Home and away: Why do consumers shy away from reporting negative experiences in the peer‐to‐peer realms?

Abstract

This study investigates how customers use their construct of “home” in evaluating their experience in peer‐to‐peer rented accommodation, as opposed to traditional hotels. The literature has paid considerable attention to people's perceptions of destinations, but almost none to their perceptions of “home” and its complexities whilst visiting a destination. We examine the relationships between the concepts of “home” or “here” represented in peer‐to‐peer accommodation and the construct of “away” or “there” represented in traditional hotels. A mixed‐method approach determines the existence of bias in reporting behavior. Our findings indicate that there is a consistent review gap between institutional actors and peer‐to‐peer actors. Also, consumers of peer‐to‐peer accommodation prefer not to engage in negative reporting if a bond with the host is developed. This perception of a home shapes consumers' relationship with the host and leads to reporting bias. This study provides clear theoretical insights to advance our knowledge about the underlying motives behind reporting behavior of negative experiences. Furthermore, it offers practical implications for both institutional and peer‐to‐peer contexts.

The dark side of the sharing economy: Balancing value co‐creation and value co‐destruction

“…Many families, for example, prefer to share common spaces of a house, rather than several hotel rooms, for togetherness, safety, privacy and comfort (Lutz & Newlands, 2018). The social distance in a sharing economy model between consumers (guests) and providers is closer in comparison to traditional hotels: “staying in someone's home helps reduces this distance” (Osman et al, 2019, p. 1165). Others would like to rent a property as a party venue and invite friends.…”

“…The sharing economy has particularly disrupted the hospitality sector with Airbnb, and the automobile sharing sector through Uber (Altinay & Taheri, 2019; Chasin, von Hoffen, Cramer, & Matzner, 2018; Ert & Fleischer, 2019). Their platforms attract unconventional participants to the market because the new opportunities are providing income whilst also permitting immediacy and personal interactions with customers (Osman, D'Acunto, & Johns, 2019; Simon & Roederer, 2019; Tussyadiah, 2015). Airbnb feeds into the visitor economy of villages, towns, and cities and creates new wealth for local people.…”

“…These thresholds need to be based on the community's values which operate in these neighborhoods and reflect how social life is performed, and how individuals and families perceive their quality of life (Diener, Tamir, & Scollon, 2006; Sirgy, Lee, Park, Joshanloo, & Kim, 2019; Swidler, 2001). New psychological measures of crowding, suitable for urban environments are needed (Butler, 2020), that include perceptions of safety and trustworthiness (Ert & Fleischer, 2019), enjoyment of meeting tourists (Simon & Roederer, 2019), and social distance measures to both tourists and other locals (Osman, D'Acunto, & Johns, 2019). Our research questions are guided by the goals of Transformative Service Research (Anderson et al, 2013).…”

The sharing economy: Psychological mechanisms that affect collaborative consumption

“…In the interest of widening the potential audience for these papers, some authors were asked to review and re‐edit their work so as to remove jargon and, in general, make their research more readable and accessible not only to fellow researchers in this area, but to practitioners, educators, corporate and other organizational personnel, and others. Three of the earliest papers to be completed with editing and prepared for press (Osman, D'Acunto, & Johns, 2019; Simon & Roederer, 2019; Stofberg & Bridoux, 2019) were, owing to an unfortunate mix‐up at the typesetter, actually published in prior issues of this Journal.…”

“…Ert and Fleischer (2019) enlighten us with their research on how trust formation in certain situations may depend on variables related to profile characteristics, such as personal photos. The second article under the theme of consumer feelings but previously published in an earlier issue was the work of Osman et al (2019). These authors discussed how feeling “home” or “away” affects customers’ reviews of their experience with a service provider.…”