The accommodation experiencescape: a comparative assessment of hotels and Airbnb

Abstract

Purpose Accommodations providers in the sharing economy are increasingly competing with the hotel industry vis-à-vis the guest experience. Additionally, experience-related research remains underrepresented in the hospitality and tourism literature. This paper aims to develop and test a model of experiential consumption to provide a better understanding of an emerging phenomenon in the hospitality industry. In so doing, the authors also expand Pine and Gilmore’s original experience economy construct. Design/methodology/approach Using data from a survey of 630 customers who stayed at a hotel or an Airbnb in the previous three months, the authors performed a multi-step analysis procedure centered on structural equation modeling to validate the model. Findings The authors demonstrate that the dimensions of serendipity, localness, communitas and personalization represent valuable additions to Pine and Gilmore’s original experience economy construct. Airbnb appears to outperform the hotel industry in the provision of all experience dimensions. The authors further define the pathways that underlie the creation of extraordinary, memorable experiences, which subsequently elicit favorable behavioral intentions. Practical implications The findings suggest the need for the hotel industry to adopt a content marketing paradigm that leverages various dimensions of the experience economy to provide customers with valuable and relevant experiences. The industry must also pay greater attention to its use of branding, signage and promotional messaging to encourage customers to interpret their experiences through the lens of these dimensions. Originality/value The study expands a seminal construct from the field of services marketing in the context of the accommodations industry. The Accommodations Experiencescape is offered as a tool for strategic experience design. The study also offers a model of experiential consumption that explains customers’ experiences with accommodations providers.

Key Factors Affecting the Price of Airbnb Listings: A Geographically Weighted Approach

“…Thus, it seems logical that the closer it is to downtown, the higher the Airbnb price will be listed. In Figure 4, it clearly shows that the effects of the established date of a listing on Airbnb listing prices are significant mainly in southern Metro Nashville (districts [16][17][18][25][26][27]30), and the effect on price is positive, indicating that the earlier the Airbnb listing is established, the higher the Airbnb listing price. It seems that the older Airbnb listings tend to charge more partly because the lodging places that have been listed through Airbnb with a longer period are more experienced, and those hosts are aware of why their guests are more likely to trust previous experiences in terms of safety and service quality.…”

“…Their findings concluded that Airbnb listing's reputation or guests' trust in Airbnb listing can be affected by "Superhost" status [20], geolocated Airbnb rental images [21], Airbnb hosts' personal photos [22], perceived authenticity, electronic word-of-mouth, price sensitivity [23], and/or perceived brand personality [24]. Several studies have investigated how customers' experience and service quality impacted Airbnb's business reputation [25][26][27][28][29] that paved the way for the success of Airbnb. To have an in-depth understanding of customer experiences with Airbnb, Brochado, Troilo, and Shah [25] summarized 1776 reviews from 24 Airbnb listings across three countries using content analyses and identified eight themes that showed a convergent trend of consumer experience towards Airbnb listing uses and lodging services.…”

“…To have an in-depth understanding of customer experiences with Airbnb, Brochado, Troilo, and Shah [25] summarized 1776 reviews from 24 Airbnb listings across three countries using content analyses and identified eight themes that showed a convergent trend of consumer experience towards Airbnb listing uses and lodging services. Mody, Suess and Lehto [26] developed a model to identify factors affecting customers' experience in the hospitality industry and tested their model in shared Sustainability 2017, 9, 1635 3 of 13 economy settings. Priporas et al [28] investigated the relationships among service quality, satisfaction, and consumers' loyalty towards Airbnb, indicating that service quality was positively correlated with consumers' satisfaction and loyalty.…”

Attributes That Contribute to Guest Satisfaction: A Comparative Study of Reviews Posted on BOOKING.COM and on Airbnb’s Platform

“…This makes any attempt to compare in this format the main attributes of satisfaction as identified by guests of hotels and Airbnb accommodations very difficult. More recently, a number of studies have attempted to compare the main accommodation attributes that generate satisfaction for Airbnb and hotel customers [4], [5], [17], [32], [33], [50], [51]. The results of these studies show that some attributes are common for both forms of accommodation, such as clean rooms and comfortable beds [51].…”

Authenticity and Commodification: A Visual Analysis of P2P Tourism Accommodation Listing Page

“…What"s more, demand for a service like Airbnb is not a given, as Airbnb is considerably lacking in the many standard features of the conventional hotel accommodation (Guttentag, 2015). Disruptive innovation theory suggests that businesses that lack of traditionally favored attributes need to counter offer with "alternative benefits" (Guttentag, 2015;Mody, Suess, & Lehto, 2017). While Airbnb hosts have been quick to offer cheaper price as a form of alternative benefit, they are however, as the finding of the research reveals, come out short in introducing tourist experience associated with staying with local communities.…”