, 2018aRumble & Mangematin, 2015), where they connect guests, host and third parties to create and capture value. Focussing on hosts, Reinhold & Dolnicar (2021) have pointed out that the value proposition for hosts is varied because they can identify suitable guests, mitigate risks, handle monetary transactions, maximize revenue, administer the short-term rental and connect with linkminded hosts.…”