Hellenic Open University Master in Business Administration
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Hellenic Open University Master in Business Administration Postgraduate Dissertation “The impact of sharing economy into the tourist landscape is nowadays considered as a threat to the existing hotel industry. The Airbnb case.” Anna Liana Supervisor: Christy Agapitou Patras, Greece, May 2018 Theses / Dissertations remain the intellectual property of students (“authors/creators”), but in the context of open access policy they grant to the HOU a non-exclusive license to use the right of reproduction, customization, public lending, presentation to an audience and digital dissemination thereof internationally, in electronic form and by any means for teaching and research purposes, for no fee and throughout the duration of intellectual property rights. Free access to the full text for studying and reading does not in any way mean that the author/creator shall allocate his/her intellectual property rights, nor shall he/she allow the reproduction, republication, copy, storage, sale, commercial use, transmission, distribution, publication, execution, downloading, uploading, translating, modifying in any way, of any part or summary of the dissertation, without the explicit prior written consent of the author/creator. Creators retain all their moral and property rights. “The impact of sharing economy into the tourist landscape is nowadays considered as a threat to the existing hotel industry. The Airbnb case.” Anna Liana Supervising Committee Supervisor: Co-Supervisor: Christy Agapitou Dimitris Folinas Patras, Greece, May 2018 “Anna Liana”, “The impact of sharing economy into the tourist landscape is nowadays considered as a threat to the existing hotel industry.The Airbnb case.” Abstract Daily, million of tourists prefer not to stay in a hotel but stay at the home of an unknown who is online via Airbnb. Airbnb is an electronic platform through which everyday people rent their own premises as tourist accommodation. Airbnb, which was founded in 2008, grew very fast in recent years, to such an extent that it is now being discussed that it threatens the traditional sector of residence. Because of its recent appearance, so far little research has been done on Airbnb. Particularly, few researchers have explored the important issue of why many tourists use this kind of platforms. Therefore, this study has purpose to examine why tourists decide to stay at Airbnb accommodation. This thesis focused on investigating the incentives that attract tourists to use Airbnb and the segmentation of Airbnb users in line with these incentives. Finally, Airbnb tourists' expectations were compared to their expectations for hotels in order to assess the possible weaknesses of Airbnb and hotel accommodation. The research tool used for this study was a quantitative survey through internet. Most respondents were approached through web pages and Facebook groups in relation to online routes. In total 152 questionnaires were completed. The survey included the exploration of the knowledge and use of this platform, a comparative analysis of the levels of agreement and a disagreement with the various incentives to highlight how important the practical factors for Airbnb's choice are. The results show that the hotel industry is actually exposed to Airbnb's existence and clearly disputes the view of Airbnb that it complements and does not compete with hotels. Keywords Sharing Economy, Peer-To-Peer, Electronic Word Of Mouth, Airbnb Postgraduate Dissertation iv “Anna Liana”, “The impact of sharing economy into the tourist landscape is nowadays considered as a threat to the existing hotel industry.The Airbnb case.” Περίληψη Καθημερινά, εκατοντάδες χιλιάδες τουρίστες επιλέγουν να μην διαμείνουν σε ένα ξενοδοχείο, αλλά να παραμείνουν στο σπίτι ενός αγνώστου που βρίσκεται online μέσω της εταιρείας Airbnb. Η Airbnb είναι μια ηλεκτρονική πλατφόρμα μέσω της οποίας οι απλοί άνθρωποι ενοικιάζουν τους χώρους τους ως καταλύματα για τουρίστες. Η Airbnb, η οποία ιδρύθηκε το 2008, αναπτύχθηκε πολύ γρήγορα τις τελευταίες χρονιές, σε τέτοιο μεγάλο βαθμό που συζητείται τώρα ότι απειλεί τον παραδοσιακό κλάδο της διαμονής. Δεδομένης της πρόσφατης εμφάνισής της, μέχρι στιγμής έχει πραγματοποιηθεί περιορισμένη έρευνα σε σχέση με την Airbnb. Συγκεκριμένα, λίγοι ερευνητές έχουν διερευνήσει το σημαντικό ζήτημα γιατί πολλοί τουρίστες χρησιμοποιούν τη υπηρεσία. Συνεπώς, ο σκοπός αυτής της μελέτης ήταν να διερευνήσει γιατί οι τουρίστες επιλέγουν να παραμείνουν σε καταλύματα Airbnb. Η μελέτη επικεντρώθηκε στην διερεύνηση των κινήτρων που προσελκύουν τους τουρίστες στην Airbnb και στην κατάτμηση των χρηστών Airbnb σύμφωνα με αυτά τα κίνητρα. Τέλος, οι προσδοκίες των τουριστών από την Airbnb συγκρίθηκαν με τις προσδοκίες που έχουν για τα ξενοδοχεία προκειμένου να εκτιμηθούν οι ενδεχόμενες αδυναμίες της Airbnb αλλά και των ξενοδοχειακών καταλυμάτων. Το ερευνητικό εργαλείο που χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την μελέτη αυτή ήταν μια λίγων λεπτών ηλεκτρονική έρευνα. Το μεγαλύτερο μέρος των ερωτηθέντων προσεγγίστηκε μέσω σελίδων και ομάδων σε σχέση με τα ταξίδια στο internet . Συμπληρώθηκαν 152 ερωτηματολόγια. Η έρευνα περιελάβανε διερεύνηση της γνώσης και χρήσης της συγκεκριμένης πλατφόρμας, συγκριτική ανάλυση στα επίπεδα συμφωνίας και διαφωνίας με τα διάφορα κίνητρα για να τονιστεί η σημασία των πρακτικών παραγόντων για την επιλογή της Airbnb. Τα αποτελέσματα που προέκυψαν δείχνουν πως ο ξενοδοχειακός κλάδος όντως απειλείται από την ύπαρξη του Airbnb και αμφισβητεί ξεκάθαρα τον ισχυρισμό της Airbnb ότι συμπληρώνει και δεν ανταγωνίζεται τα ξενοδοχεία. Postgraduate Dissertation v “Anna Liana”, “The impact of sharing economy into the tourist landscape is nowadays considered as a threat to the existing hotel industry.The Airbnb case.” Dedication For Nicoletta, my most welcome and beloved disruption Postgraduate Dissertation vi “Anna Liana”, “The impact of sharing economy into the tourist landscape is nowadays considered as a threat to the existing hotel industry.The Airbnb case.” Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iv Περίληψη ......................................................................................................................... v Dedication ....................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ............................................................................................................vii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................ix List of Tables.................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations & Acronyms ...................................................................................xi 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Purpose and objectives of the survey .................................................................. 2 2 Literature review ....................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Tourism as a product .......................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Definition-Categories .................................................................................. 5 2.1.2 Tourism in Greece ....................................................................................... 6 2.1.3 New technologies and tourism ..................................................................... 7 2.2 Sharing economy ................................................................................................ 9 2.2.1 Defining sharing economy ........................................................................... 9 2.2.2 Drivers of sharing economy ....................................................................... 12 2.2.3 Sharing economy limitations ..................................................................... 13 2.3 Sharing economy accommodations ................................................................... 15 2.4 The case of Airbnb ........................................................................................... 17 2.4.1 History of Airbnb ...................................................................................... 17 2.4.2 Airbnb description ..................................................................................... 18 2.4.3 Airbnb experience ..................................................................................... 19 2.4.4 Airbnb SWOT analysis .............................................................................. 21 2.5 The effects of Airbnb on the conventional accommodation industry ................. 22 2.6 Previous investigations / Research gap and questions ....................................... 24 2.7 Research questions ........................................................................................... 26 2.8 Methodology .................................................................................................... 26 2.8.1 Types of research ...................................................................................... 26 2.8.2 Design and structure of the questionnaire .................................................