Consumption Authenticity in the Accommodations Industry: The Keys to Brand Love and Brand Loyalty for Hotels and Airbnb

Abstract

Airbnb has gained popularity as an alternative to hotels, with the authenticity of the consumption experience being a critical differentiating factor. However, the hospitality and tourism literature has not fully explored how Airbnb and traditional hotel brands are facilitating authentic travel experiences and the impact of these experiences on brand love and brand loyalty. In this study, we explore three elements of consumption authenticity and examine their how they interact in the context of an accommodation brand. Second, we compare the components of consumption authenticity across hotels and Airbnb, and examine their relative impact on brand love for these two segments of the accommodations industry. We found that hotels and Airbnb draw upon different sources of authenticity to create brand-loving customers. Our results indicated that Airbnb leverages brand, existential, and intrapersonal authenticity in creating brand-loving and brand-loyal customers, while hotels utilize only brand authenticity. Thus, the keys to creating customers who love and are loyal to the brand differ between hotels and Airbnb. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and areas of future research are identified.

Home sharing in marketing and tourism at a tipping point: What do we know, how do we know, and where should we be heading?

“…Loyalty is a prominent outcome among guests who have had the opportunity to stay in shared homes transacted via online and paid home-sharing platforms. In line with Zhu, Cheng, Wang, Ma, and Jiang (2019) , the content analysis of the review herein reaffirms that guest loyalty is manifested in three prominent ways, namely: cognitive loyalty, which derives from comparisons of previous knowledge or recent information that leads to disclosure and recommendation of a preferred alternative ( Baute-Díaz et al, 2020 , Shi et al, 2019 ); affective loyalty, which emerges from pleasurable experiences that lead to attachment, brand love, satisfaction, trust, and psychological ownership ( Lee et al, 2019 , Mody and Hanks, 2020 ); and conative loyalty, which relates to future stays and listings of shared homes ( Wang et al, 2020 , Ye et al, 2019 ). …”

“…affective loyalty, which emerges from pleasurable experiences that lead to attachment, brand love, satisfaction, trust, and psychological ownership ( Lee et al, 2019 , Mody and Hanks, 2020 ); and…”

“… Online observation 1 Sthapit and Björk (2019) . Quantitative ( n = 84) Online survey ( n = 68) MTurk 27 Birinci et al, 2018 , Mody and Hanks, 2020 . Self-collected 15 Hajibaba and Dolnicar, 2017 , Wang et al, 2020 .…”

Platforms in the peer-to-peer sharing economy

“…Moreover, rich and authentic experiences associated with a platform were found to contribute to creating brand love and loyalty (e.g. for Airbnb; Mody and Hanks, 2019).…”

Examining recent research in the field of sharing economy in tourism

“…Namely, this fi eld of study is growing rapidly and increasing number of researches is being published regularly (e.g. Andreu, Bigne, Amaro, & Palomo, 2020;Batle, Garau-Vadell, & Orfi la-Sintes, 2020;Belarmino & Koh, 2020;Chica-Olmo, González-Morales, & Zafra-Gómez, 2020;Dogru et al, 2020a;Dogru et al, 2020b;Dogru et al, 2020c;Gunter, Önder, & Zekan, 2020;Marques & Gondim Matos, 2020;Mody & Hanks, 2020).…”