Research Collection
Doctoral Thesis
The Brand Management of Platform-Based Firms: Attracting and Managing External Service Providers
Author(s): Freiherr von Richthofen, Georg Hubert Gotthard
Publication Date: 2019
Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000373905
Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted
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ETH Library DISS. ETH NO. 26051
The Brand Management of Platform-Based Firms:
Attracting and Managing External Service Providers
A thesis submitted to attain the degree of
DOCTOR OF SCIENCES of ETH ZURICH
(Dr. sc. ETH Zurich)
presented by
GEORG HUBERT GOTTHARD FREIHERR VON RICHTHOFEN
MSc, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
born on 08.05.1988
citizen of Germany
accepted on the recommendation of
Examiner: Prof. Dr. Florian von Wangenheim
Co-Examiner: Prof. Dr. Eileen Fischer
2019 II
III
Summary
Digital technologies and the increasing prevalence of reputation systems have enabled the emergence of platform-based firms that match external providers and consumers of services. The leaders of platform-based firms face a considerable marketing challenge: they rely on external providers as their co-producers, who control most of the customer experience. Nonetheless, platform managers need to ensure a distinctive customer experience in order to differentiate their brands from established service providers in the marketplace. The goal of this dissertation is to give platforms leaders guidance how to deal with this and other challenges. Specifically, Paper 1 explores how platform leaders can navigate conflicting institutional logics their business models are based on. Paper 2 investigates what tactics platform leaders can use to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience the leaders aspire to create. Paper 3 examines how platform leaders can attract and retain service providers. All three papers are based on a qualitative investigation of Airbnb, a platform which matches providers and consumers of accommodation. This dissertation makes several contributions to the platform marketing literature: First, it organizes previously dispersed theoretical and managerial insights according to the marketing challenges platform-based firms face. Second, it develops previous insights in regard to these challenges in more depth. Third, it identifies a number of new tactics and categories of tactics that platform leaders can use to attract and retain as well as manage service providers. In addition, this dissertation also contributes to the literature on the sharing economy. IV
Zusammenfassung
Digitale Technologien und die zunehmende Verbreitung von Reputationssystemen haben die
Entstehung von Firmen ermöglicht, die externe Dienstleister und Konsumenten durch
Plattformen zusammenbringen. Die Leitungen solcher plattformbasierten Firmen sind mit einer erheblichen Marketingherausforderung konfrontiert: sie sind auf externe Anbieter als
Koproduzenten angewiesen, die einen Großteil der Kundenerfahrung kontrollieren.
Nichtsdestotrotz müssen Plattformmanager eine unverwechselbare Kundenerfahrung ermöglichen, um sich von etablierten Dienstleistern im Markt zu unterscheiden. Ziel dieser
Dissertation ist es, Plattformleitern Orientierung bei der Bewältigung dieser und weiterer
Herausforderungen zu geben. Artikel 1 betrachtet wie die Leiter einer Plattform mit miteinander in Konflikt stehenden institutionellen Logiken, auf denen ihre Geschäftsmodelle basieren, umgehen können. Artikel 2 untersucht, welche Taktiken Plattformleiter anwenden können, um die von den Anbietern bereitgestellten Dienstleistungen mit der Kundenerfahrung, die die
Plattformleiter anstreben, in Einklang zu bringen. Artikel 3 beleuchtet wie Plattformleiter
Anbieter gewinnen und an die Plattform binden können. Alle drei Artikel basieren auf einer qualitativen Untersuchung der Airbnb-Plattform, die Unterkunftsanbieter und Konsumenten zusammenbringt. Diese Dissertation macht mehrere Beiträge zur Plattformmarketingliteratur:
Zunächst organisiert sie existierende theoretische und praktische Erkenntnisse hinsichtlich der
Marketingherausforderungen, die sich plattformbasierten Firmen stellen. Dazu vertieft sie frühere Erkenntnisse hinsichtlich der Bewältigung dieser Herausforderungen. Des Weiteren identifiziert diese Arbeit eine Reihe von neuen Taktiken und Kategorien von Taktiken die V
Plattformleiter nutzen können um Anbieter zu gewinnen, an sich zu binden, und zu managen.
Darüber hinaus trägt diese Dissertation auch zur Sharing Economy Literatur bei.
VI
Acknowledgements
First, I want to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Florian von Wangenheim for his continuous support and guidance throughout different phases of the dissertation process. I am especially grateful that he granted me the freedom to choose a research topic I am passionate about and that he encouraged and enabled me to attend conferences and seminars related to this topic. Next, I would like to thank my co-supervisor Prof. Dr. Eileen Fischer for her encouragement, feedback and numerous inspiring discussions; for her guidance in conducting qualitative research; and for hosting me at Schulich School of Business in 2016.
I also thank my colleagues at the Chair of Technology Marketing for the conversations, feedback, support, and friendship which made me look forward to come to the office: Sandro
Arnet, Nicholas Brüggemann, Zhiying Cui, Marcella Grohmann, Jana Gross, Sabine Keller,
Michael Lachner, Marcia Nißen, Prof. Dr. Anne Scherer, Joseph Ollier, PD Dr. Sebastian
Tillmanns, and Dr. Marcus Zimmer. I would also like to thank the Chair’s student assistants, notably Pascale Schwab and Xintong Wang, for their support with data collection.
Then, I would like to thank my parents, Prof. Dr. Anja Freifrau von Richthofen and Prof. Dr. habil. Alexander Freiherr von Richthofen, whose passion as academics inspired me to pursue a
PhD. I am particularly grateful for their support during the final months of the dissertation process. Lastly, I want to thank Sepideh Akhavan Farahani for her consideration, support, and for taking my mind off things every now and then. VII
Table of Contents
Summary ...... III
Zusammenfassung...... IV
Acknowledgements ...... VI
Table of Contents ...... VII
Introduction ...... 1
Paper Overview ...... 3
Paper Summaries ...... 4
Summary of Paper 1 ...... 4
Summary of Paper 2 ...... 5
Summary of Paper 3 ...... 6
Discussion and Contributions ...... 8
Contributions to the Platform Management Literature ...... 8
Contributions to the Sharing Economy Literature ...... 11
References ...... 13
Appendix I: Full Papers ...... 17
Airbnb and Hybridized Logics of Commercial and Domestic Hospitality ...... 18
The Brand Management of Platform-Based Firms: An Analysis of Airbnb’s Efforts to Shape the Airbnb Experience ...... 47
How Can Platform-Based Firms Attract and Retain Service Providers? Insights from Airbnb ...... 111
Appendix II: Curriculum Vitae ...... 151
1
Introduction
The platform model is increasingly changing the way businesses and organizations operate (e.g. McAfee and Brynjolfsson 2017; Parker et al. 2016; Perren and Kozinets 2018;
Srnicek 2017; Sundararajan 2016). Instead of producing the core value unit themselves, platform-based firms provide the infrastructure needed to enable value-creating interactions between external producers and consumers (Parker et al. 2016). A notable facet of this phenomenon in consumer markets is the emergence of firms that use platforms to pair people who provide and consume services offline (Perren and Kozinets 2018). Some of these firms, like
Airbnb and Uber, have seen tremendous growth: Airbnb alone already owns about 20 percent of the American lodging market (Molla 2019).
But despite their ubiquity, marketing research on the management of platform-based firms is still in its infancy (Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018). This lack of research is problematic because many established marketing guidelines – all of which assume that firms provide the core value unit with the help of employees themselves – can be applied by platform leaders only to a limited extent. As Perren and Kozinets (2018, 33) aptly observe: “Marketing managers working in these disruptive new fields must make important decisions about their businesses without the tried-and-true guidelines bestowed to managers in established industries.”
This dissertation aims to provide support to leaders of platform-based firms. It is based on a qualitative investigation of Airbnb, a platform matching providers and consumers of accommodation. Drawing on a combination of archival data, interviews, observations, and 2
netnographic data, this thesis gives platform leaders guidance how to deal with some of the key marketing challenges they face, namely, to attract and retain as well as to manage the external providers their business models rely on. Next, I provide an overview of the papers that comprise this dissertation and summarize each article in turn. Then, I will summarize and discuss the contributions of this dissertation.
3
Paper Overview
Table 1 provides an overview of the papers included in this thesis, the publication status, and the contributions by Georg von Richthofen to each paper.
Table 1: Paper overview Paper # 1 2 3
The Brand Management of Airbnb and Hybridized How Can Platform-Based Platform-Based Firms: Logics of Commercial and Firms Attract and Retain Title An Analysis of Airbnb’s Domestic Hospitality Service Providers? Efforts to Shape the Airbnb Insights from Airbnb Experience
Georg von Richthofen Georg von Richthofen Author(s) Georg von Richthofen Eileen Fischer Florian von Wangenheim
Contributions by Conception and design; data Conception and design; data Conception and design; data Georg von collection; data analysis; collection; data analysis; collection; data analysis; Richthofen drafting and revising drafting and revising drafting and revising
Forthcoming: Under review: To be submitted: Publication Handbook of the Sharing Journal of the Academy of Journal of Business status Economy (2019) Marketing Science Research
4
Paper Summaries
In what follows, the three papers that comprise this thesis are summarized.
Summary of Paper 1
According to institutional theory, social life takes place within larger institutional environments which are subject to logics (Ertimur and Coskuner-Balli 2015). Institutional logics are symbolic and material organizing principles, which prescribe goals, identities, values, norms and practices and shape the way actors act and think (Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton and
Ocasio 1999; Thornton et al. 2012). At the level of fields and organizations, multiple logics often co-exist. While plural logics do not need to be in conflict, there are often latent tensions between them (Ertimur and Coskuner-Balli 2015; Friedland and Alford 1991; Jay 2013; Toubiana and
Zietsma 2017).
In this paper, we show that Airbnb’s business model draws on two contrasting logics: the logic of commercial hospitality and the logic of domestic hospitality. Despite the tensions between these logics, however, the platform is thriving (Bort 2018). This makes Airbnb an ideal context in which to explore how platform-based firms and their users can navigate the tensions between conflicting logics in ways that allow the platform to be sustained and successful.
Drawing on a combination of archival, netnographic, and observational data, we find that
Airbnb’s users navigate the tensions between the two logics by sustaining the semblance of hospitality within commercial parameters. Airbnb’s management enables and supports these
“hybrid performances” in two ways. First, Airbnb has shaped the role of the host and of the guest 5
through storytelling and teaches users a combination of norms and practices to enact these roles.
Second, the platform equips its users with the tools needed to perform their roles. In addition to showing how platforms and their users can navigate conflicting logics, this paper also provides researchers and managers a useful theoretical lens to understand and study the sharing economy.
Summary of Paper 2
Platform-based firms like Airbnb and Uber match external providers and consumers of services (Perren and Kozinets 2018). The external service providers control most of the customer experience: not only do they constitute the main customer contact (Benoit et al. 2017), but they also control the servicescapes (Bitner 1992) where the customer experience takes place.
Nevertheless, platform leaders need to ensure a distinctive customer experience in order to compete with traditional firms in the marketplace (Benoit et al. 2017). In this article, we consider
Airbnb as a context to explore what tactics platform leaders can use to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience the leaders aspire towards, despite the operational and legal constraints the leaders face. Airbnb constitutes an excellent context in which to study this research question because of the firm’s obvious efforts to align the service the providers offer and its notable success in the creation of a distinctive customer experience (e.g. Brochado et al. 2017).
To answer our research question, we collected a combination of archival, interview, observation and netnographic data. Based on our analysis, we identify four categories of tactics: teaching, inspiring, digital monitoring and management, and tool providing. Our study makes several contributes to the marketing literature on platform-based firms (Benoit et al. 2017; 6
Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Sundararajan 2014). First, our findings provide a coherent set of tactics that integrates and organizes previously dispersed insights. Second, we develop previous insights in more depth. For instance, we show how platforms leaders can teach providers despite the legal and logistical constraints they face. Third, we also suggest new categories of tactics such as inspiring and tool providing. In addition, the findings of this article indicate how platform leaders can shape the culture of emerging platform markets.
Summary of Paper 3
Platform-based firms rely on external service providers as their co-producers (Dellaert
2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018). Without the service provided by these co-producers, consumers would have no incentive to use their platforms (Fischer and Scaraboto 2018). The service providers themselves, however, can choose between several platforms in the marketplace so that platforms not only compete for consumers, but also for service providers (e.g. “Drivers wanted” 2019). Considering Airbnb as a context, this paper explores how platforms can attract and retain service providers. Airbnb constitutes an excellent context in which to study this question, because of the firm’s success in attracting millions of service providers and the notable loyalty of these providers to the platform (“Airbnb: A different breed of unicorn” 2017).
Drawing on archival, interview, and netnographic data, I identify three broad tactics that platform leaders can use to attract and retain service providers: branding, shaping role performances, and supporting. First, Airbnb’s success indicates the role of branding in attracting and retaining service providers. More specifically, I find that Airbnb has adopted an “emotional branding strategy” (Gobe 2010; Thompson et al. 2006): the brand targets potential service 7
providers through emotional advertisements, tries to establish a relationship based on trust and mutual respect, and communicates a compelling mission. Second, platform leaders can also attract and retain service providers by shaping role performances: the role performances shaped by Airbnb increase the enjoyment of the service interaction for providers, help to make providers feel appreciated and recognized, and reduce the work associated with the service provision.
Third, platform leaders can attract and retain service providers by supporting them in a variety of forms, namely through platform governance, by providing learning opportunities, tools, and customer service, and by connecting providers in a way that enables these providers to support each other. In addition to illustrating their effectiveness, I also shed light on some of the risks associated with some of these tactics. Finally, my findings also indicate how platforms can increase the enjoyment of the co-production experience more generally.
8
Discussion and Contributions
Contributions to the Platform Management Literature
The research presented in this dissertation makes several contributions to the marketing literature on the management of platform-based firms (Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018): it distills some of the key marketing challenges that platform leaders face, it integrates and organizes previous knowledge in a coherent set of categories, it develops existing insights in more depth, it adds new tactics and categories of tactics platform leaders can use to deal with the aforementioned challenges, and it inspires future research on platform management. I will consider each contribution in turn.
The first contribution of this thesis is that it distills some of the key challenges that platform leaders face from a marketing perspective. Although prior research has pointed out that platform-based firms rely on external co-creators (Dellaert 2019; Fischer and Scaraboto 2018), these studies have not explicitly articulated the challenge this implies, namely, to attract and retain service providers (Paper 3). Attracting and retaining service providers is essential since service providers can choose between numerous platforms in the marketplace. The second challenge platform leaders face is to manage service providers in the platform’s interest. From a marketing perspective, it is critical to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience the leaders aspire toward (Paper 2). While Benoit et al. (2017) note the challenge to ensure a certain level of service consistency, service quality is only one aspect of the customer 9
experience. The ultimate goal of brand management, however, is to create a distinctive and recognizable customer experience (Burmann and Zeplin 2005; Mosley 2007).
Second, this dissertation integrates and organizes previously dispersed findings, insights, and measures. By introducing broad categories of tactics such as branding and digital monitoring and management, this thesis organizes a number of original insights (for instance that platform leaders often articulate compelling missions (Benoit et al. 2017)) as well as a number of more concrete measures (for instance that successful platforms often use certifications (Perren and
Kozinets 2018)) into a coherent set of categories.
Third, this thesis develops previous insights in more depth. For instance, both Perren and
Kozinets (2018) as well as Dellaert (2019) note that platforms leaders should educate service providers, but they do not elaborate how platform leaders can teach providers given the logistical and legal constraints they face. Paper 2 shows in detail how platform leaders can educate service providers despite these constraints, for example, by exemplifying the customer experience in the platform’s marketing communication, by sourcing and circulating best practices from and beyond the platform market, as well as by enabling and encouraging peer-to-peer education.
Similarly, the research presented in this dissertation also shows in more depth how platform leaders can shape the culture of platform markets (Benoit et al. 2017; Parker et al. 2016;
Sundararajan 2014). Paper 1 indicates that successful platforms like Airbnb do not merely shape norms (Benoit et al. 2017), but roles. Instead of articulating every norm that users are expected to conform to individually, Airbnb has shaped the role of the host and the guest – each of which is associated with a number of norms (e.g. Darke and Gurney 2000; Pitt-Rivers 2012). Paper 1 and
Paper 2 indicate that platform leaders can use a combination of established methods to shape these roles: from choosing the right language, over storytelling and mythologizing, to valorizing 10
(e.g. Ford and Sturman 2011; Lawrence and Suddaby 2006; Schein 1984; Wilkins 1984). In addition, Paper 1 and Paper 2 also reveal the importance of the review system in maintaining the culture of platform markets.
This thesis also gives insight on how platform leaders can increase the enjoyment of the co-production experience for service providers. While Dellaert (2019) notes the importance of focusing on the co-production experience, he does not suggest ways in which platform leaders can improve the experience of providers. Paper 1 and 3 indicate the importance of shaping role performances which ensure a good experience for both for service providers and consumers.
Fourth, this dissertation identifies numerous new tactics as well as new categories of tactics platforms can use to attract, retain and manage service providers. For instance, this thesis highlights the possibility of inspiring users through tactics such as storytelling and mythologizing
(Paper 2) – an insight which resonates with existing branding literature (Morhart et al. 2009). In addition, the research presented in this thesis also indicates the role of platform tools. Paper 1 and Paper 2 show that the tools provided by the platform enable service providers to perform their roles and offer the kind of experience the platform leadership aspires to create. Similarly,
Paper 3 indicates that tool providing is an important way in which platform leaders can support service providers.
Finally, the research presented in this thesis may also inspire future research on the leadership of platform-based firms. One avenue for future research inspired by this thesis is to study the effectiveness of different leadership styles. An analysis of the extant literature on platform management implies that platform leaders should adopt a transactional leadership style, that is, to manage service providers through a combination of rewards (e.g. certification) and sanctions (e.g. actor screening) (e.g. Parker et al. 2016; Perren and Kozinets 2018). However, 11
Morhart et al. (2009) find that a transformative leadership style is more effective than a transactional leadership style when it comes to turning employees into brand champions and argue for a careful balance between these two styles. The research presented in this dissertation resonates with the findings of Morhart et al. (2009). Paper 2 indicates that Airbnb’s leadership style constitutes an effective hybrid of transactional and transformational leadership. While
Airbnb’s leaders use rewards and sanctions to ensure that service providers conform to critical service standards, they also try to inspire service providers. Future research could evaluate the acceptance of different leadership styles in the context of platform-based firms and identify conditions which make different leadership styles more or less effective. Another avenue for future research is to study how platform leaders can navigate the tension between attracting and retaining service providers on the one hand (Paper 3) and managing service providers on the other hand (Paper 2).
Contributions to the Sharing Economy Literature
This dissertation also contributes to the sharing economy literature (e.g. Belk 2014; Schor
2016; Sundararajan 2016). In one of the first academic essays on the sharing economy, Belk
(2014) argued that exchange in the sharing economy occupies the grey area between sharing and market exchange. Similarly, Sundararajan (2016) concludes that the sharing economy is essentially a hybrid between gift and market economies. Hybrid economies are “characterized by the co-existence of multiple modes of exchange, guided by logics that only squarely fit those commonly associated with prototypical market-based exchange, sharing, gift-giving or other familiar modes of exchange” (Scaraboto 2015, 153). Paper 1 provides support for the notion that 12
sharing economy businesses blur the boundaries between market and gift economies
(Sundararajan 2016). By explicitly adopting an institutional logic perspective (Friedland and
Alford 1991; Thornton and Ocasio 1999; Thornton et al. 2012), however, it also indicates that it is potentially more illuminating to examine the field-specific logics sharing economy businesses are based on. For example, Sundararajan (2016) rightly observes a large amount of “gift giving” in the context of Airbnb. Paper 1 indicates, however, that the behavior of Airbnb users can be much better explained by the logic of hospitality (Pitt-Rivers 2012) and the norms and role expectations associated with this logic (Darke and Gurney 2000).
In addition, Paper 1 indicates how sharing economy leaders can deal with the tensions between market and non-market logics. Specifically, Paper 1 shows that Airbnb users enact hybrid performances, which effectively hybridize the conflicting logics the platform is based on, and indicates how platform leaders can shape such performances. Although hybrid performances are especially evident in the context of Airbnb (Hellwig et al. 2015; Ikkala and Lampinen 2015;
Roelofsen 2018), they are also apparent on other sharing economy platforms (e.g. Philip et al.
2015).
Last but not least, the research presented in this dissertation indicates that the notion of the sharing economy was to some extent a marketing vehicle for platforms in their growth phase
(Paper 3). After its foundation, Airbnb effectively positioned itself as a protagonist of the sharing economy – the brand became eventually essentially synonymous with the concept (Schor 2016).
The notion of the sharing economy is, however, remarkably absent in Airbnb’s marketing communication (Paper 2), since Airbnb’s leadership decided in 2012 against expanding within the sharing economy (for example by enabling its users to list further idle assets like cars) and to focus on the lodging market instead (Carr 2014). 13
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Appendix I: Full Papers
18
Airbnb and Hybridized Logics of Commercial and Domestic Hospitality
Georg von Richthofen ETH Zurich
Eileen Fischer York University
Abstract: Institutional logics prescribe goals, identities and norms and shape how actors think, feel and act. Prior research has shown that organizations that draw on multiple logics must find a way to navigate possible tensions between logics. In this chapter, we examine Airbnb, a platform matching providers and consumers of accommodation. Airbnb’s founders forged their business opportunity on two contrasting logics, the logic of commercial and domestic hospitality. Considering Airbnb, we investigate how platform-based firms and their users navigate the tensions between logics in a way that allow the platform to be sustained and successful. Drawing on multiple qualitative data sources, we find that Airbnb’s users hybridize these two logics by sustaining the semblance of hospitality within commercial parameters. This involves users performing the roles of the host and the guest and enacting associated norms and practices. Airbnb’s management has enabled and supported these performances in two ways. The firm has shaped the role of the host and the guest through storytelling and teaches users concrete practices and norms to enact these roles. In addition, the platform equips its users with the tools needed to perform hybridity.
Keywords: platform-based firms, logic multiplicity, hybridized performances, hospitality, sharing economy, Airbnb
19
This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in the “Handbook of the Sharing Economy” edited by Russel W. Belk, Giana M. Eckhardt, and Fleura Bardhi, published in 2019 by Edward
Elgar Publishing Ltd https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788110549.00023
The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only. Reproduced with permission of The Licensor through PLSclear.
Sharing and market exchange have been juxtaposed as contrasting practices that occur in distinct societal domains (Belk 2010). Yet the emerging “sharing economy,” enabled by the increasing prevalence of reputation systems and platforms, has burgeoned (e.g. Botsman and
Rogers 2010). A case in point is Airbnb, a platform matching providers and consumers of accommodations (Parker, Van Alstyne and Choudary 2016), which has been often referred to as the flagship of the sharing economy (e.g. Sundararajan 2014). The company enables “guests” to stay in the homes of their “hosts” and it is not unusual for hosts and guests to socialize with each other throughout the stay (Hellwig, Belk and Morhart 2015; Ikkala and Lampinen 2015). Thus,
Airbnb illustrates that practices which once appeared mutually exclusive can somehow, sometimes, be blended with each other within particular fields or markets.
In this chapter, we study this process by adopting an institutional logic perspective
(Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton and Ocasio 1999; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012) to address this question: how are tensions between logics navigated in ways that allow a platform like Airbnb to be sustained and successful? We begin by reviewing relevant theory. We then proceed to an empirical analysis that addresses this question.
Institutional logics 20
Institutional logics are “socially constructed, historical patterns of cultural symbols and material practices, including assumptions, values, and beliefs, by which individuals and organizations provide meaning to their daily activity, organize time and space, and reproduce their lives and experiences” (Thornton and Ocasio 1999, 804). Logics direct actors by providing organizing principles, norms and identities (Friedland and Alford 1991). They shape what social actors see as appropriate versus inappropriate behavior. Actions that seem perfectly appropriate or rational in the context of the family, for example, may be considered inappropriate and irrational in a business context. Individuals are familiar with and have been socialized into a range of different logics and readily navigate different logics within different social domains
(Thornton et al. 2012).
Thornton et al. (2012) distinguish between societal logics, which correspond to ideal types of social institutions that prevail in large parts of societies (e.g. family, community, religion, or market) and more localized logics such as those at field or organizational levels.
Field and organization level logics are usually historically specific instantiations of societal logics that are more bounded in scope and must be determined empirically. The field of fashion, for example, is based both on the field-level logic of art and a historically specific form of the societal logic of commerce (e.g. Scaraboto and Fischer 2013). And organizations frequently exhibit a logic of commerce in combination with another logic (e.g. Jay 2013). As these examples suggest, at field- and organization specific levels, multiple logics often co-exist. And while plural logics need not be in conflict, there are often latent tensions between them which can occasionally become acute (e.g. Ertimur and Coskuner-Balli 2015; Friedland and Alford
1991; Jay 2013; Toubiana and Zietsma 2017). We will next describe two logics that the platform 21
organizer, Airbnb, has tacitly but effectively drawn on to forge its business opportunity, mining anthropological literature to articulate these logics.
Plural logics in the Airbnb platform
The Logic of Domestic Hospitality: Domestic hospitality is the act of transforming outsiders into (temporary) insiders. This act usually implies that one insider (the host) takes responsibility for the outsider (the guest) and attends to him, for example, by offering food and drink (Pitt-Rivers 2012; Selwyn 2000). In this process, hospitality creates a reciprocal bond between the host and guest, and its norms are violated if such a bond is not (re)produced.
Several relatively universal norms exist that guide the behavior of both hosts and guests.
For example: “It is always the host who ordains, the guest who complies” (Pitt-Rivers 2012,
513). Further, being a good host implies an “appropriate motive,” namely “a genuine desire to please guests and make them happy” (Lashley 2000, 11). The host must “attend to his guests, to grant them the precedence which is their due, to show concern for their needs and wishes or in general to earn the gratitude which guests should show” (Pitt-Rivers 2012, 516). The host is expected to make sure to provide the guest with everything he needs. This may involve sharing a meal, offering food and drink, as well as making sure the guest is safe.
The guest, in turn, is supposed to treat the host and his home with respect, which implies that the guest does not complain if the host actually does not meet the guest’s expectations or standards (Darke and Gurney 2000). Within this logic, there are variations, for example, between
“putting somebody up” and inviting somebody to one’s place (Darke and Gurney 2000). In the former case, the host has fewer obligations to the guest. However, in both it is assumed that hosts 22
and guests behave in a warm and friendly manner to one another that places priority on sustaining warm social bonds.
Evidence that the founders of Airbnb have drawn on the logic of domestic hospitality is apparent in the platform’s nomenclature: they use the terms “hosts” and “guests” to refer to the service providers and clients who they connect via their platform. It is also apparent in the rhetoric that Airbnb directs toward platform participants, as in the following speech by one of the co-founders:
What Airbnb is about, it’s not just about a house, it’s about a home. And there is a difference
between a house and a home. You see a house is a space but a home is a place where you
accept people as if they are family. Being a host is about caring for somebody else. Being a
host means that you make someone else feel like they belong. (Brian Chesky’s keynote
speech at the Airbnb Open 2015)
This quotation reinforces that hosts are meant to treat guests “as if they are family” and to make them “feel like they belong.” Such rhetoric clearly aligns with a logic of domestic hospitality. It stands in contrast, however, to the logic of commercial hospitality, which we describe next.
The Logic of Commercial Hospitality: The logic of commercial hospitality is a historically specific instantiation of the logic of hospitality and the societal logic of commerce and has long dominated markets in which hotels, motels, and the like compete. In its ideal type, the logic of commerce prescribes that enterprises should seek to maximize profits, while individuals engaging in exchanges with enterprises should seek to maximize their self-interest. In contrast to the domestic hospitality logic, it implies no reciprocal obligation or bond between sellers and buyers after a transaction (Thornton et al. 2012). In markets dominated by the logic of 23
commercial hospitality, “the commercial provision of hospitality activities is chiefly driven by the need to extract surplus value from the exchange” (Lashley 2000, 13).
The norms for both hosts and guests are very different in a commercial context. Hosts are not expected to deliver more than they contractually promised. Guests pay, in part, for being able to ignore the norms and role expectations associated with being a guest, for having privacy, and for being relieved of reciprocal obligations of domestic hospitality (Selwyn 2000). Commercial guests do not have to pay attention to the sensibilities of their hosts. Commercial hosts are expected to conform to a multiplicity of standards that have emerged in the hospitality industry regard to amenities, cleanliness, equipment, and services (Darke and Gurney 2000; Sandoval-
Strausz 2007).
Evidence that the entrepreneurs who run Airbnb also draw on the logic of commercial hospitality is also abundant. For example, the Airbnb website’s “About us” statement reads in part as follows:
Airbnb uniquely leverages technology to economically empower millions of people
around the world to unlock and monetize their spaces, passions and talents to become
hospitality entrepreneurs. (Airbnb Newsroom, “About Us”, May 13, 2018)
The same individuals who are referred to elsewhere as “hosts” are here dubbed “hospitality entrepreneurs,” and the incentives highlighted here appear largely monetary.
Beyond rhetoric, the very basis of Airbnb’s business model is inherently commercial: the platform transfers money from guests to hosts, and encourages guests to evaluate their hosts and their experience thoroughly with ratings and reviews after their stay. The fact that money is exchanged suggests that the logic of commercial hospitality applies. 24
The co-existence of these sharply contrasting logics on the Airbnb platform, not surprisingly, results in tensions between the two. Forum posts by hosts who complain of guest behavior that violates the logic of domestic hospitality clearly illustrate how tensions between the logics can, at times, become acute. Consider the following forum post:
[…] Miss late pants spent all day in our dining room, where she plugged in her computer,
and spoke loudly (yelling at times) into her phone. She decided she was doing business
from there, even though she had a perfectly good desk in her room. Left her boyfriend to
act as lunch gatherer, and 'the ignored one'. When I tried to clean the breakfast things
from around her cables and wires and papers, she didn't so much as glance up to say a
word to me - nothing. I was the maid I guess. […] (GoodbyeSandy, October 17, 2015,
reply to “Late arrivals for guests in home”, Airhostsforum)
The post reflects that GoodbyeSandy is frustrated that a guest is acting in accordance with a commercial logic (treating her as a “maid”). In accordance with a domestic hosting logic,
GoodbyeSandy feels the guest should acknowledge her as a person, and should not conduct business in the dining room. Treating the host like a servant is considered a taboo in a domestic context (Darke and Gurney 2000).
Tensions can also be experienced when guests seem to presume upon the logic of domestic hospitality in a way that takes advantage of hosts who are trying to adhere to a commercial logic. The following post is illustrative:
First of all, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that 99% of my Airbnb guests are
amazing and a pleasure to host / meet..... but just occasionally there is the odd one whom
I am acutely annoyed by, rarrr!!
Basically, 2 girls stayed the other day who seemed nice on the out-set.. though ended up 25
being idiots - i.e. slamming doors, inane high-pitched giggling after hours, not locking the
front door properly (after having shown them how) .. you get the picture .. Now all this I
can handle and would normally excuse them as young and inexperienced travellers ..
But the final straw came on the day of check out when they proceeded to linger around
well past the outlined check out time (11am). I wanted to clean up for the next guest and
pop out - put me in the awkward situation of reminding them that check out is 11am (it
was already 1pm) to which they replied that they knew/were just packing up/asking me if
I had scaled to weigh their luggage/asking me if they could leave their luggage as their
flight wasn't later in the day, etc ..
Argh! I was so annoyed, haha! The fact that they actually knew they were supposed to
have left much sooner but chose to ignore .. (Kittyp, November 24, 2015, “Totally
awkward moment when you have to remind a guest to leave?”, Airhostsforum)
Kittyp is trying to act in an efficient and business like fashion toward the travelers she hosts. She is frustrated that the young women adopt a relaxed attitude toward her checkout time, and ask for kindnesses (weighing their bags, and storing them) that would be probably be readily extended to a personal friend or relative she had invited to her home.
As these and many similar posts to forums frequented by Airbnb hosts reveal, then, tensions between the domestic and commercial hosting logics are routine. What is striking, however, is that despite these tensions the platform prospers. Prior research has shown that conflicting logics can be highly destabilizing to organizations (e.g. Toubiana and Zietsma 2017), but in 2017, for example, Airbnb reported almost $100 million in profit on $2.6 billion in revenue (Bort 2018). This raises a question relevant to Airbnb and other platforms with 26
persistently plural logics: how are tensions between logics navigated in ways that allow the platform to be sustained and successful?
In order to address this research question, we examine actions of both the platform owners and users. Considering the role of providers (hosts) is important, because platforms like
Airbnb rely on the services providers by its users, who ultimately control most of the consumer experience and shape the logics of the market by enacting identities, practices and norms. But it is also important to consider the role of the platform leader, because platforms exercise mechanism of governance that shape user behaviors (Parker et al. 2016).
Data and Method
We draw on archival data, netnographic data and our own experience of using the Airbnb platform. Our archival data include: all Airbnb blog posts between 2008 and 2017 (totaling 799 pages of single-spaced text); the text on the Airbnb website; and tutorials created by Airbnb for the users of the platform. The netnographic data were collected from May 2015 to May 2018 on an online forum explicitly targeted towards Airbnb hosts, called “Airhostsforum”
(http://airhostsforum.com), and encompass several thousand single-spaced pages of text.
Finally, we also draw on our own experience of staying in 13 different Airbnb listings between
2014 and 2017 for 64 days in total. Our data analysis was driven by our research question as well as our enabling lens, following established guidelines (Belk, Fischer, and Kozinets 2013).
Hybridized Performances: Enacting A Semblance of Domestic Hospitality Within
Commercial Parameters 27
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, two of Airbnb’s three founders, came up with the idea for
Airbnb, when they were sharing an apartment in San Francisco and struggling to make rent.
When most hotels were booked and hotel prices skyrocketed because of a conference in town, they decided to make some extra money by renting out air matrasses in their living room. It was that experience that, according to the founders, led to the idea for their start-up. Evidently,
Airbnb’s founders themselves were commercially motivated from the very beginning – their goal was to make the money they needed to pay their rent. Nevertheless, they still put emphasis on being good hosts and sustaining a semblance of domestic hospitality, for example, by showing their guests around in San Francisco (e.g. Gallagher 2017). When the entrepreneurs eventually founded Airbnb, they positioned the platform in the grey area between non-commercial forms of hospitality (e.g. CouchSurfing) and more conventional, commercial forms of hospitality (e.g. hotels) (Botsman and Rogers 2010). The character of the Airbnb platform has changed a lot over the last decade (Gallagher 2017). But, not unlike Airbnb’s founders, its users still tend to sustain the semblance of domestic hospitality while acting within commercial parameters, thereby hybridizing the logic of domestic and the logic of commercial hospitality.
Sustaining a semblance of domestic hospitality while acting within commercial parameters is an important part of navigating the tensions between logics, because hosts, especially those who accommodate consumers in their own domestic space, experience tensions when guests violate domestic norms. But guests may experience tensions, too, when hosts violate the norms of domestic hospitality and they do not feel welcome in the private space of the host.
In the following, we will first show how Airbnb’s users sustain the semblance of domestic hospitality by performing the role of the host and the guest and enacting domestic 28
practices and norms. Next, we will elaborate on how Airbnb has contributed to these hybridized performances.
How Airbnb’s users enact a semblance of domestic hospitality within commercial parameters
Our research suggests that Airbnb users performatively enact a range of domestic practices and norms while interacting, and transacting, with one another. This is evident through their entire role performances, from first booking request to the review of the stay. While not all
Airbnb users always behave in the ways we describe, those that do effectively perform hybridity.
The host – guest interaction typically begins with a, from a commercial viewpoint, unusually friendly conversation between the host and the guest through Airbnb’s messaging system. When guests send hosts booking inquiries, they tend to introduce themselves, praise the listing of the hosts and inform them about the purpose of their trip as well as other guests accompanying them. The following inquiry illustrates this:
Hi […], I am a PhD student from […] and currently […] in Toronto. My best friend […]
is visiting me from Germany and we wanted to relax a bit […] and explore St. Edward
County for 2 days. Your place looks lovely - I hope it works out. (Booking inquiry, Stay
10, May 2016)
The initial interaction is facilitated by the fact that many users have elaborate profiles in which they describe their hobbies, family status, interests, political convictions and more (Roelofsen and Minca 2018, 175).
Soon after the booking, hosts send their guests further information, for example, about their neighborhood and instructions that help guests to get to the accommodation. Some hosts 29
even arrange a driver or pick their guests up from the airport or train station themselves.
Although the use of keycodes that enable guests to access the accommodation of hosts in their absence is pervasive, many hosts still intentionally welcome and greet their guests in person.
Even hosts who don’t often find ways to make their guests feel welcome through handwritten welcome cards or small gifts (e.g. a bottle of wine). Some guests return the favor by bringing their hosts small gifts or souvenirs.
The initial greeting ritual, when conducted in person, also involves the hosts showing their guests around and engaging in friendly small-talk. In addition, hosts often give their guests personal suggestions on what to do during their stay and recommend local restaurants. The following forum post nicely illustrates how Airbnb hosts sustain the semblance of domestic hospitality while practicing commercial hospitality:
I have a hosted about 120 nights to date, and find that my super host status is maintained
through great communication, setting clear expectations, and the philosophy that I am in
the customer service business and guests have a right to have fun, relax and not worry
about too many restrictions….
My wife or I send out a detailed welcome message the moment guests make a reservation
with tips about San Francisco, and our home including door key codes. We resend this
message within a week of the guest's arrival, since some of them tend to have
forgotten/lost it.
If we are home, we make it a point to welcome the guest personally, and show them the
breakfast items and snacks sitting in the kitchen, and walk them through the apartment.
We also try to say goodbye in person if we are around.
We are also social, and will spend 5 to 15 minutes chatting with them at least once during 30
their stay, sometimes bringing out a bottle of wine to share with them if we have the time.
(pankaja, September 17, 2016, reply to "What are your top tips for making your guests
happy?", Airhostsforum)
Hosts like pankaja are pretty clear and unapologetic about the fact that hosting for them is a business. In panakaja’s view, this attitude actually helps him to make his guests happy and get good reviews, which are needed to maintain his “Superhost status”, because his guests do not have to conform to the more rigid norms of domestic hospitality (“guests have a right to have fun, relax and not worry about too many restrictions”). However, pankaja also adheres to a domestic logic. Together with his wife, he attends to his guests and enacts a range of practices which are associated more with domestic than commercial hospitality. This starts with sending a
“detailed welcome message the moment guests make a reservation with tips about San
Francisco”, but also involves routines such as welcoming guests and seeing guests off in person, engaging in small-talk, and in some cases, sharing a bottle of wine with guests.
Guests, too, embody their roles and enact domestic norms of hospitality. They greet their hosts warmly, by name, and compliment their hosts on their homes, their guest rooms, and so on.
Guests also normally actively listen to the host’s explanations when making the tour. This initial interaction, including the small-talk, has become so taken for granted that hosts experience tensions when guests do not play along, as the following forum post illustrates:
Is this something worth mentioning in the review? It seems like international male
travelers are more likely to do this. Is that a sexist behavior? I tried to show interest in
him as a person, do the general chit chat, and he was not having it. At one point I was mid
sentence and he cut me off to ask about the bus lines. I could tell he was waiting for me to
"shut up" and that I was "wasting his time". It felt like how I feel when a salesperson at a 31
store wants to go into their spiel and I'm not interested. (searchtobelost, September 11,
2016, “Guests who act disinterested in the tour, rush you, and cut you off”)
The post shows that searchtobelost experiences tensions because she tries to adhere to the logic of domestic hospitality, by “showing interest” in her guest “as a person” and by doing the
“general chit chat”, whereas the guest does not put in the effort that one would expect in a domestic context and behaves like a busy customer in a more conventional commercial situation.
The fact that posts like this are relatively rare, however, indicates that most guests actually conform to the domestic norms upon arrival. Note that the post also indicates that hosts and guests tend to discipline each other to conform to domestic norms, because the host is immediately considering to mention the guest’s impoliteness in the review.
The interaction throughout the stay depends a lot on the physical closeness of the host and the guest. There is a big difference between whether the guest stays in a private room within the host’s home or rents an entire apartment. In the former case, the host and the guest typically interact more with each other. But, in either case, it is in general not unusual for hosts to socialize and spend time with their guests during the stay (c.f. Hellwig et al. 2015; Ikkala and
Lampinen 2015), despite the commercial nature of the transaction. This may involve having a drink together (like pankaja does with his guests), sharing a meal or even spending time together outside the home. The following forum post indicates that some hosts intentionally spend some time with their guests to improve the guest experience and get good reviews:
[…] I do think that the personal contact between host and guest can add to the holiday
experience, and this is borne out by our reviews which focus on, ahem, what lovely
people we are! This is not accidental: both my husband and I are dyed-in-the-wool
introverts who have learned to develop our social skills mostly through a career attached 32
to the diplomatic service. What I have found is that it's the quality rather than the quantity
of the interaction that's important.
I therefore make sure that if possible I'm around to welcome guests and after they've
settled in (or next morning if they're arriving late) I spend some time finding out what
their plans are, going over directions for the beach, town centre etc and getting to know
them a little. After that initial meeting, one of us usually makes contact about once a day -
their terrace gives onto our garden and pool so it's easy to do without being too intrusive -
in a how was your day? anything we can help with? 10-minute chat.
In the second half of their stay (most guests are here about a week) we invite them to
have a glass of wine and tapas with us. If we get on well with them it can extend to
several bottles and an inpromptu supper, and if we don't click, they still seem to
appreciate it and we feel we've fulfilled our hosting duty! […] (Malagachica, July 6,
2016, reply to “Can someone who is not very outgoing be a successful host?”,
Airhostsforum)
The post shows that Malagachica enacts a range of practices associated with domestic hospitality: she welcomes her guests in person, engages in small-talk, and invites her guests for a drink and tapas in the second half of their stay. Doing so, she fulfills her “hosting duty” and satisfies the logic of domestic hospitality. But the post also nicely illustrates that Malagachica adheres to a commercial logic at the same time, because she has learned that these practices translate into positive reviews. Regardless of a host’s motivation for adhering to a domestic logic, such actions contribute to sustaining the semblance of domestic hospitality.
In general, we find that guests tend to pay attention to the norms of domestic hospitality throughout their stay, especially when staying with the host or when the host is close. This 33
means, for example, that guests avoid disturbing the host (or neighbors) throughout the stay and pay attention to issues such as noise as well as the routines of the host. Guests also tend to avoid to make a mess and to clean up after themselves. Hosts report that they often find the rental space in an “immaculate state” (jamfactoryken, November 4, 2015, reply to “Diary of a Happy
Host?”), and others that the guestroom sometimes “looks just as neat as when they checked in!”
(dcmooney, June 30, 2016, reply to “Why guests make the beds?”, Airhostsforum). Some hosts are genuinely surprised about the fact that guests leave the space in such a good condition and even make their beds or strip the lines. Consider the following forum conversation:
[…] I don’t get the guests who strip the bed, why would they do this? Would you ever do
that in a hotel? (azreala, June 30, 2016, reply to “Why guests make the beds?”,
Airhostsforum)
This is a conundrum. Most of our guests remake the bed, accent pillows and all.
When we visit friends or another Airbnb I strip the bed and put all the linens in one
pillow case for cleaning. I don’t remember when I started this, only that I read
somewhere years ago this was a ‘good thing’ (thank you Martha) to do to be a gracious
guest. (MizMavis, June 30, 2016, reply to “Why guests make the beds?”, Airhostsforum)
The comment of MizMavis, who also uses Airbnb as a guest, indicates that there are subtle,
Airbnb specific norms, which hybridize domestic and commercial hospitality and that guests strive to be “gracious” in the same way that hosts strive to.
In stark contrast to the hotel industry, many Airbnb hosts allow guests to check-out late, and in many cases do not charge them extra for this service. Such favors help to sustain the semblance of domestic hospitality and set the experience apart from the stay in a hotel or other more conventional commercial form of accommodation. The following forum quote illustrates 34
that some host actually consciously decide against charging guests for such services, because they consider doing so too commercial.
Though my check out also supposedly at 12, I keep it flexible. For me extra 20$ for a
couple hours stay is too hotel like. We keep reminding our guests that it's not a hotel they
renting so they can't expect everything to be run like In a hotel ( everyday cleaning,
superclean, fresh towels everyday, breakfast, etc) but at the same time we have hotel rules
with checking in and checking out. With hotels it's understandable: they are running a
non stop business with cleaning staff that is on a schedule. But … thats the beauty of
Airbnb, that we can have a personal touch. I put check out time at 12 with explanation
that if there are no other guests arriving its flexible. (Yana, July 25, 2015, reply to "Do
you charge for late check outs, and how do you do it?", Airhostsforum)
Guests also perform a hybrid of commercial and domestic hospitality by leaving their hosts small thank you cards and gifts when they leave. Forum posts indicate that hosts appreciate the gesture:
[…] I mean I also like to vent sometimes, but its not all about the terrible guests. …
Other simple things, like guests leaving the sweetest notes and reviews, as well as gifts is
lovely. Again its usually unexpected. Through it all, the gracious guests always outweigh
the bad;) […] (sunshine1, November 4, 2015, reply to “Diary of a Happy Host?”,
Airhostsforum)
This quote indicates that guests not only reciprocate the friendliness and generosity of the host through notes and gifts (domestic practices), but also by writing good reviews (commercial practices). 35
In sum, we find that Airbnb’s users embody the role of the host and the guest. They adhere to the logic of domestic hospitality and try to be “good hosts” and “good guests” by enacting hybridized practices. Through these performances, they help to prevent triggering tensions between the logics of commercial and domestic hospitality. Next, we will consider how the Airbnb platform has contributed to the institutionalization of these performances and how the tools that the platform provides facilitate hybrid practices.
The role of the platform
Shaping host and guest performances: Airbnb’s leadership helps to foster hybridity through storytelling and through educating its users. The following Airbnb blog post nicely illustrates, for example, storytelling that educates users about the host role:
Three weeks into our trip, we were in Wisconsin and riding high. That’s when disaster
struck. I (Anna) sustained an injury that prevented me from cycling for several weeks.
We decided that Boris should continue, while I would recuperate and meet him in
Denver.
Logistically, this would be tough. I would have to transfer the bike and trailer with all of
my possessions to Denver and then store it there for almost 15 days while I flew back
home to recover. Fortunately, we already had accommodations booked in Denver with a
couple of Airbnb hosts, LJ and Kelly.
I contacted LJ the night before I was to depart on my 20-hour-long bus ride to Denver
with what seemed like an endless list of last-minute requests. I was sure he would deny
them all, from asking for accommodations several weeks before our actual reservation – 36
complete with storage space for my bike and trailers – as well as requesting him to let me
mail some personal items to his house.
Astoundingly, LJ said yes to everything. In addition, he made time to pick me up at the
bus station the following morning and offered me breakfast.
Later that evening, LJ sensed how upset and frustrated I was at having to take a break
from my trip. To cheer me up, he offered to take me to a tea house in Boulder – about 40
miles away […]
Staying with LJ and Kelly quickly became like visiting old friends – the kind who are
always there for you when you find yourself in a bind. […] We’ve talked with several
hosts who have also reflected on the strong friendships they’ve formed with some of their
guests. For them, us, and so many others in the Airbnb community, this is an opportunity
to make memories – and friendships – that will last a lifetime. (Airbnb blog, June 4, 2012,
“Across America on an Electric Bike, Part 5: How to Make True Friends”, from June 4,
2012)
In addition to circulating inspiring (and instructive) stories from Airbnb users like Anna, Airbnb also offers more blatantly pointed tips about how transacting users can treat each other like hosts and guests, as the following excerpt illustrates:
Our community continues to amaze us. Every day, Airbnb hosts provide the best
customer service imaginable, welcoming guests into their spaces and treating them
hospitably and generously. Our guests return the favor, giving kudos to our hosts and
even go so far as to purchase them gifts from their travels. (Airbnb Blog, February 14,
2012, “Why we will always love you”) 37
We’re proud of the personal connections we help create every day. And we’re inspired by
the fact that Airbnb hosts are going the extra mile to surprise their guests – by picking
them from the airport, by cooking them meals, by showing them their cities – all the time.
(Airbnb Blog, March 22, 2012, “How to create love at first sight: Airbnb’s SXSW
welcome”)
Note that such posts equip users with concrete ideas how to enact hybridity. The first post suggests that guests can reciprocate the generosity of their host, by bringing them “gifts from their travels.” The second suggests that hosts should go “the extra mile,” pick their guests up, cook them meals and show them around. It is notable that Airbnb’s blog posts collectively imply that the vast majority of hosts behave this way. The company never publicizes cases where hosts and guests treat each other in a more purely conventional, commercial manner.
Instead, the site offers such educational tips as the following excerpt from Airbnb’s help desk:
How can I be a considerate guest? […] To help you prepare, here are a few tips to help
enhance your experience with your listing and your host.
Before you book
• Share your story in the bio section of your profile, and get a Verified ID. Hosts
prefer to know who's asking to stay with them, and as a result you may have a
better chance of your requests being accepted. […]
Before your trip
• Communicate clearly with your host about any expectations or special needs you
may have.
• Always let your host know if you're likely to arrive late for check-in. 38
On your trip
• Honor your commitments (including arrival time) and any house rules.
• Enjoy your host's home as if you were staying with friends. Be respectful of your
neighbors.
• Explore the neighborhood and support local businesses. It's a great way to feel
more like a local. Try asking your host about their favorite neighborhood spots!
• Get your host's permission before having guests over.
• When in doubt, reach out to your host with any questions or problems that arise.
[…] (Airbnb Help Desk, “How can I be a considerate guest?”, accessed May 17,
2018)
The blog post perfectly illustrates how Airbnb is trying to prevent tensions between logics by educating guests on how to integrate the two. Specifically, Airbnb teaches guests to
“Enjoy your host's home as if you were staying with friends”, by honoring “commitments
(including arrival time) and any house rules” and by asking hosts for permission before bring extra guests to the accommodation. By doing so, Airbnb helps to reduce the probability that hosts experience tensions when guests break domestic taboos and treat them or their homes like mere commodities.
Airbnb likewise educates hosts through blog posts and through official tutorials like the following:
Showing that you pay attention makes guests feel special. Travelers love a personalized
welcome. Imagine all that can go wrong during a long day of travel—delayed flights, taxi
lines, airport food, and lost luggage. Something as small as greeting your guest by name
can transform a day of anonymous transactions into a moment of recognition and 39
belonging. Even hosts who can’t greet their guests in person can put details like these in
their messages. A handwritten welcome note can have a big impact. […] Learning about
your guests before they arrive can help turn strangers into new friends. Your goal is to
make your guests feel safe, in control, and connected. “Showing that you pay attention
makes guests feel Special” (Airbnb, January 31, 2018, Resources for Hosting),
Again, the tactics Airbnb suggests encourage hosts to seamlessly couple practices from the two competing logics.
Providing tools for performing hybridity: The Airbnb platform also provides various tools that help its users perform hybridity. First, users are required to create a profile. Airbnb prompts users to create elaborate ones. Such profiles enable hosts and guests to get to know each other prior to a stay and help to create a feeling of familiarity while also providing factual information relevant to the efficient provision of service. In addition, Airbnb enables hosts to describe their house rules in their listing. Thus, guests already know the specific norms of a particular place, which help to sustain the semblance of domestic hospitality, because the host does not have to formally elaborate these norms anymore.
Second, Airbnb enables hosts and guests to communicate with each other before the booking and stay. The platform digitally nudges users to adopt the tools to communicate with each other. When a user sends a host a booking request, for example, the platform prompts him to tell the host a little about the purpose of his trip and about his co-travelers. Third, Airbnb handles the payment between hosts and guests so that money does not literally exchange hands.
Prior research found that hospitality providers and consumers find it easier to treat each other like hosts and guests when no money exchanges hands (Pearce 1990). Airbnb hosts appreciate this fact, as the following host comment indicates: “I’m with Airbnb because I like the way 40
Airbnb handles the payments etc, so that I can focus on being-nice-for-my-guests”
(Martin_Mulder, January 23, 2015, reply to “One person booked and paid but two stayed. They did not pay the extra for shared occupancy despite being asked”, Airhostsforum).
Last but not least, Airbnb’s hosts can choose to accept/decline booking requests without being penalized for doing so. This constitutes a key difference between Airbnb and other accommodation platforms, like Booking.com. Collectively, these tools facilitate what we refer to as “matchmaking.” The suite of tools mean that hosts can signal to guests the extent to which they may expect an experience that is more or less closely aligned with domestic or commercial hospitality, and guests can choose hosts whose style they prefer.
Whereas other accommodation platforms tend to have relatively standardized listings where providers fill in their information, Airbnb hosts can describe in detail what they are offering. The platform also provides hosts with additional “rubrics” in the description of their listing, where hosts can elaborate their house rules and explain how they will interact with their guests. Airbnb also educates hosts to describe their offering in an accurate and clear manner:
[…] As you write your description, honesty and accuracy is key. This is an opportunity to
highlight what’s unique about your space, as well as anything guests might find
surprising. You can also include details on how you want to interact with your guests and
any rules you want to be sure guests are aware of before they book. […] (Airbnb
Toolkits, “Your Listing Summary”, accessed January 25, 2018)
Our netnographic data suggests that hosts who use the platform regularly put considerable effort into crafting their listing, as the following excerpt from a forum post nicely illustrates: “I've obsessed over our listing! It's like a garden - I weed, trim, water, fertilize...I hope some day I can just let it rest.” (dcmooney, October 30, 2015, reply to “New to the forum”, Airhostsforum). This 41
also involves hosts describing carefully how they will interact with their guests. Consider the following descriptions from Airbnb hosts who rent out private rooms in their own apartments:
We are happy to talk to you over breakfast or dinner, or have a glass of wine together.
When we have time, we are also happy to show you the beautiful oldtown […]. (Airbnb
listing, Germany, accessed May 20, 2018)
I normally am present during the time a guest stays with me but not sitting on top of
them. You do your thing, I do my thing. But if you need help I am there. I also like to
help my guests discover the corners of Zurich worth getting to know, find the proper
places to have food etc... (Airbnb listing, Switzerland, accessed July 27, 2014)
We interact with our guests as friends and frequently invite them to our private bar where
we play music and often dance! (Airbnb listing, Switzerland, accessed July 27, 2014)
The first description indicates that the hosts are open to socializing and spending time with their guests, but do not expect it. The second description indicates that the host is looking for independent guests, who do their own thing and do not disturb the host. The third description suggests that guests are treated like friends and become a part of the life of their hosts. Guests, who seek privacy and have a full schedule during their stay, will likely be repelled by the third listing, whereas Airbnb users, who travel alone and/or like to connect with their hosts on a deeper level, might consider it a great find. Not all hosts describe the way they interact with their guests in such detail. But hosts tend to use this section to give guests a sense of what to expect and will usually try to make sure that guests who seek something different than what the host provides, are less likely to contact the host in the first place.
The Airbnb platform also allows hosts to deny booking requests and to screen out guests who seem like a bad match for their listing. Our netnographic data indicate that hosts draw on 42
their experience with prior guests and the content of the booking request, the way the guest communicates as well as previous reviews written by the guest, to decide whether a guest is a good fit for their offering. One clue is when a guest makes a lot of demands upfront. Another clue that hosts use to screen out guests is, when a guest tries to negotiate the price of the rental.
We find that most Airbnb hosts are irritated by guests who try to bargain and that many use this as an indicator that the guest is a bad match for them. The following forum comment nicely captures this sentiment: “Just say no to bargain hunters. They are not the kind of guests you want and no matter how much you take off their booking it won't be enough. Guests who don't respect your price won't respect your place. (konacoconutz, November 6, 2016, reply to “Denying bargain hunters”). It is worth noting that bargaining is, according to Max Weber, the “market’s most distinctive feature” (Swedberg 2003, 120). Thus, the practice seems to have the capacity to give the exchange a more completely commercial character and to destabilize the delicate balance between the commercial and domestic hospitality logics.
In sum, our findings indicate that Airbnb has contributed in various ways to practicing hybridity on its platform. The firm has shaped the role of the host and the guest, notably through storytelling, and teaches users a range of practices and norms that help users to enact these roles.
In addition, the firm provides users also with the tools that help to sustain the semblance of domestic hospitality while conforming to commercial parameters.
Discussion and Conclusions
Our findings resonate with prior literature, which has argued that platforms shape the behavior of users through governance mechanisms (e.g. Parker et al. 2016). It is evident in our data that Airbnb has contributed considerably to the hybridization of the two logics by shaping 43
the role performances of hosts and guests and by equipping users with ideas and tips about role performances that are nicely hybridized.
Our findings also resonate with prior consumer research. Scaraboto (2015) has shown that sustaining an economy, in which market and non-market logics co-exist, requires the contributions of all involved stakeholders, including those of the users. Relatedly, we find that providers and consumers on Airbnb prevent the triggering of tensions between logics by sustaining the semblance of domestic hospitality within commercial parameters. Future research could explore in more detail why Airbnb’s users so frequently, and often with such zeal, engage in effortful work that sustains dual logics, allowing the platform to thrive and grow.
It could also examine circumstances that trigger performative lapses or breakdowns, which threaten the enactment of specific guest/host interactions and may have more far-reaching implications for the platform. Arguably, the increasing commercial success of the platform will make navigating the tensions between the two logics even more challenging. Future research could assess, in this context, how Airbnb navigates the tensions between commercializing its platform and alienating users away who cherish the platform’s original mission.
44
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47
The Brand Management of Platform-Based Firms: An Analysis of Airbnb’s
Efforts to Shape the Airbnb Experience
Georg von Richthofen ETH Zurich
Florian von Wangenheim ETH Zurich
Abstract: Platform-based firms like Airbnb and Uber match external service providers and consumers. The service providers control most of the customer experience. Nevertheless, these firms have to provide a distinctive customer experience in order to differentiate their brands in the marketplace. This article examines what tactics platform leaders can use to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience the leaders aspire towards. To that end, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the Airbnb platform. Drawing on a combination of archival, interview, observation and netnographic data, we identify four broad categories of tactics: teaching, inspiring, digital monitoring and management, and tool providing. Our findings make several contributions to the emerging marketing literature on the management of platform-based firms.
Keywords: platform-based firms, customer experience, brand management, digital monitoring, platform culture, Airbnb, sharing economy
48
Introduction
Airbnb has over 40,000 available properties. The property owners ultimately dictate the
quality of the Airbnb experience. Some of the owners are first-time renters; others have
rented for years and have their own modus operandi. How do we get them to adopt a
standard set of operating practices […]? How do we train them to cooperate through a
balance among education, incentives, and penalties? (Airbnb Blog, September 29, 2010,
“Hard Problems, Big Opportunity”)
Providing a distinctive customer experience which is consistent with what the brand promises is a core concern of brand management (Burmann and Zeplin 2005; Mosley 2007). The intangible nature of services and the difficulty to control service interactions makes managing customer experiences in service contexts always challenging (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry
1985). But, as the opening vignette indicates, it is especially challenging for platform-based firms like Airbnb or Uber, which match external providers and consumers of services and are therefore also referred as “matchmakers” (Perren and Kozinets 2018).
Platform-based firms like Airbnb and Uber constitute new organizational forms, which combine elements from corporations and markets (Sundararajan 2016), and rely on external service providers as their co-producers (Dellaert 2019). The service providers control the servicescapes (Bitner 1992), where the customer experience takes place – the accommodation in
Airbnb’s case, the cars in Uber’s case. In addition, they represent the main customer contact
(Benoit et al. 2017) – most Airbnb and Uber users never interact directly with any of the firms’ employees. Although the service providers control most of the customer experience, the platform 49
is ultimately responsible for the brand and needs to ensure a distinctive customer experience in order to compete with traditional service providers like hotels (Benoit et al. 2017, 226).
Traditional service firms can coach and train employees and shape their performance through compensation (Baker et al. 2014; Morhart et al. 2009; Sirianni et al. 2013). Platform- based firms, however, do not employ and pay providers, and additionally face operational and legal constraints when it comes to training and directing their behavior. On the one hand, platform-based firms do not have the resources to train many thousands, or in the case of successful firms like Airbnb and Uber, millions of providers around the globe. On the other hand, they face legal constraints, since regulatory bodies use practices like training and directing to classify firms as employers, which could put the entire business model of platform businesses at risk (Sundararajan 2016).
To date, the existing marketing literature provides platform leaders relatively little guidance on how to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience to which they aspire. A notable exception is the article by Perren and Kozinets (2018), who find that successful platform-based firms use a combination of actor screening, education, certification, and quality verification to ensure superior service quality. While helpful, Perren and Kozinets’ suggestions leave unanswered questions; for example, how exactly can platforms educate providers given the logistical and legal constraints mentioned above? The opening quote indicates that Airbnb’s leadership was aware since the platform’s early days that it needed to educate service providers, but unsure how to effectively teach thousands of them. And while actor screening through interviews may be feasible for platform-based firms which match a relatively small number of service providers and consumers, it is much more difficult for platforms which need to manage many thousands of providers. 50
Another source of insight is the extant literature on platform management (Parker et al.
2016; Sundararajan 2014; 2016). Parker et al. (2016, 151) explain that platform leaders must ensure value creating interactions between external service providers and consumers by curating the market through screening (deciding who is allowed to participate) and providing feedback which encourages desirable behavior. Reputation systems play a key role in this effort and allow platforms to outsource much of the curation work to the users of the platform (Parker et al. 2016,
151).
Taking a different stance, Sundararajan (2014) argues that the culture of the platform market may be key to guiding providers to deliver the experience promised by the platform leadership and to the platform’s success in the long-term. This insight resonates with prior marketing research, which has emphasized the role that organizational culture plays in the creation of distinctive customer experiences (e.g. Burman and Zeplin 2005; Mosley 2007;
Webster and White 2010). But while we know how managers can shape the culture of an organization (e.g. Schein 1984; Wilkins 1984), we have extremely limited insight on how managers can shape the culture of emerging platform markets – which rely on hundreds of thousands of actors who are not employed by the marketer – in a way that guides service providers to deliver the kind of customer experience aspired by the platform.
While the existing literature provides platform leaders some initial valuable insights, from training, to reputation systems, to shaping a platform culture, it seems insufficient to give them coherent guidance in their challenge of aligning the service that external providers offer with the customer experience platform leaders aspire to achieve. First, the focus of the literature is not on shaping a distinctive customer experience which enables platforms to differentiate themselves in the market, but on other goals (e.g. mitigating safety concerns). Second, the literature does not 51
provide coherent guidance. The more coherent guidance available (e.g. Parker et al. 2016), in turn, only provides high-level advice and is not directly tailored to platforms which match external providers and consumers of services. To address this gap in the literature, this article provides answers to the following research question: What tactics can platform leaders use to align the service that external providers offer with the customer experience leaders aspire to create? To explore this question, we conducted a qualitative investigation of Airbnb. Airbnb constitutes an excellent context in which to study our research question, because of its obvious and extensive efforts to align the service the providers on its platform offer with the customer experience its leadership aspires toward and its success in the creation of a distinctive customer experience (e.g. Brochado et al. 2017).
Based on our analysis, we identify four broad categories of tactics that platform leaders can use to align what service providers offer with the caliber of customer experience they aspire to achieve; we label these categories teaching, inspiring, digital monitoring and management, and tool providing. Our study contributes to the literature on platform-based firms and markets
(Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Sundararajan 2014). While we develop previous insights in more depth (for example, by identifying tactics platforms leaders can use to teach providers despite the constraints they face as platform-based firms (Perren and
Kozinets 2018)), we also suggest new categories of tactics (e.g. inspiring, tool providing). In so doing, our article responds to calls from researchers to explore how “service providers (e.g., hosts) can ensure the platform provider’s brand promise without any formal training” (Benoit et al. 2017, 226). Further, the findings of this article also indicate how platform leaders can shape the culture of platform markets (Sundararajan 2014). 52
Overall, this article is, to the best of our knowledge, one of the first attempts to study how platform-based firms can be managed from a brand perspective. Next, we will describe our research context, specifically the Airbnb platform, the brand strategy of Airbnb’s leadership and the Airbnb experience, in more detail. Then, we will describe our data sources, present the findings of our analysis, and discuss their contributions to the platform marketing literature.
Research Context
The Airbnb Platform
The Airbnb platform matches providers (“hosts”) and consumers (“guests”) of accommodation. To provide an accommodation, prospective hosts create a “listing,” in which they specify the location, the type of accommodation (e.g. shared room, private room, or entire accommodation), the number of people they can accommodate, the price, additional details (e.g. room qualities, furnishing, amenities, surrounding) through both text and photos. To book an accommodation, prospective guests make a search query specifying the location, the dates, and the number of guests – to which Airbnb returns a list of available accommodations. When users make a booking, they pay over the platform via credit card. After a stay, hosts and guests have up to 14 days to review each other using both numerical ratings and written text. The listing page of an accommodation displays both mean ratings as well as the reviews in text at the bottom of the listing. To avoid retaliation, reviews are only made public either when both host and guest have completed their review, or when 14 days have passed (Airbnb Help Center, Host and guest reviews, accessed October 8, 2018). 53
Airbnb was founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk in 2008 in
San Francisco. Chesky and Gebbia had the idea for Airbnb a year earlier, when they were sharing a flat in San Francisco and noted prior to a design conference that most hotels in the city were overbooked. Then struggling to pay rent, they decided to rent out air mattresses in their living room and created a website they initially called “Airbedandbreakfast.” The name was later changed to Airbnb. The experience led to the idea of making booking a room in somebody’s home as easy as booking a hotel room. A year later, programmer Nathan Blecharczyk joined the two aspiring entrepreneurs. Together, they joined seed accelerator program “Y Combinator” in
Silicon Valley, where they got access to cultural, economic, and social capital that helped them to grow the business (Gallagher 2017; Stone 2017).
Since the platform’s humble beginnings, Airbnb has grown tremendously. In 2019,
Airbnb has listed more than five million accommodations in 81,000 cities and 191 countries on its platform. More than 2 million people stay on average in Airbnb listings per night. In total,
Airbnb has enabled more than 400 million guest arrivals ever since its foundation (Airbnb Press
Room, Fast Facts, accessed February 27, 2019). With a valuation of more than 30 million USD, the company is profitable and reported 93 million USD in profits on 2.6 billion USD in revenue in 2017 (Bort 2018). To date, Airbnb is still led by its founders – cofounder Brian Chesky serves as chief executive.
Airbnb’s Aspired Customer Experience
Airbnb is an excellent context to study our research question, due to the platform leadership’s strong focus on the customer experience. Although Airbnb started out as a technology platform and flagship of the sharing economy (Sundararajan 2014), by matching 54
people in need of a place to stay with people having spare space, the platform leadership ultimately decided to strive to become a global travel brand and to cover the customer experience throughout the entire trip of travelers (Carr 2014). The following interview quote of Airbnb’s chief executives illustrates this focus:
One of the things we did a few years ago is we had to ask ourselves what business are we
in? […] And we made a decision a couple of years ago, we said we’re not in the business
of homes or space, we’re in the business of trips […]. You travel to have a trip, not to
have a space and so the space is a part of it, but we are in the business of trips. And we
created this thing that we called Snow White, it was basically, we storyboarded what the
perfect trip would look like and we said, we are only present right now, in a few of these
frames. And we want to get to a point where we are present throughout the entire journey.
(Brian Chesky, September 9, 2014, interview, TechCrunch).
From the perspective of Airbnb’s leadership, an Airbnb trip includes everything from the moment an Airbnb user searches for accommodations on the platform to the moment they leave a review for a host and his accommodation. Ultimately, Airbnb wants to enable “magical end-to- end trips, including where you stay, what you do and the people you meet” (Airbnb Pressroom,
About Us, June 2018). After storyboarding the perfect trip, the leadership realized that the moments that matter most in a guest’s trip were offline (Joffrion 2018). A large part of the offline experience is controlled by the service providers on its platform.
Airbnb’s leadership strives to differentiate the Airbnb experience through the personal hospitality of hosts as well as the range, homey character, and location of accommodations that people list on the platform. Further, the platform leadership aspires to combining these elements in a manner that enables consumers to have authentic local travel experiences and to feel like 55
they live at a place they only visit (Carr 2014). As Airbnb’s chief marketing officer elaborates:
“"Homes, ’hoods and hosts" are the core aspects of the Airbnb experience – these are the things that enable guests to travel like they live there” (Mildenhall 2017).
While Airbnb’s leadership intends to streamline the service hosts provide in some regards
(Carr 2014), it does not aim to standardize the entire experience. On the one hand, the company is acutely aware that it cannot compete with hotels in terms of consistency; Airbnb’s global head of hospitality and strategy, Chip Conley, once said in an interview at an industry event that
Airbnb “will never beat the hotel industry for consistency” (Chip Conley, October 9, 2014, interview, Skift Global Forum). On the other hand, the leadership believes that the unpredictability of Airbnb stays – in the words of Airbnb’s chief marketing officer: “the surprise and delight of staying in somebody’s else’s home” (Jonathan Mildenhall, October 14, 2015, interview, Skift Global Forum) – is part of the appeal of the Airbnb experience. Nevertheless,
Airbnb aims at making the customer experience more reliable in regard to a number of key standards such as communication and cleanliness: “The aim was to figure out which baseline comforts Airbnb ought to offer guests, while embracing the unique, local, and often unpredictable charms its hosts provide on their own” (Carr 2014).
According to Conley, Airbnb is in many ways an extension of the boutique hotel industry
(Chip Conley, September 27, 2016, interview, Skift Global Forum), which tried to differentiate itself from established hotel chains through the personal hospitality of employees, the uniqueness of hotels, and by enabling local experiences (Ting 2017).
The Airbnb Experience 56
Both prior research and our own fieldwork indicate that Airbnb has been relatively successful in transforming the customer experience the leadership aspires toward into reality
(Brochado et al. 2017; Guttentag et al. 2017; Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). Surveying
Airbnb users, Guttentag et al. (2017) identified a number of factors which indicate why people choose Airbnb, notably, “hosts” (“to interact with hosts” and “to receive useful local info/tips”),
“home benefits” (“large amount of space,” “access to household amenities,” and “homely feel”), and “local authenticity” (“to have an authentic local experience”, “to stay in a non-touristy neighborhood”). Conducting a text analysis of Airbnb reviews, Brochado et al. (2017) find evidence of convergence of the customer experience across three countries and that the home and the host (and the host’s recommendations) are core components of the Airbnb experience.
Von Richthofen and Fischer (2019) show, consistent with prior research (Hellwig et al.
2015; Ikkala and Lampinen 2015; Roelofsen 2018), that the service providers on Airbnb generally perform the role of the host and sustain the semblance of hospitality, despite the commercial nature of the exchange. Many service providers draw thereby on similar routines and best practices to perform the role of the host. The welcome rituals of hosts usually involve, for example, that hosts greet their guests in person or leave them a personal message, offer them something to drink or leave a bottle of wine, socialize with them, and offer them local recommendations what to do during their stay. The following field notes illustrate how such suggestions can enhance the guest experience and enable guests to have a local experience:
Overall, we spent less than 24 hours in Lyon. Yet it feels like we have been there much
longer […]. [We] were both saying that we could picture ourselves living here. […]
During our stay, we almost completely relied on the recommendations from our host.
Upon arrival, she recommended us to have a beer next to the river, where the students 57
from the nearby universities often [hang out]. Later, we changed and had […] chicken
with mushrooms in cream [for dinner, a dish our host informed us Lyon is famous for].
(Fieldnotes, Stay 3, September 2015, Lyon, France)
Another point of difference of Airbnb experiences are the accommodations themselves.
First, many Airbnb accommodations tend to have a home-like character – even in cases where hosts do not live in the accommodation. In addition to being often located in regular apartment houses in ordinary neighborhoods, Airbnb accommodations tend to be decorated, furnished and equipped like personal homes. While kitchen access allows guests to cook for themselves and engage in daily routines, things such as books, games, and personal items tend to give Airbnb listings a homey look and feel. Second, a growing number of Airbnb accommodations are carefully curated and designed (c.f. Chayka 2016). But while we know that Airbnb has been relatively successful in aligning the service the providers offer with the customer experience the firm aspire towards, we do not know what tactics Airbnb leaders have used to that end.
Data and Method
Data Collection
To understand what tactics Airbnb uses to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience the platform aspires toward, we collected a combination of archival, interview, observation and netnographic data between 2014 and 2019.
Archival data. We collected a wide range of archival data on Airbnb (see Table 1, for an overview). We searched online for secondary interviews with Airbnb’s leadership and collected
35 interviews that were relevant to our research question, for example, interviews during which 58
the founders and executives talked about the firm’s strategy, the customer experience they aspire, and the tactics to achieve this strategy as well as interviews, in which they explain the Airbnb experience to the public. The interviews cover a time span between 2011 and 2018 and are composed of interviews with Brian Chesky (14), cofounder and chief executive of Airbnb; Joe
Gebbia (2), cofounder and chief product officer; Nathan Blecharczyk (5), cofounder and chief technology officer; Chip Conley (6), Airbnb’s head of global hospitality and strategy; Jonathan
Mildenhall (2), chief marketing officer, and others. The 35 interviews are composed of 17 videos, which amounted to about 9 hours of video, as well as 18 interviews which amounted to about 95 pages of text.
We also collected data from Airbnb’s website. Next to the text from Airbnb’s website, for example, Airbnb’s Help Center, where the platform communicates details in regard to its reputation system and certifications like the Superhost program, we collected all Airbnb blog posts between 2008 and May 2018, which amassed to 895 pages of single-spaced text. Airbnb’s blog was a valuable data source, because it is used by the company to inform about developments of the platform, circulate best practices to hosts, tell stories from the community, and more. The content of the blog is promoted via a monthly newsletter which is send to all
Airbnb hosts.
We also collected videos and text from Airbnb’s Toolkits website (www.airbnb- toolkits.com), which the company launched in November 2015, so that hosts can learn independently about best practices (Airbnb YouTube Channel, December 8, 2015, “Laura
Hughes on Host Mentors | Airbnb Open | Airbnb”). On the Toolkits website, Airbnb users find a combination of video clips, in which hosts share their best practices, as well as texts, in which 59
Airbnb synthesizes and summarizes hosts’ best practices and experiences. In total, we archived
46 video clips, 63 pdf files, and 26 screenshots.
Another data source was Airbnb’s “Community Center.” The Community Center is a forum, which enables hosts “to connect with other hosts, share stories, ask for advice, and get updates from the Airbnb team” (Airbnb Help Center, “What is the Community Center?”, accessed August 13, 2018). Most forum conversations are started by hosts, but Airbnb’s community moderator also regularly initiates new conversations (e.g. “How to be a
Superhost?”). For this article, we consider 34 such conversations, which have accumulated thousands of replies.
Beyond the Airbnb platform, we also collected data from Airbnb’s YouTube and
Instagram channels. In total, we collected 118 videos from Airbnb’s YouTube channel, which had relevance in regard to our research question. The videos can be broadly categorized as advertisements, community stories, tutorials, and videos from award ceremonies and winners. In addition, the videos also include 23 videos from key notes, seminars, and product announcements at the “Airbnb Open,” an annual convention for hosts that Airbnb organized three times between 2014 and 2016, all of which were attended by thousands of hosts. Further, we followed Airbnb’s Instagram channel and checked posts and stories regularly, archiving dozens of screenshots relevant to our research question.
We also considered posts from blogs reporting on Airbnb. We ultimately focused on
TechCrunch, a blog which reports regularly on Airbnb’s development. Therefore, we searched for posts which contained “Airbnb” and downloaded all blog posts, which actually focused on the company. The posts cover a time span from March 2009 throughout January 2018 and amounted to 565 pages of single-spaced text. 60
--- Insert Table 1 about here ---
Netnography. We also conducted a netnography of the “Airhostsforum”
(http://airhostsforum.com). Netnography is a research method which applies an ethnographic approach to the study of social interaction in online contexts (Kozinets 2002). Our netnographic engagement involved that the first author immersed himself in the forum from May 2015 to May
2018 and collected data following the guidelines of Kozinets (2015). The Airhostsforum is used by hundreds of Airbnb hosts to connect to other hosts, to socialize, share experiences and best practices, solve problems, as well as to debate and discuss relevant developments. Our data set from this field work encompasses more than 5000 single-spaced pages of text. The netnographic data gave us rich insight into the experiences and routines of Airbnb hosts.
Interviews. To supplement the netnographic data and learn more about the experiences of
Airbnb hosts, the first author conducted 11 in-depth interviews with hosts in their homes (4), at university (4), and over Skype (3) between January 2015 and November 2018. Hosts had varying levels of experience. The host with the most experience hosted several hundreds of guests, the host with the least experience about 30 guests. Some of the interview participants hosted guests in their own homes (5), others in separate accommodation (3) and some had experiences with both forms of hosting (3). Interviews lasted between 55 and 107 minutes, were taped and transcribed and resulted in 206 single-spaced pages of text. We followed established guidelines for depth interviews (Arsel 2017).
Participant observation. The first author stayed in 14 different Airbnb listings between
October 2014 and July 2018 for 67 nights in total. Six of these 14 times, the author shared the flat with the owner. Data from these trips include field notes and photos. The stays were necessary to understand the Airbnb experience from the guest perspective. We also collected 61
reviews from listings the first author stayed at to better understand the role of reviews. This data set amounted to 1079 reviews from 10 different listings.
Data Analysis
To answer our research question, we coded all archival data to identify tactics which
Airbnb uses to align the service the providers offer with the customer experience the platform aspires toward. We compared and contrasted emerging findings with the few explicit insights
Airbnb’s founders and executives give into their strategy and tactics, for example, in interviews at hospitality industry events like the Skift Global Forum or PhocusWire. While we find that the tactics we identify are consistent with what Airbnb executives communicate, we neither claim that Airbnb’s management uses necessarily the same language to refer to these tactics, nor that
Airbnb uses all of these tactics intentionally. The netnographic, interview data and observational data gave us rich insight into the guest experience as well as the work, experiences, and routines of Airbnb hosts. Where sensible, we will selectively draw in our findings on these data to illustrate the effectiveness of some of Airbnb’s tactics.
Overall, our theorizing involved iterating back and forth between analyzing the tactics of the platform on the one hand and the service provided by hosts and the customer experience on the other hand, as well as between data collection, analysis, and conceptualization, following conventional guidelines (Belk et al. 2013).
Findings
62
Based on our analysis of the efforts of Airbnb’s leadership to shape the Airbnb experience, we identify 13 tactics which platforms can use to align the service providers offer with the customer experience the leadership aspires toward. These tactics can be classified into four distinct categories: teaching, inspiring, digital monitoring and management, and tool providing (Table 2). We will consider each category in turn.
--- Insert Table 2 about here ---
Teaching
While Perren and Kozinets (2018) observe that successful platform-based firms like
Airbnb and Uber teach service providers, they do not elaborate in depth on how matchmakers can teach providers given the constraints they face. Our analysis indicates that Airbnb uses a range of tactics to educate hosts in its interest. Specifically, the firm: exemplifies the customer experience; sources and circulates best practices which providers can draw on to enact this experience; enables and encourages that providers teach each other; and teaches providers service standards. We will consider each tactic in turn.
Exemplifying the customer experience. First, Airbnb teaches its users, both hosts and guests, by exemplifying and promoting the customer experience through its marketing communication. The text of the following ad, in which users share their experiences and make a series of claims about the platform, is especially illustrative:
There are places that are like my home, where you share the home. (Cynthia, host since
2013) Or you can take a private home and be completely on your own. There are all sorts
of unique options, like lofts and treehouses. (Peter, guest/host since 2011) […] When you
travel with Airbnb, you travel with real people and real neighborhoods. (Rodolfo, host 63
since 2012) Hosts will take very good care of you and they provide you with
recommendations to places that they go, that they like. (Natasha, guest/host since 2013)
[…] You actually do get to live like a local. (Carrie, guest since 2011); So you are in a
neighborhood, there is neighbors around who are just kind of living their daily life and
it’s much more kind of a real life experience of that town. (Terri, host since 2011)
(Airbnb YouTube Channel, May 4, 2016, “What is Airbnb? | Travel Tips | Airbnb”)
The ad raises several expectations in regard to the Airbnb experience. We detail them and present further evidence from the platform’s marketing communication for each expectation.
First, the ad raises the expectation that users get to access to “all sorts of unique accommodation, like lofts and treehouses.” Similarly, another ad promises “castles in the clouds and bungalows with a beach out back” (Airbnb YouTube Channel, February 11, 2015,
“Welcome | Airbnb”). Years before Airbnb produced such commercials, the company’s cofounders emphasized the diversity of accommodations on their platform in press interviews, as the following excerpt illustrates:
I mean, we have everything: From a private apartment to a private island. […] That’s
what Airbnb has become. It started with this, this really narrow use case - air beds and
apartments. […] and then somebody added a castle, and somebody added a treehouse,
and then an igloo, and then a private island. (Joe Gebbia, June 17, 2011, interview,
Gründerszene)
The expectation that Airbnb provides consumers access to unique accommodations is further amplified through thousands of listings that Airbnb features on its Instagram account and include cabins, domes, tents, and other atypical accommodation. While many accommodations listed on 64
Airbnb’s platform are ordinary homes furnished by consumers, virtually all featured listings look beautifully curated and designed.
Second, the ad also suggests that providers rent out “homes.” The accommodations that
Airbnb shows in advertisements and features on Instagram are usually equipped with art, books, and personal touches which give the spaces a homey look. Airbnb’s founders also highlighted this point-of-difference in press interviews:
I like it when the apartments […] are well designed. But above all is that they feel homey.
I mean, look at all these […] details in this apartment which tell you a lot about the owner
– the flowers, lamps, the old books, the candles. […] This personal touch is what I like
especially – and why I feel so much at home. (Brian Chesky, May 2, 2012, interview,
Welt.de, translated from German)
Third, the ad raises the expectations that Airbnb enables people to experience a city “like a local” due to the location of accommodations in “real neighborhoods” where “real people” live as well as due to the personal recommendations that hosts give their guests. This aspect of the
Airbnb experience is further exemplified by ads like Airbnb’s “Never a Stranger” commercial, in which an Airbnb guest stays in different listings around the world. In one frame, the guest walks cheerfully through a Parisian neighborhood and interacts with people from the local coffee and flower shop and directs the following words of gratitude to her host: “this morning, a city I’ve never been to felt like one I already knew. Everyone in your neighborhood was so warm and friendly.” (Airbnb YouTube Channel, April 22, 2015, “Never A Stranger – Airbnb”)
Last, the ad also promises guests that “hosts will take very good care” of them. Not long after the platform’s foundation, the company’s founders used press interviews to communicate statements like the following: “We offer more than just a room, we offer an experience, from 65
which the accommodation is just a part of and getting to know the host is also a part of it” (Brian
Chesky, September 21, 2012, interview, Futurezone). This component of the customer experience is further illustrated by pictures on Airbnb’s website that show how hosts welcome guests into their homes with a smile (www.airbnb.com/host/homes, accessed October 5, 2018), as well as advertisements, in which Airbnb features actual providers under the label “Meet the
Hosts.” In some of these ads, hosts describe how they care for their guests, while the image iterates back and forth between the host and short episodes that show how these hosts actually interact and converse, smilingly, with their guests. Consider two quotes of these clips:
A lot of guests from Philippines, they always take the night-flight. When they arrive, they
are really exhausted. So I try to make some simple meals, to treat them and so during the
meals we talk to each other. And I ask if you need me to be your guide, I am willing to go
with you, of course free [laughs]. I kind of see them as my relatives, my family members.
(Airbnb YouTube Channel, October 19, 2015, “Lien | Meet the Hosts | Airbnb”)
People are really looking for a home to come into. […] And that has really spurred me on
to create a very homely atmosphere so that they enjoy their stay. What I would love them
to remember is that they were taking care of and that they were safe and that they had a
memorable stay. (Airbnb YouTube Channel, October 19, 2015, “Meet the Hosts of
Airbnb: Sapur shows us Penang”)
The clips suggest that Airbnb hosts, like Lien and Sapur, have “a genuine desire to please guests and make them happy” and are thus ideal hosts (Lashley 2000, p. 11). In addition, the ads also suggest that hosts like Lien and Sapur have internalized an experience mindset; while Lien is willing to act as a guide for her guests in her city – for free, Sapur focuses on making sure that her guests have a “memorable stay.” 66
By exemplifying and illustrating the customer experience, Airbnb teaches guests what experience they can expect – and hosts what is expected of them.
Sourcing and circulating best practices. In addition to teaching hosts through marketing communication what customer experience Airbnb envisions, the company also teaches hosts best practices to stage this experience, by sourcing and circulating best practices. To do so, Airbnb first sources best practices from both the hospitality industry and its platform users. Notably,
Airbnb hired Chip Conley – a boutique hotelier – as head of global hospitality and strategy, who sourced best practices directly from the boutique hotel industry. One best practice, for example, is to check in with guests throughout the stay, to make guests feel cared for and to give the guests the opportunity to say if they have any issues: “by actually showing up, then the guest feels a little bit more open to say [when] there’s something” (Chip Conley, October 9, 2014, interview,
Skift Global Forum). Another is to choose a theme for an accommodation and to make sure that everything in the accommodation resonates with the chosen theme (Chip Conley, September 27,
2016, interview, Skift Global Forum). Post to host forums as the following indicate that some
Airbnb hosts actually strive to create a coherent and designed look:
As far as decorating, my process was to choose a theme (Maine Vacationland), a
decorating style (MCM), and then the color scheme (Sherwin Williams Sea Salt […]).
[…] All my art (lighthouse/lobster/beach images) has either black or painted-to-match-
the-trim-color frames […] so things look coordinated throughout the apartment. (CeeBee,
September 14, 2018, reply to “New to hosting: how to decorate”, Airhostsforum)
Airbnb also occasionally invites experts to share their knowledge on the firm’s blog. In one blog post, for example, a home staging expert shares a number of interior design tips: 67
Show personality, not personal items [:] There’s a difference between showing
personality in design and a filling a space with personal items. If a space is meant for
guests, too many pictures of your dog and family might make them feel uncomfortable,
so replace them with local art and photos to add a sense of place. […] (Airbnb Blog,
April 17, 2014, „Attract more guests: 10 simple tips from home staging expert Meridith
Baer”)
There is even a blog post, where a “scent expert” teaches hosts to match the right kind of scent to their listing (Airbnb Blog, March 19, 2014, “Scents of place: aromatherapy for architecture”).
Such post may inspire ambitious hosts to think about more subliminal aspects of the experience – like scents – as well as to think in general more coherently about the thematic focus of their accommodation.
In addition to sourcing best practices from the hospitality industry, Airbnb also sources best practices directly from the platform market. One way how Airbnb sources best practices from hosts is by polling members of the Community Center, the platform’s online community for hosts, through calls like the following:
What are your top tips for hosting a private-room listing? Do provide certain items in
your guest room? […] We'd love to hear your input for an upcoming article. Thank you!
(Lizzie, November 19, 2018, “Hosting a private room – what are your tips?”)
The post yielded 75 replies in total, each of which features an abundance of recommendations such as to gauge how much interaction a guest is looking for (Airbnb Community Center,
“Hosting a private room – what are your tips?” accessed January 18, 2019).
After sourcing best practices from and beyond the platform market, Airbnb circulates these practices through the Airbnb Blog and Toolkits website as well as social media platforms 68
like Instagram and YouTube (see Table 3, for examples distilled through this analysis). In regard to the accommodation, Airbnb teaches hosts best practices such as to try to create a cohesive look by choosing cohesive colors, to “avoid sterile or empty spaces,” to showcase their personality and passions, to equip the space with art, books, and magazines, to use mirrors and plants to add depth and vibrancy to a space. Our fieldwork indicates that many hosts, consistent with Airbnb’s recommendations, strive to create a homey atmosphere. One of our informants, for example, intentionally stores her books in an apartment she uses only for Airbnb to give guests an experience which feels more homey and local than hotel stays:
I have 2 apartments, so in the apartment where I live I put all my personal stuff, but
actually in the place where the Airbnb is I have all my books, some clothes […] I think
people, when they book [an Airbnb] instead of going to a hotel, I mean, me personally, I
liked to know the country, to know the new place instead of staying in a hotel, which, I
mean, if you go to a hotel, all the hotels look more or less the same. That’s the primary
motivation, I think, why people use Airbnb (Katy, interview, September 2015)
Airbnb also circulates best practices which providers can use to enact the role of the host and make their guests feel cared for, such as to welcome guests in person and offer guests small treat upon arrival like coffee and/or to leave a handwritten welcome note, chocolate, a bottle of wine, or beer in the fridge. Further, Airbnb promotes to stay in touch with guests by sending them messages at key points throughout the stay. During our field work, we noted that numerous hosts adopted many of the practices circulated by Airbnb. One of our informants, for example, actually adopted multiple of these practices:
And then we always, you know, I always give them two beers or three beers, [...] or like
the bottle of wine or... And then, you know, I give them coffee and tea and all that stuff. 69
[…] I think it makes a big difference, it makes people feel welcome […] [I] always […]
check-in with them once they are here, typically […] after the first night. […] It's sort of
saying: “I'm still here and I'm interested in your well-being”, even though in the sense the
money's left your account. […] It's like two minutes. Like “hey how are you? Just want to
check and see you're fine. Let me know if there's anything that you need. Best, [Sophie]”.
(Sophie, interview, May 2016)
Note that we do not know whether Sophie in this case learned these practices from Airbnb blog posts and tutorials or other hosts. From Airbnb’s perspective, what matters is that these best practices spread throughout the platform market.
Last but not least, Airbnb also promotes best practices to enable guests to have local and memorable experiences. Notably, Airbnb suggest that hosts should act as ambassadors for their neighborhood by explaining to guests what they like about their neighborhood and sharing historical anecdotes as well as to recommend local activities, places to eat and visit. In the following Airbnb blog post, two guests nicely summarize many of these best practices:
Welcome us in Person: We really look forward to meeting you! […]
Help us Feel at Home: It’s the little things that count. A welcome note, a cold beverage in
the fridge, maybe a local treat and of course, coffee and tea supplies. Personal touches
that add warmth and a home-like atmosphere are why we choose to live in Airbnbs. So go
ahead, add some flair to your decor including artwork, books you love, and interesting
dishes. […]
Stay in Touch: When we stay in a place for longer than a few days, we appreciate our
hosts who check in to see if everything is okay. It’s a sure sign of a host who cares about
their guest’s experience […] [and] makes us feel safe and well-cared for. 70
Share Your Local Knowledge: We want to eat where you eat! Don’t rely on tourist
brochures or TripAdvisor, tell us your favorite ways to experience the city (Airbnb Blog,
May 8, 2017, “The Senior Nomads’ Five Keys To A Great Welcome”)
It is worth noting that Airbnb tends to mobilize hosts as spokespersons to circulate best practices. On Airbnb’s Toolkits platform, for example, Airbnb exclusively uses actual hosts in videos to communicate best practices. Similarly, many of the sessions and workshops at the
Airbnb Open were given by experienced Airbnb hosts (see next section).
--- Insert Table 3 about here ---
Teaching service standards. Airbnb also teaches hosts a number of rules. Although
Airbnb communicated an initial set of standards – or “Golden Rules of Hosting” – early on through its blog (Airbnb Blog, October 20, 2010, “The Hosting Hub: Your Guide to Hosting on
Airbnb”), the company eventually more formally defined these standards on a webpage called hosting standards. Although Airbnb adapted the content of this website over the years, the core standards remained relatively unchanged and correspond largely to Airbnb’s rating system: updated availability, communication, commitment to reservations, check-in, accuracy, and cleanliness (Airbnb, Hosting Standards, accessed February 17, 2017).
To convince hosts to adopt these standards and expectations, the company produced a number of blog posts and tutorials (see Table 4, for examples identified through this analysis) and combines a number of techniques. Notably, Airbnb tends to encourage hosts to take the perspective of their guests and to appeal to host’s empathy, to incent hosts through promising rewards and threatening sanctions, and to use moral arguments. In the blog post, Airbnb combines all of these techniques to teach hosts to provide a clean and tidy space and to communicate early and often with guests: 71
Make your space shine [:] Greeting travelers with a clean and tidy space helps them feel
welcome—and it’s something they expect when they travel on Airbnb. Cleanliness can
boost your ratings and bookings, too. […]
Communicate early and often [:] There’s nothing worse than waiting by the phone or
constantly refreshing your inbox to check for an email response. The golden rule of
hosting bears repeating: Treat your guests just as you’d wish to be treated. Respond to
booking requests quickly and help make their arrival easy. If your response rate gets too
low, your listing’s search place could be impacted and you may even face penalties.
(Airbnb Blog, January 11, 2017, „Your Guide to Hosting Success on Airbnb”)
Accordingly, Airbnb first encourages hosts to take the perspective of their guests and appeals to their empathy by stating that there is “nothing worse than waiting by the phone or constantly refreshing your inbox to check for an email response.” Second, Airbnb incents hosts to offer a clean space by stating that doing so can “boost” ratings and bookings. In turn, Airbnb threatens hosts that failing to be responsive can have a negative impact on their search placement and even lead to penalties. Third, Airbnb use moral arguments (“Treat your guests as you’d wish to be treated.”).
Another technique that Airbnb uses is “theorizing,” by proposing relationships between causes and effects (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006). Theorizing involves that Airbnb claims that conforming (failing to conform) to the standards promoted by the platform has a range of positive (negative) effects for the host. In the following blog post, for example, Airbnb’s head of hospitality and strategy describes the positive implications of writing an accurate listing and makes a connection between mentioning both what guests did and did not enjoy about a listing, the perceived honesty of a host and, in consequence, trust in the host and good matches: 72
[…] I’m a big believer in the idea of creating an authentic listing. I recommend hosts list
the three things people love about your listing and the two things that some people don’t
like—not only does it help you find the right guests for your experience, but it also shows
you’re honest and self-aware. This leads to trust and the first thing you want to do with a
prospective guest is to grow their trust. […] (Chip Conley, Airbnb Blog, June 3, 2014,
“What I learned from you: 15 cities, 5 key lessons”)
Other tutorials, in turn, suggest that being inaccurate can lead to bad matches (Table 4, “Being
Honest in Your Listing”) and complaints (Table 4, “Describing Your Space”). Despite all these rhetorical techniques, it is worth noting that Airbnb also enforces these standards through digital monitoring and management.
--- Insert Table 4 about here ---
Enabling and encouraging peer-to-peer education. Another way in which Airbnb promotes the education of providers, is by enabling and encouraging providers to teach each other. From the outset, the company organized local meet-ups in North America and Europe, which enabled hosts to educate each other:
On a mission to meet the city's best hosts, we teamed up with coworking space […] to
offer an evening of wine, nibbles, and Airbnb talk […] to swap host and traveler tips,
share stories, and meet Airbnb staffers […]. It was a great opportunity for us to hear the
ways members helped make Airbnb experience simple and special for all (Airbnb Blog,
February 4, 2011, “Airbnb Meetups: Northwestward Ho!”)
Today, Airbnb meet-ups tend to be no longer organized by Airbnb’s founders or employees, but local hosts themselves (c.f. Gallagher 2017). However, Airbnb still occasionally enables and encourages hosts to educate each other by bringing hosts together at events like the 73
Airbnb Open. Therefore, Airbnb mobilizes successful hosts to share their best practices with other hosts in small seminars and workshops. During the Airbnb Open 2015, for example, two
“remote Superhosts,” Alex Nigg and Tammi Sims, explained how to “be away and still be a really, really good host and deliver the kind of hospitality that our guests expect from us.” They suggested, for instance, to leave guests small gifts, like a bottle of wine, or in their case, cheese from a nearby shop and plums from the tree in the backyard.
But while local meet-ups and events have their benefits, attending them is time consuming and does not that allow Airbnb to reach millions of hosts around the world. To ensure that providers can “learn from each other, share stories, and forge united identities”, Airbnb introduced “host groups” as part of its mobile app (Airbnb Blog, November 12, 2013, “Welcome to a new world of travel”), which was replaced two years later with the launch of the Community
Center. At the same time, Airbnb also launched a mentor program (Airbnb, Airbnb Mentors, accessed January 11, 2019).
While the moderators on the Community Center do not tend to interfere with the conversations started by hosts, they periodically start new conversations to encourage hosts to educate each other on important aspects of the Airbnb experience. This also involves the moderator explicitly asking regular contributors and experienced hosts to share their perspectives in the conversation. In regard to the hospitality part of the Airbnb experience, for example,
Airbnb’s community moderator raised the question on the Community Center “How to be a
Superhost?” (Lizzie, January 29, 2018), which led to suggestions such as those mentioned above
(e.g. to welcome guests in person), but also to additional ideas like asking guests to leave a pin on a map to document where they are from to show interest in them and to make them feel special. The community moderators also encourage hosts to teach each other design tips, by 74
initiating conversations on its Community Center about topics such as “Can a color change the size of a room?”, “How do you make a bedroom inviting for guests?”, “How do you make your outdoor space inviting for guests?”, or “What’s the best home decorating decision you’ve ever made?”. These conversations focus the attention of hosts on the design and décor of the guest space and stimulate hosts to exchange best practices. Finally, Airbnb also encourages hosts to educate each other about service standards and best practices to conform to these standards, by initiating conversations such as “What are your cleaning tips”, “What’s on your pre-check-in checklist?”, or “How do you remove stains?” Predictably, such threads lead to a range of responses that reveal the (high) cleanliness standards of successful hosts as well as the routines they use to maintain these standards. Most conversations on the Community Center, however, are started by hosts looking for advice. Over the years, Airbnb’s Community Center has developed into a highly active online community.
Finally, Airbnb encourages providers to use the platform as guests to learn from other hosts. In one Airbnb blog post, an experienced and successful host urges his fellow hosts to take trip themselves:
Get out and go somewhere. Book someone else’s Airbnb, take note of their style, and
how they do things. Pay attention to what it feels like to be a guest. Nothing is better for
putting yourself in your guests’ shoes than by being one yourself. (Airbnb Blog, March
16, 2017, “How to make the most of guest reviews – and more hosting tips”)
Inspiring
Next to teaching providers, Airbnb also inspires hosts to provide guests a certain experience. This finding resonates with prior research, which showed that inspiring – and 75
transformative leadership more generally – is an effective way to turn employees into brand champions (Morhart et al. 2009). Airbnb uses storytelling, mythologizing, valorizing, and ideas to inspire hosts. We will consider each in turn.
Storytelling. According to Airbnb’s head of hospitality and strategy, storytelling is, next to the reputation system and the search placement (see section “Digital Monitoring and
Management”), a key way how Airbnb intends to influence hosts in the firm’s interest:
[Chip Conley:] […] [I]n terms of how you influence half a million hosts around the
world, the way you do it, is you […] tell stories and get recognition from our guests
telling stories about our hosts […] so a host around the world can read about a host in
Sydney, Australia, in Singapore or Seattle and what they did and say, wow, I can do that,
too. So a lot of it is through storytelling. […] (Chip Conley, March 27, 2014, interview,
Commonwealth Club)
Consistent with what Conley indicates in this quote, we find that Airbnb collects inspiring stories from Airbnb hosts through calls like the following:
All stories are welcome! […] Our ambition is to find the most exciting, heart-warming,
entertaining, inspiring, weird, fun and magical stories out there! […] Be aware that you
need to be relaxed in front of a camera, and that our small, almost invisible team will
follow you for a few days if your story is chosen for production. (Airbnb Blog, November
13, 2013, “Casting call for travel documentary”).
As the blog post indicates, Airbnb collaborates with professionals (e.g. designers, filmmakers, writers) to dramatize, visualize, and edit these stories in a way that makes them appealing to read or watch. The final product that Airbnb eventually shares online are often stories that dramatize 76
cases in which hosts went above and beyond for their guests in times of crisis, as prior research
(Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019) and examples like the following illustrate.
When Brazilian host Fabio received a panicked call from his guest at midnight, he did
everything he could to calm her down and figure out what was wrong. [T]he young
woman […] had lost her wallet and passport on a bus in Rio de Janeiro. Fabio met her in
front of his building, told her not to worry, and they immediately got into a taxi. […]
Three hours later […], Fabio and his guest found themselves at the main bus depot […].
The depot manager asked him to fill out a lost and found claim but Fabio insisted that
could not be the only option. “I asked that they search every single bus until they found
the pocketbook.” […] It was after 3AM when Fabio and his guest got back into a taxi and
headed home, the purse—passport, credit cards, and all her money inside—in hand.
(Airbnb, Stories, “Brazilian Style: From host to hero,” accessed February 2, 2016)
Using stories like Fabio’s to promote the value and norms of hospitality is consistent with prior research, which found that stories are a key way that leaders create and sustain organizational cultures (e.g. Wilkins 1984). In addition, however, Airbnb also tells stories that inspire hosts to invest into the design of the accommodations they rent. Consider for example the next story about a host, who started out using Airbnb as a guest, but managed within a short period of time to become Superhost despite initial challenging starting situations.
[…] It wasn’t until last year that [Dawn] started toying with the idea of hosting. “The
previous owner had converted the garage for their nanny,” she says of the separate unit on
the property she shares with her husband. “The décor was really, really bland. It was all
the color of sand. It had sand drapes, sand walls, and sand carpet.” 77
In spring 2013, ahead of her parents’ two-week visit, Dawn decided that a makeover was
in order. She incorporated color and pattern, yielding an interior more in line with what
one might expect in a beach town in Southern California: sun-kissed yellow walls; a
swath of Kelly green in the kitchen; a long table, topped with a vibrant print, that
functions for reading, dining, or doing work; a lime-hued bathroom; and cheery polka-
dotted bedding. […] As of mid-November, when the Open took place, Dawn’s listing had
generated $23,000 in revenue this year. And she is now an Airbnb Superhost. […]
(Airbnb Blog, January 20, 2015, “From Traveler to Superhost: How Dawn Joyal Learned
to Make the Most of Hosting”)
Success stories like Dawn’s may inspire other hosts to remodel or upgrade their homes – or to sign up as Airbnb host in the first place.
Mythologizing. Another form of storytelling that Airbnb uses to inspire hosts is referred to as “mythologizing.” Mythologizing is a technique used by leaders to create and maintain values and norms through stylized stories about the organization’s history; effective mythologizing necessitates “a story and an occasion to tell it” (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006,
233). Consistently, we find that Airbnb’s leaders use this technique especially on key occasions, for example, when Airbnb communicated its mission for the first time (Airbnb Blog, July 16,
2014, “Belong Anywhere”). Another excellent occasion which Airbnb used to engage in mythologizing were the Airbnb Open. Not only were thousands of hosts present, but the keynotes were also filmed and uploaded on Airbnb’s YouTube channel. Airbnb’s chief executive used these opportunities to communicate the values and norms of Airbnb by mythologizing the company’s origins. At the Airbnb Open 2015, for example, Chesky communicated in his keynote 78
that being a host is the company’s most important value and the following excerpt from
Chesky’s keynote nicely illustrates mythologizing to that end:
[W]e had three people stay with us. […] You know, we did all the typical hospitality
things. We picked them up at the airport […] But something much deeper happened than
that. […] Michael, Cathryn and Amol, they actually came to our house as strangers, but
they left as friends […] [N]ot long after that, we got an actual letter in the mail. […] a
wedding invitation to Amol’s wedding and I wondered, how many hotels would have
gotten that wedding invitation. [Applause from the audience.] (Airbnb YouTube Channel,
November 13, 2015, ““Hosts are Heroes” - Brian Chesky | Airbnb Open 2016 | Airbnb”)
Chesky’s story suggests that Airbnb’s founders treated the people staying with them like (good) hosts treat their guests and that they managed to create a bond with their guests, which, according to anthropological research, is an essential goal of hospitality (Pitt-Rivers 2012). He effectively supports this claim through the invitation he and his cofounder received to Amol’s wedding months after hosting him in San Francisco.
Similarly, Chesky used his 2016 keynote to communicate that Airbnb ultimately wants to be a platform that enables people to have “magical moments” and “transformative experiences”
(Airbnb YouTube Channel, November 17, 2016, “Brian Chesky Launches Trips | Airbnb Open
2016 | Airbnb”). At the end of his keynote, Chesky showed footage recorded by Airbnb’s first guest Amol, which shows how Amol and Airbnb’s cofounders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia have a blast in San Francisco. Next to the audio recording of the video and inspiring background music, there is a voice record of Amol, in which he reflects on his stay with Airbnb’s founders and thereby literally focuses on – perfectly consistent with the keynote – the transformative experience he had during his stay: 79
Like the real San Francisco is not about just going to Lombard Street. It is about, you
know, this creative vibe where people are trying to change the world. I was able to
experience the other side of San Francisco. Once you see that so up close. You know that
is, that changes your life. It changes your perspective and that was really transformative
experience for me. (Airbnb YouTube Channel, November 17, 2016, “Brian Chesky
Launches Trips | Airbnb Open 2016 | Airbnb”)
Valorizing. Another tactic that Airbnb uses to inspire providers is valorizing. Valorizing involves providing especially positive examples for public consumption (Lawrence and Suddaby
2006, 41). The following quote from co-founder Gebbia illustrates valorizing:
[…] This is one of my favorite listings because it represents the soul of Airbnb. Here you
have an incredibly passionate host providing a truly local experience for her guests, one
that is authentic to Nashville. Nearby hotels couldn't recreate the coziness, character, and
charm of her home even if they tried. […] (Airbnb Blog, May 13, 2010, “Listing WE
love – Team Airbnb’s Top Travel Picks! Part I”)
The blog post – from May 2010 – shows that Airbnb’s founders began early on to valorize
“passionate” hosts who offer “local” and “authentic” experiences as well as accommodations which enable people to feel at home. Referring to such hosts as “soul of Airbnb” makes clear that the offering aligns perfectly with the experience Airbnb aspires toward. A year later, Airbnb created an “AirbnbTV Series” to valorize hosts who offer experiences which are consistent with what the brand aspired for the entire platform:
Hosts are going above and beyond their call of duty and truly showing their guests the
most hospitable, authentic, and local experiences imaginable. We want to honor these
standout hosts by introducing their awesomeness to the world. We’ll be featuring a new 80
host each week, visiting their homes, chatting it up, and taking a look into their every
day. (Airbnb Blog, May 16, 2011, “Introducing AirbnBio’s: A New Original AirbnbTV
Series”)
Since 2014, Airbnb has also used awards to valorize providers. Awards are a widely used instrument in the hotel industry to inspire, show appreciation, and reinforce “behavior that support and sustain the company’s mission” (Sturman and Ford 2011, pp. 149-150). Airbnb’s
“host award” recognizes providers who embody the value of being a host. In 2016, for example,
Airbnb honored an Australian host for the way she treated her guest after she suffered a miscarriage:
Christine treated Igne like family and did everything she could to provide aid and
support. She arranged an appointment with her family doctor and took Igne to see a local
obstetrician. She also offered the couple the chance to stay longer to give them time to
rest and recover. “She didn’t even charge us anything,” Igne says, “she moved heaven
and earth to make me feel better and to help us. […] Christine’s care and compassion
made a difference by creating a sense of belonging. (Airbnb Blog, May 8, 2016, “When
guests need a place to call home”)
Using awards to promote such stories allows Airbnb to communicate values and norms to internal and external audiences (Ford and Sturman 2011, pp. 115-116). The award not only recognizes Christine, but also illustrates the values and norms of hospitality as well as Airbnb’s
“belong anywhere” mission. Airbnb also recognizes hosts who offer their guests local, memorable, and transformative experiences. In 2015, Airbnb honored several hosts through various awards and featured the winners in a series of shorts clips. In one clip, the recipient of the best host award states: “I really want my guests to feel at home quickly and to feel like a 81
Parisian for a few days.” Combined, the award and video clearly show that Airbnb recognizes hosts who help their guests to feel like locals. In addition, the company also awards hosts who make the guest experience memorable by offering unique accommodations (see for example:
Airbnb Blog, June 12, 2016, “A Cape Town dream home”).
Mobilizing inspiring leaders from the field. Another way that Airbnb inspires hosts is by mobilizing inspiring leaders from the hospitality industry and other fields related to Airbnb to share their experiences with hosts. This is especially salient at the Airbnb Open, which Airbnb created to “empower successful hosting with a program that educates, inspires and celebrates
[…] hosts” (Chip Conley, Airbnb Blog, September 3, 2014, “Airbnb Open 2014: Strengthening our community by empowering hosts”). At the Airbnb Open 2016, for example, restaurant owner
Danny Meyer gave a session which Conley announced as follows:
Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business […]. Danny’s
book “Setting the Table” is the best-selling hospitality book of all-time and this famous
restaurateur’s message is so inspiring. I will join him on stage for the last 15 minutes,
which includes audience Q&A. (Chip Conley, “Chip’s Tips for Airbnb Open LA”,
accessed October 27, 2017)
At the Airbnb Open 2015, Airbnb invited “tidying and organizational consultant” Marie Kondo to present insights from her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of
Decluttering and Organizing. Kondo introduced the audience to a method to declutter their home, namely, to pick up things they own, pay attention to how they make them feel, and to sort out things that do not make them feel joyful. While the work of Marie Kondo may seem at first sight unrelated to the Airbnb experience, her invitation resonates considering that one of the 82
platform’s challenges is that some hosts rent out personal space that are cluttered with personal belongings which can make guests feel uncomfortable.
Digital Monitoring and Management
Airbnb uses various tactics to monitor and manage the performance of hosts in a way that helps ensure the customer experience the leadership aims for. The platform enables users to monitor providers, monitors the performance of providers on the platform, and provides incentives.
Enabling users to monitor providers. First of all, Airbnb enables guests to monitor the performance of hosts through its reputation system. Reputation systems are a hallmark of digital marketplaces (Tadelis 2014). Ideally, reputation systems are designed in a way that provides users feedback which encourages desirable behavior and enables platforms to screen out bad actors (Parker et al. 2016, 151).
The reputation of an Airbnb host (or guest) consists of both numerical ratings and written reviews (see Table 5). Guests first evaluate their stay through ratings and subsequently through written reviews. Ratings provide hosts feedback and incent hosts to do well on standards like cleanliness, as high (low) ratings may attract (repel) potential guests. We find that guests use ratings to discipline hosts, for example, when they do not conform to the cleanliness standards they expect, as the following forum post illustrates:
A 4star review I received because the place was “dusty.” The place is immaculate thought
I, so I queried the guest as to how they arrived at this conclusion. On top of the ceiling
fan said they […] (Justice_Peace, June 27, 2017, reply to “Kind of upset over a 4 star
rating—heard this one before?”) 83
Ratings also enable Airbnb to monitor the performance of hosts, which the firm can use to reward (sanction) well-performing (poorly performing) hosts through better (worse) search placement and certificates (see below). Airbnb automatically deactivates listings, which repeatedly receive low ratings and also removes hosts from the platform. Reportedly, Airbnb
“take[s] off the platform tens of thousands of hosts every month […] who don’t meet minimum standards” (Chip Conley, September 27, 2016, interview, Skift Global Forum). Evidently, one of the key functions of ratings is to discipline hosts to conform to service standards communicated by the platform. But the fact that guests also rate their overall experience incents hosts to adopt an experience mindset and to think about how they can, given their capabilities and resources, provide the best possible experience for guests.
After assessing their experience through ratings, guests are asked to evaluate their stay in a written review. Airbnb prompts guests to focus on details and concrete examples, the positive and negative, focus the attention on the entire experience. Our data analysis indicates that Airbnb guests tend to use written reviews to some extent to reward (sanction) and valorize (devalorize) hosts whose service is consistent (inconsistent) with the experience promoted by Airbnb. On the one hand, for instance, consumers valorize and reward providers who perform the role of the hosts and enable their guests to make memorable experiences, as the following reviews illustrate:
[The host] is pleasant, welcoming, friendly, and very sociable. [The host] treated me like
a friend staying with him, he offered me something to drink, coffee, beer, and we had
great and friendly conversations. (Airbnb listing, Paris, review)
I stayed with two friends in this apartment and both the apartment as well as Fernando
helped us to experience an unforgettable weekend in Buenos Aires. Highly 84
recommend[ed]! You can always rely on Fernando's recommendations when it comes to
bars and restaurants. Thanks Fernando (Stay 1, Buenos Aires, October 2014)
Similarly, guests also tend to reward providers, who adapt to the aesthetics promoted by Airbnb.
Guests praise, to use Airbnb’s language, thoughtfully designed accommodations through comments like “It's curated beautifully - down to the last detail,” “What to say about the charming and unique […] house? Loved the interesting layout and décor,” or “My stay at the
[…] House was fantastic and contributed to making my stay in […] that much more special.”
On the other hand, however, consumers devalorize and sanction providers who fail to provide the Airbnb experience. Guests often explicitly note in the review when they did not get to interact with the host and some guests even mention – to the despair of hosts – when they feel their hosts did not live up to the norms of hospitality, as the following forum quote illustrates:
I have recieved my first bad review ever and its totally unwarranted. I never even met
these guests as they came in late without notifying us, so I had get myself ready for my
sisters wedding, which they knew about! My partner […] met the guests, showing them
around the apt, showing them map etc […]. Anyway these guests have insulted me in the
review saying I only cared about going out to a party and I didnt welcome them
(sunshine1, March 6, 2016, “My first bad review - I am heartbroken,” Airhostsforum)
Similarly, some Airbnb guests also review listings which do not appear unique and thoughtfully designed negatively. One host on the Airhostsforum wonders after noticing several times how guests had mentioned IKEA furniture in reviews as a negative: “Is IKEA furniture not good enough for Airbnbs?” (Garden1Gnome, August 14, 2016, Airhostsforum). Similarly, one host reports that he is “getting a lot of complaints in reviews that” his space would lack a “Personal 85
Touch” although he is not advertising his rental as personal (Danielktdoran, September 1, 2015,
“Personal Touch,” Airhostsforum).
At the end of the review process, guests can give their hosts private feedback. Airbnb prompts guests to thank their hosts or make recommendations for improvement. Our netnographic data indicate that hosts learn from these reviews, but are also sometimes frustrated about the never-ending stream of recommendations for improvement (Shanghai, May 20, 2016,
“Tired of ‘what can be improved’”, Airhostsforum).
Due to the centrality of reviews for the functioning of the Airbnb platform, Airbnb sends guests review requests shortly after the stay, claiming that reviews are an integral part of the
Airbnb community which help hosts to become better hosts and future guests to know what to expect.
--- Insert Table 5 about here ---
Monitoring performance on the platform. Next to leveraging reputation systems to monitor and manage hosts, Airbnb also directly monitors the performance of hosts on the platform. Notably, Airbnb measures how reliable and fast hosts respond to booking inquiries and reservation requests from guests through the response rate and response time: the response rate measures “the percentage of new inquiries and reservation requests, received in the past 30 days, that have received a response from the host within 24 hours”; the response time indicates “the average amount of time it took for a host to respond to all the new message threads they received in the past 30 days” (Airbnb Blog, July 3, 2014, “Dependable Communication Builds
Community”). In addition to displaying these metrics on the listing page of hosts, which incents them to answer booking inquiries reliably and quickly, Airbnb also draws on these metrics when determining the search placement of Airbnb listings (see below). 86
Providing incentives. Next to deactivating the accounts of and removing badly performing hosts from the platform, Airbnb also established an incentive system, which incents
(sanctions) well (poorly) performing hosts. Therefore, Airbnb uses mainly its search algorithm and certifications. We will consider each in turn.
According to Gallagher (2017), the ability of Airbnb to manipulate the search algorithm – that ranks available listings when users search for an accommodation in a given location – is the platform’s most powerful tool to shape the behavior of hosts. When hosts are badly ranked, guests are less likely to see and consider and choose their listings. Although Airbnb does not communicate the exact details of the algorithm, it does communicate that it uses the ratings of hosts as well as a number of metrics that Airbnb monitors – like response rate and response time
(see above) (Airbnb Blog, June 12, 2016, “How search makes the best matches”). To remain on top of the search results, providers have therefore a strong incentive to respond to booking inquiries reliably and quickly, to maintain high service standards, and to provide good experiences for guests. And indeed, our fieldwork indicates that hosts tend to answer booking inquiries reliably and quickly to avoid the negative ramifications on their search placement, as the following interview quote illustrates:
But it is important that I [respond to requests] relatively promptly. Since this is penalized,
if you… Well you have 24 hours max, to respond to a request. I actually now do respond
rather promptly. If possible, within an hour. (Wolfgang, interview, February 2015)
Consistent with the recommendations by Perren and Kozinets (2018), Airbnb also uses certification to reward well-performing hosts: the “Superhost” program and “Airbnb Plus.”
Superhosts are, in Airbnb’s words, “experienced hosts who provide a shining example for other hosts, and extraordinary experiences of their guests” (Airbnb Help Center, “What is a 87
Superhost?”, accessed February 12, 2017). To become a Superhost, hosts are not allowed to cancel existing bookings, must maintain a high response rate and time (below one hour, on average), and receive consistently high ratings (more 80 percent five out of five stars on “overall experience”). Superhosts receive a badge which is visible on the hosts profiles, better customer service from Airbnb, travel credit worth 100 Dollars a year, and guests can filter their search results for Superhosts.
In addition, Airbnb introduced Airbnb Plus in February 2018. The Airbnb Plus website targeted at hosts reads: “If you’re a host with a strong personal style who focuses attention on every detail, then Airbnb Plus is the recognition your home deserves” (Airbnb, Introducing
Airbnb Plus for Hosts, accessed February 20, 2019). This recognition involves benefits such as a verified Airbnb Plus badge, better placement in search results, and more visibility on the website
(Airbnb Plus listings are visible in a separate category on top of the website). To be certified, hosts have to meet similar requirements like Superhosts, such as receiving a 4.8 average rating from guest and no cancelled reservations. In addition, hosts have to apply and have their listing vetted by Airbnb representatives, who ensure that the accommodations are “thoughtfully designed,” “comfortable,” “well-equipped,” and “well-maintained” (Airbnb, Introducing Airbnb
Plus for Hosts, accessed March 6, 2018). “Thoughtfully designed” means the accommodations should have a “cohesive interior design with personal touches,” “design elements like artwork and photographs that reflect the hosts’ style and personality,” as well as a “layout of furniture
[that] is thoughtfully arranged and not cluttered” (Airbnb, Airbnb Plus Requirements, accessed
April 23, 2018). Airbnb specifies that “comfort” means that accommodation feature “beds [that] are elevated off the floor and have flat mattresses, soft matching lines, and two sleeping pillows” per guest, a “private bathroom with a bathtub or shower” (also in case of “private bedrooms”) 88
and that the host offer “easy check-in.” Well-equipped means that the listing features “fast Wi-
Fi,” as well as a “TV […] and access to entertain, such as cable, Netflix, or Roku” (Airbnb,
Airbnb Plus Requirements, accessed April 23, 2018).
It is worth noting that Airbnb never merely introduces certifications, but also invests in marketing to convince users that these certifications are actually meaningful. Ever since Airbnb introduced Airbnb Plus, for example, the company displays Airbnb Plus as a category on top of its website and thereby guides users to book Airbnb Plus listings. In addition, Airbnb educates users about the certification through videos which suggest that Airbnb Plus listings are superior to non-certified listings. On the webpage “Introducing Airbnb Plus for Hosts” in turn, Airbnb presents data which incent hosts to apply for the program, specifically, that Airbnb Plus listings have “7x more listing views” and “70% more nights booked” (Airbnb, accessed February 20,
2019). Similarly, Airbnb claims that “Superhosts earn up to 22% more than other hosts” on average (Airbnb, Superhosts, accessed February 20, 2019).
Tool Providing
Airbnb provides two types of tools that help hosts to provide an experience which is consistent with what the platform aspires toward. The first type is tools offered on the platform.
The second type is tools and services beyond the platform.
Providing tools on the platform. Table 6 provides an overview and descriptions of some of the tools Airbnb provides on its platform. We explain how these tools help hosts to offer the
Airbnb experience.
--- Insert Table 6 about here --- 89
While mobile phone applications are taken for granted in 2019, they were less taken for granted when Airbnb launched its first iOS application in 2010. One of the reasons why Airbnb developed the mobile phone application was to enable hosts to be more responsive and to reply to inquiries from guests on the go, as Airbnb found that a “host with a mobile app can respond two and a half times faster which means a substantially better guest experience” (Alexia Tsotsis,
January 17, 2012, “With Focus On International Expansion, Airbnb Comes To Android And
Revamps Mobile Web Offerings,” TechCrunch).
User profiles enable hosts and guests to learn more about and familiarize themselves with each other, which in turn enables users to sustain the semblance of hospitality (Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). In addition, hosts can use the information of the user profiles and the first communication through Airbnb’s message feature before the stay – Airbnb prompts users who send hosts a booking request to write a little about themselves and the purpose of their trip (Von
Richthofen and Fischer 2019) – to customize their guests’ stay. Knowing a bit about the guests’ hobbies and interests (from the profile) and the purpose of their trip from the communication before the stay, enables hosts to customize what activities, restaurants, and places they recommend and in effect to personalize the experience. Airbnb tries to convince users to create detailed profiles, as the following text from Airbnb’s Help Center illustrates:
Your profile is a great way for others to learn more about you before they book your
space or host you. When your profile is robust, it helps others feel that you're reliable,
authentic, and committed to the spirit of Airbnb. Whether you're a host or a guest, the
more complete your profile is, the more reservations you're likely to book, too. We
require all hosts to have a profile photo, and guests are expected to upload a profile photo
before checking into their first reservation. […] A description of at least 50 words 90
highlighting why you decided to join the Airbnb community, your interests or hobbies, or
anything else you think someone would want to know. (Airbnb Help Center, “Why do I
need to have an Airbnb profile or profile photo?”, accessed October 10, 2018)
Note how Airbnb “theorizes” (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006, 226) in this text to encourage users to create elaborate profiles, by claiming, for example, that users with “robust” profiles are perceived as “reliable, authentic, and committed to the spirit of Airbnb” and that it increases hosts’ chance to get a booking.
The listing page allows hosts to shape guests’ expectations. Instead of expecting that every provider offers exactly the same experience, Airbnb gives hosts the flexibility to shape guests’ expectations. For example, while some hosts may differentiate themselves primarily through the authentic accommodation they offer, others may differentiate themselves more through their personal hospitality – and yet both may be able to give guests a local experience.
The guidebook tool embedded in the listing makes it easier for hosts to share recommendations and ensures that guests have digital access to these recommendations when hosts do not manage to share these recommendations in person. Combined, user profiles, listings, and the communication before the stay through the message feature, enables Airbnb users – both hosts and guests alike – to contribute to the matchmaking process and to avoid bad matches (Von
Richthofen and Fischer 2019).
Another noteworthy tool Airbnb developed to make the booking process more seamless, consistent with the platform’s goal to make booking the room in someone’s home as easy as booking a hotel room, was “Instant Book.” Although already introduced in 2010, Airbnb only began to promote the tool in 2015: 91
“you may want to try turning on Instant Book to boost your response rate and stand out in
search results. Guests appreciate being able to make their plans immediately, so turning it
on can help you get more bookings and earn more. […] (Airbnb Blog, May 8, 2015,
“More control over your calendar”).
Accordingly, Airbnb tries to convince hosts that adopting Instant Book will help them to attract guests (who “appreciate being able to make their plans immediately”) and gives them a competitive advantage, because it “boosts” the response rate and makes hosts stand out in the search results. Later, Airbnb started to incent hosts to activate Instant Book, by giving them listings with Instant Book an advantage in the search placement (Airbnb Blog, August 7, 2017,
“Answers to Your Top Instant Book Questions”).
Providing tools beyond the platform. Beyond to providing tools on its platform, we find that Airbnb also facilitates access to several tools and services beyond the platform, which help hosts to provide the experience Airbnb promises consumers. In contrast to platforms like Uber, however, which started early on to equip its drivers with the tools they need to provide their work on the platform – notably by helping them to lease cars –, Airbnb was cautious in terms of offering tools and services beyond the platform. While Airbnb toyed with the idea of equipping hosts with smartphones to enable them to use the mobile app and answer booking requests on the go, for example, the firm never implemented the idea in practice; similarly, the platform only experimented with but never rolled out the idea of connecting hosts with other external service providers to help them with the work (e.g. cleaning) associated with the turnover between guests
(Ryan Lawler, January 31, 2014, TechCrunch, “Airbnb Is Testing Out An Affordable Cleaning
Service For Hosts In San Francisco”). This explains in part the emergence of firms like
“GuestReady” in Airbnb’s ecosystem, which assist hosts with the work associated with 92
communicating with guests before and throughout the stay, cleaning, preparing the apartment, check-in and check-out.
One notable service that Airbnb offers hosts since the platform’s foundation, is to send a photographer to take professional photos of the host’s accommodation free of charge. One of the main reasons why Airbnb’s founders decided to offer this service is to make listings look more appealing and professional, because they learned that the quality of pictures was one of the main reasons why people did not like to booking the listings on the platform (Gallagher 2017). The service involves that the photographer shoots accommodations with expert equipment, and helps the host with “styling, lighting, and framing” to ensure that “guests can visualize themselves” in the accommodation (Airbnb, Professional Photography, accessed February 19, 2019). Since
2017, however, the service is no longer free – Airbnb deducts costs for the photoshoot from the host’s earnings.
Airbnb was also cautious to offer hosts access to a network of suppliers. One of the reasons was reportedly that Airbnb’s management was actually worried that this may have a negative effect on the customer experience, as Airbnb’s chief marketing officer explains:
[W]e don’t want to standardize peoples’ homes. We don’t wanna have the same coffee
brand in peoples’ homes, we don’t wanna have the same beer brand in peoples’ homes,
even though we get approached by coffee companies and beer companies and furniture
companies all the time. That actually compromises this notion of the surprise and delight
of staying in somebody’s else’s home. (Jonathan Mildenhall, October 14, 2015,
interview, Skift Global Forum)
However, Airbnb is slowly starting to change this policy. In 2018, Airbnb announced that the platform is planning to create an online store, where hosts get access to selected products – the 93
first partnership in the US enables Superhosts to get a 30 percent discount on smart home devices
(Airbnb YouTube Channel, February 22, 2018, “LIVE: Big News from Airbnb”).
Discussion
Contributions to the Platform Management Literature
This article makes several contributions to the literature platform management (Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Sundararajan 2014). First, we provide a coherent set of tactics that integrates and organizes previously dispersed insights, measures, and tactics (e.g. Parker et al. 2016; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Sundararajan 2014; 2016). For instance, we subsume various tactics which platform users can use to manage providers under the category of digital monitoring and management and provide nuanced tactics within this category. Second, we develop previous insights in more depth. While Perren and Kozinets
(2018), for example, insightfully note the importance of training providers, they do not elaborate how platform-based firms can teach providers given the logistical and legal constraints outlined in the introduction. Notably, in contrast with the more top-down approach suggested by Dellaert
(2019) and Perren and Kozinets (2018), platform leaders can leverage the knowledge of the service providers themselves to educate providers, by sourcing best practices from providers and connecting providers to educate each other. Third, we identify new categories of tactics. To date, the existing literature focuses more on educating and controlling service providers (Benoit et al.
2017; Perren and Kozinets 2018). Our findings show, however, that platform leaders can also try to inspire their service providers. Relatedly, another important but thus far overlooked category of tactics is to equip providers with the tools needed to provide the service the platform 94
leadership expects. Fourth, we provide a rich set of tactics, which platform leaders can use to align the service providers offer with the customer experience they aspire. Although abstract, these tactics are sufficiently concrete to inspire practicable initiatives. To the best of our knowledge, many of these tactics have not been articulated by prior research (e.g. exemplifying the customer experience, sourcing and circulating best practices, mobilizing inspiring leaders from the field). Others have been articulated in prior research (e.g. mythologizing (Lawrence and
Suddaby 2006)), but not in a platform management context.
In addition, our findings indicate how platform leaders can shape the culture of platform markets. While scholars have argued that the platform culture is an important way how platform leaders can shape the behavior of service providers in the interest of the platform (Benoit et al.
2017; Parker et al. 2016; Sundararajan 2014), they do not articulate how managers can shape the culture of platform market where thousands and in some cases millions of users interact with each other. We find, consistent with prior research on organizational cultures, that Airbnb communicates its culture through storytelling, mythologizing, and valorizing (e.g. Ford and
Sturman 2011; Lawrence and Suddaby 2006; Schein 1984; Wilkins 1984). Nevertheless, we would challenge accounts that suggest Airbnb’s platform culture is primarily the outcome of inspiring stories and speeches at community events (Sundararajan 2014). Instead, our findings indicate that Airbnb’s culture is also sustained through the review system. Prompted by the platform, customers discipline providers to perform the role of the host. In addition, Airbnb also equips users with the tools needed to enact the values and norms promoted by the platform (Von
Richthofen and Fischer 2019).
The article also provides an initial answer to the question of how platform leaders can
“maintain the level of individuality of the CC service on one side at the same time ensuring a 95
constant quality level” (Benoit et al. 2017, 226). Airbnb’s brand strategy indicates that service consistency may not be feasible for platform-based firms that connect providers and consumers of relatively complex services like hospitality. As we have seen in the context section, Airbnb’s leadership is acutely aware that it cannot compete with traditional service providers in terms of consistency. Therefore, the leadership aims for reliability and to establish a number of service standards in regard to critical hygiene factors (e.g. cleanliness), both by teaching hosts about these standards as well as by enabling guests to discipline hosts in regard to these standards through their reviews. Instead of promoting service consistency, Airbnb tries to differentiate itself through the individuality of customer experiences. Note, however, that Airbnb increasingly shifts towards a multi-pronged approach in this regard. By establishing “Airbnb Plus” as separate category of listings which require certification through Airbnb employees, the platform increasingly tries to appeal also to consumers who seek the more local and home-like experience of Airbnb stays, but are not willing to sacrifice service consistency in turn (Airbnb YouTube
Channel, February 22, 2018, “LIVE: Big News from Airbnb”).
This article also broadens the perspective on platform leadership more generally. The extant literature on platform management suggests that platform leaders should adopt a transactional leadership style, by using rewards (e.g. certification) and sanctions (e.g. actor screening) to manage the performance of service providers (e.g. Perren and Kozinets 2018).
While Airbnb’s leaders use rewards and sanctions to ensure that service providers conform to critical service standards, they also try to inspire service providers to champion the brand’s values. Overall, the leadership style of Airbnb managers is an effective hybrid of transactional and transformational leadership. In this regard, our findings resonate with Morhart et al. (2009), who find that transformative leadership style is more effective than transactional leadership when 96
it comes to turning employees into brand champions and argue for a careful balance between these two styles; they note that transactional leadership used to the extreme can make
“employees feel like string puppets dancing for the customer with their supervisors operating them from backstage” (Morhart et al. 2009, 138). We would add that platform managers must be especially careful to avoid making service providers feel this way. Since a substantial part of service providers are part-timers, who are not motivated by economic gains alone (Habibi et al.
2016; Hamari et al. 2016; Hellwig et al. 2015), the platform may risk to drive service providers away through too rigid control and incentive mechanisms.
Limitations and Opportunities for Future Research
One limitation of this study is that we cannot show, based on our data, how effective the identified tactics are. While we did show some examples throughout the findings to illustrate the effectiveness of some of Airbnb’s tactics as well as to show that many hosts actually adopt some of the best practices, standards, and norms taught by Airbnb, we have limited insight to what extent this can be traced back to the actions of the platform. To explore the effectiveness of the tactics identified in this article, future research could approach our research question more from the perspective of service providers. Specifically, future research could follow the careers of individual service providers over time, to explore in more depth how the different actions of the platform shape the trajectory of these providers.
One limitation related to our research context is that Airbnb was already relatively well- established, when we started to study the platform in 2014. While the archival data we collected on Airbnb covers a time span between 2008 and 2019, we only started to collect user-level data in 2014. In consequence, we do not know how Airbnb’s early tactics shaped the behavior of 97
providers and led to the emergence of standards, practices, and norms which service providers now take for granted. Studying the dynamics between platform management, service providers and consumers from the foundation of the platform onwards would enable researchers to get a better sense of the role of different tactics during the platform’s growth phase.
Another limitation of this article is that it only considers one platform. While many of the tactics we identified are consistent with the recommendations of prior research which considered several platforms (Perren and Kozinets 2018), and while we observed that Uber has been using quite similar tactics to align the service provided by Uber drivers with the customer experience the platform aspires to (e.g. teaching and digital monitoring and management), there also appear to be noteworthy differences. In particular, Uber appears to invest much less in trying to inspire users and to focus less on creating and sustaining a platform culture (Sundararajan 2014). Future research could compare and contrast Airbnb’s tactics systematically to those of other matchmakers and identify conditions, like the nature of service and the type of industry, which make certain tactics more or less sensible. It seems reasonable to expect that Airbnb’s tactics associated with “inspiring,” for instance, may be less relevant in the context of traditionally more transactional services – like ride-hailing.
Another avenue for future research is to investigate, how service providers respond to the attempts of platform-based firms to shape the service they offer. It is probably especially promising to explore how service providers respond to the tactics we identified in regard to the digital monitoring and management and how platform leaders in turn deal with resistance from service providers.
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TABLE 1 Archival Data Sources Data Source Examples Data set Airbnb Blog “DIY Hosting Tips: Unforgettable Amenities 895 pages Made Easy”
Airbnb Community “All about linen and bedding sets”; “What 34 threads Center tips would you give a new host?”
Airbnb Toolkits “Putting guests at ease: Greeting rituals” 46 video clips, 63 pdf files Airbnb website About Us, Help Center, Airbnb Press
Airbnb YouTube Ads, tutorials, stories, product 102 videos announcements, videos from conventions and award ceremonies
TechCrunch “Airbnb Enlists Former Hotel Exec Chip 565 pages Conley As Its First Head of Global Hospitality”
Secondary Aspen Ideas Festival, Forbes, Skift Global 35 interviews interviews Forum, TechCrunch Disrupt, The Guardian
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TABLE 2 Findings Overview Category Tactics Exemplifying the customer experience Sourcing and circulating best practices Teaching Teaching service standards Enabling and encouraging peer-to-peer education Storytelling Mythologizing Inspiring Valorizing Mobilizing inspiring leaders from the field Enabling users to monitor providers Digital Monitoring Monitoring performance on the platform and Management Providing incentives Providing tools on the platform Tool Providing Providing tools beyond the platform
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TABLE 3 Best Practices Circulated by Airbnb Domain Text Design of the Avoid sterile or empty spaces [;] Create collections that highlight accommodation your passions [;] Consider a statement piece [;] Showcase your personality [;] Plants and flowers add vibrancy [;] Create a cohesive look […] (Airbnb YouTube Channel, February 22, 2018, “Adding Personality”)
Design of the Display original artwork and mementos from your own travels. […] accommodation [;] Guests love winding down with a good book or magazine. Provide a nice selection that shows off your tastes and help a guest explore and understand your region of the world. […] (Airbnb Blog, August 15, 2014, “DIY Hosting Tips: Unforgettable Amenities Made Easy”)
Design of the [Image 1] Looking to up the design of your listing? [Image 2] Here accommodation are some go-to tips from interior designer, Bobby Berk [Image 3] and Airbnb Plus host, Melanie [Image 4] Cohesive Colors can make your home feel more spacious [Image 5] Large Mirrors add depth and can be used by guests before they go out [Image 6] Layering with pillows, duvets, & blankets add texture and comfort to a space (Instagram Story, January 16, 2019)
Check-in and […] Focus on a warm reception. A smile at the door when you hand arrival them the keys is the best way to make sure guests have a good start to their stay. […] So, a smile plus a hug plus a cup of coffee is my recommendation. “Fill out your guidebook, leave a personal touch (e.g. wine, note…), and make check-in seamless.” — Brent […] “At my first guest experience, I walked in and saw a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a personalized card. I was so touched!” (Airbnb Blog, February 14 2014, “Welcoming Airbnb First-Timers Into Your Home”) Check-in and Your guests will be in a new place when they arrive, so it's important arrival to put them at ease with a simple check-in process. If you can welcome your guests in person, a quick tour can help them feel oriented and in control. […] Hosts like to welcome guests in many different ways, and have a variety of greeting styles. Our hosts have shared maps of their favorite places in the neighborhood, a cup of tea, or a bottle of wine. (Airbnb Toolkits, “You can help guests feel at home”)
Communication Guests appreciate a message at key points during their stay: during the stay 106
• After check in [:] Making sure your guests feel settled in and comfortable lets them know you’re available for help if they need it • Sometime during their stay [:] For longer stays, letting guests know that you’re still available and attentive can help them feel looked-after and special • Before check out [:] Asking if there’s anything guests have questions about before they leave can help smooth their transition out of your space (Airbnb Toolkits, “Welcoming Guests – Supporting Guests during their Stay”)
Local experience If I go travel, I want to experience real life. […] So, I recommend places where we go to, to eat for breakfast, for places to walk, places to take pictures. I will tell them historical anecdotes. It’s nice to see people get a different perspective on life. It’s a very enriching experience. (Airbnb Toolkits, “Living like locals”)
Local experience Be an ambassador for your neighborhood Getting a feel for the neighborhood is critical for guests, especially if they haven’t been there before. […] Talk up your neighborhood. Why do you like where you live? What makes it unique? […] Suggest where to eat, engage, explore Travelers love a local recommendation. […] Provide recommendations early to allow guests to plan their trip. Filling in your Guidebook on Airbnb is a great way to compile your recommendations, and it makes it easy to grow and repurpose for future guests. Personality is appreciated—recommend things you actually do yourself and places you like to go. […] (Airbnb Blog, June 27, 2014, “Spaces and Places: What Guests Want to Know about Location”).
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TABLE 4 Online Tutorials on Service Standards Standard Text Accuracy We hear from hosts and guests that sharing clear expectations before a trip can contribute to a better experience for everyone. As a host, you can help travelers decide if your space is a good fit for their needs by providing detailed information about what your listing has to offer. Your guests will have the opportunity to rate the accuracy of the information you provide. Creating a detailed profile and listing page will attract guests who match your hosting style and help you earn great ratings. (Airbnb, Hosting Standards, accessed February 17, 2017)
Accuracy I have learned that it is important to be absolutely frank in the listing. It’s advertised as a rustic retreat and that’s the kind of guests I get. So, if anything, I exaggerate the, the hardships of the place so that people aren’t surprised when they get here and as a result, I get people who are looking for an experience that’s out of the ordinary and I don’t get the wineries or crybabies or the divas or the princesses, I get people who are up for the experience. (Airbnb Toolkits, “Being Honest in Your Listing”).
Accuracy Yeah, I think that being honest is so important. What’s probably most convenient about my space is that it’s the core of the city. But if maybe you are not someone who wants the noise and the hustle and bustle of the city, it might not be the space for you. One time, I had someone say, the shower head was too low. You know, I am 5,3, but this individual was, you know, taller than 6 feet. So, now as a disclaimer I write that the shower head is low. So, communicating through all the details is pretty important. (Airbnb Toolkits, “Describing Your Space”)
Cleanliness “You always go downstairs and find it immaculate. Up here, where we live, maybe not so much. But we always sort of clean the guest basement, have that top-notch. I have stayed in places, I often will lay out my Yoga matt and do some Yoga and I see oh clean around here and oh, it’s filthy under there. I don’t wanna see that, so I don’t want my guests to see that.” (Airbnb Toolkits, “Cleaning your Space”)
Cleaning […] First things first: Give extra attention to the most important areas of cleanliness. Those would be the kitchen and the bathrooms. If you offer your guests space in the refrigerator, give it a thorough cleaning. And if you make a point to keep all of the condiments and other items nicely organized, your guest will be encouraged do the same. […] In addition to keeping your space clean, it’s important to keep it tidy. […] Once you’ve gotten your space clean and ready for your next guest, check the details: Look for stray hairs on the couch [;] Clean off dust 108
on the edges of shelves, picture frames, and doorways [;] Wipe down all the surfaces of fixtures and appliances [;] Check the kitchen counter for crumbs [;] Sweep or vacuum under the furniture […] Make it smell good, too! […] (Airbnb Blog, April 15, 2015, “Offering A Clean, Welcoming Space”)
Commitment to When you confirm you’ll host someone, they’re trusting you to take Reservations care of their needs. Whether it’s a family vacation or a business trip, an unexpected change in accommodations can be very disruptive. (Airbnb, Hosting Standards, accessed February 17, 2017)
Commitment to If we have a personal commitment such as our grandson’s wedding, we Reservations blog the calendar off. […] We do not cancel a reservation, as a policy. […] Whether we are here personally ourselves or whether we have someone to take our place. But we do not cancel a reservation, because a guest has made the reservation and we don’t want the guest to feel insecure about what’s gonna happen. (Airbnb Toolkits, “Committing to Your Bookings”)
Communication Every time a guest reaches out—whether you have a reservation with them or not—responding quickly shows that you’re an attentive and considerate host. (Airbnb, Hosting Standards, accessed February 17, 2017)
Communication One of my first rules of thumb is to try to reply as soon as I can, because everyone is trying to book travel, some of them do it short notice and you kind of want to be responsive. I try to give them the experience that I would want, if I was travelling and so in terms of communicating, I try to reply immediately, I address the questions they are asking, I stay really honest. You don’t want any unpleasant surprises. For examples, I have to listings in the same house because I have two rooms. I make sure they understand that there may be another guest, when they arrive. I make sure they understand that there’s a dog. (Airbnb Toolkits, “Replying Quickly and Honestly”)
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TABLE 5 Airbnb’s Review Process Star Guests first rate their overall experience, the cleanliness of the space, the ratings accuracy of the listing page, the value of the offering, the communication of the host before and during the stay, the arrival (i.e. the check-in), and the location of the listing on a scale from one to five stars. (Airbnb Help Center, “How do star ratings work?”, accessed February 20, 2019)
Written Airbnb asks guests to stay honest, write clearly, and give details; to give reviews concrete examples; to share what surprised them; and to consider all positive and negative information that future guests should know before a booking.
Private At the end of the review process, guests can give hosts private feedback. feedback Further Since 2018, Airbnb additionally asks guests to indicate what they liked most elements about their stay from the subsequent choice set: hospitality, amenities, communication, thoughtful details, style, cleanliness and recommendations. Most of these options (hospitality, thoughtful details and style, recommendations) directly relate to the experience Airbnb promotes. Airbnb uses this information to inform guests what other guests liked about the respective listing, which in turn incents hosts to continue to do well on these elements of the experience.
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TABLE 6 Platform Tools Tool Description Instant Book “Instant Book listings don't require approval from the host before they can be booked. Instead, guests can just choose their travel dates, book, and discuss check-in plans with the host.” (Airbnb Help Center, “What is Instant Book?”, accessed February 19, 2019)
Guidebook “Guidebooks let hosts suggest local spots, like restaurants, grocery stores, parks, and attractions” (Airbnb Help Center, “What is a Guidebook?”, accessed October 10, 2018).
Listing The listing page enables hosts to describe their offering in detail. It consists of photos (of the space and the neighborhood); a short paragraph at the top of the listing where hosts describe their offering in a nutshell; a more elaborate description of the space, where guests have access to, and how the host will interact with the guest; a list of amenities; the reviews for the listing; notes about the neighborhood; the host’s house rules and cancellation policies (Airbnb, accessed January 17, 2019).
Message Airbnb’s message feature enables hosts and guests to communicate with feature each other before and throughout a stay.
Mobile phone Airbnb provides mobile phone applications for both Android and iOS. application User Profiles Airbnb’s user profiles enable users to upload photos and to write something about themselves.
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How Can Platform-Based Firms Attract and Retain Service Providers?
Insights from Airbnb
Georg von Richthofen
ETH Zurich
Abstract: Platform-based firms like Airbnb and Uber rely on external service providers as their co-producers. The service providers, however, can choose between various platforms. To date, the marketing literature gives platform managers insufficient guidance on how to attract and retain service providers. Based on a longitudinal analysis of Airbnb and multiple types of qualitative data, this article suggests that platform leaders can attract and retain service providers with (emotional) branding, by shaping role performances for both providers and consumers, and by supporting providers through a combination of platform governance, learning opportunities, tools and services, customer service, and by connecting providers. In addition, the article also indicates some of the risks associated with these tactics. The article contributes to the marketing literature on the management of platform-based firms.
Keywords: platform-based firms, customer retention, emotional branding, role performances, platform governance, Airbnb, sharing economy
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Airbnb is a community-based company and we would be nothing without our hosts.1 –
Brian Chesky, cofounder and chief executive
Platform-based firms like Airbnb and Uber, which match external service providers and consumers who interact offline, are increasingly ubiquitous (Perren and Kozinets 2018). Airbnb alone owns about 20 percent of the American lodging market (Molla 2019). But while platform- based firms are frequently hailed for their ability to scale rapidly with near-zero marginal cost
(Parker et al. 2016), their business model also entails a systemic risk: they rely on external service providers as their co-producers (Dellaert 2019); without providers’ services, consumers would have no incentive to use their platforms (Fischer and Scaraboto 2018). In contrast, the external service providers do not necessarily depend on any specific platform and can choose on which platforms they want to offer their services. While American Uber drivers can switch to
Lyft or vice versa, Airbnb hosts can also list their accommodations on smaller platforms specialized on home sharing like Homestay, or on larger more generic platforms like
Booking.com.
In order to attract and retain service providers, platforms need to create governance mechanisms which help to create trust and reduce perceived risks (Benoit et al. 2017; Parker et al. 2016; Perren and Kozinets 2018), a user-friendly technology, as well as positive network effects: the more users a ride-hailing application has, for instance, the more attractive it is for drivers (Parker et al. 2016). In addition, platforms can attract providers through low fees. But
1 Kokalitcheva, K. (2018, September 21). Airbnb asks SEC to let it give hosts equity. Axios.
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while low fees are evidently important, they may be insufficient to build a loyal provider base, especially since many service providers use these platforms only as an additional source of income (Manyika et al. 2016) and are not motivated by money alone (Habibi et al. 2016; Hamari et al. 2016). What other tactics, then, can platform leaders use to attract and retain service providers in the sharing economy? An analysis of the marketing literature on the management of platform-based firms indicates some initial insights (Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Giesler et al. 2018; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019).
Benoit et al. (2017, 225), for instance, insightfully note in their conceptual article that platform leaders often articulate “a mission statement that motivates customers and suppliers to participate in the network.” In another conceptual article, Dellaert (2019) theorizes how platforms like Airbnb and Uber can create value for their co-producers. He specifically suggests that platforms can support service providers (1) by increasing service providers’ utility in co- production activities (e.g. by making the co-production process more enjoyable), (2) by helping service providers to become more efficient (e.g. by offering training), and (3) by increasing service providers’ income from co-production.
In addition, a number of studies indicate that platform leaders shape the experience of service providers by shaping the way the service providers and consumers behave when interacting with each other (Giesler et al. 2018; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Von Richthofen and
Fischer 2019). Giesler et al. (2018) find that Uber’s management has shaped the role of the
“empathic consumer,” by teaching riders to behave empathetically towards their drivers. Lyft, another ride hailing platforms, aims to replicate the experience of picking up a friend and initially encouraged riders and drivers to give each other fist bumps at the beginning of their ride
(Olanoff 2012); today the platform continues to animate riders to socialize with their drivers 114
throughout the ride, for example, by informing riders about their drivers’ musical taste (Perren and Kozinets 2018, 24). Most notably, however, is Airbnb. Airbnb defines the service interaction as one of hospitality and has shaped the role of the host and the guest and equips users with ideas and tools to enact their roles and sustain the semblance of hospitality, despite the commercial nature of the exchange (Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). But while we know how platform managers shape as well as how users enact such role performances, we know little about how service providers actually experience these performances.
To summarize: an analysis of the marketing literature on platform management indicates a number of insights which platform leaders can use attract and retain service providers, namely, through articulating compelling missions (Benoit et al. 2017), by supporting service providers
(Dellaert 2019), and by shaping role performances (Giesler et al. 2018; Perren and Kozinets
2018; Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). However, most of these insights were neither grounded in empirical work, nor developed in much depth. For instance, we know little about how platform leaders can support service providers. What is more, these insights have never been articulated coherently within a single article that was actually focused on attracting and retaining service providers, despite the pressing concern of platform leaders to do so in light of fierce competition (“Drivers wanted” 2019). Responding to the call of Benoit et al. (2017) for research on how successful platforms retain service providers, this article provides answers to the following research question: How can platform leaders attract and retain service providers?
The context of this study is Airbnb, a platform which matches providers (“hosts”) and consumers (“guests”) of accommodation. To book an accommodation, prospective guests make a search query to which the platform returns a list of available accommodations. When users make 115
a booking, they pay via credit card. After a stay, hosts and guests have up 14 days to review each other (Airbnb Help Center, Host and guest reviews, accessed October 8, 2018).
Airbnb constitutes an ideal context for this research for two reasons. First, the company has managed to attract and retain millions of providers despite intense competition (Gallagher
2017). In 2019, the company has listed more than five million accommodations on its platform
(Airbnb Press Room, Fast Facts, accessed February 27, 2019). Second, the service providers seem extremely loyal to the platform. While Uber competes fiercely with rivals for both customers and drivers and subsidizes journeys to maintain market share, many Airbnb hosts list their properties only on the Airbnb website (“Airbnb: A different breed of unicorn” 2017).
Method
Data Collection
To understand how Airbnb attracts and retains hosts, I collected a combination of archival, netnographic, and interview data between 2014 and 2019. Next, I will describe each type of data in more detail.
Archival data. The archival data include data from Airbnb’s website, including all Airbnb blog posts between 2008 and May 2018, which amassed to 895 pages of single-spaced text. I also collected videos and text from Airbnb’s Toolkits website (www.airbnb-toolkits.com), where hosts can learn about different aspects of hosting. In total, I archived 46 video clips, 63 pdf files, and 26 screenshots. Another data source was Airbnb’s “Community Center.” The Community
Center is a forum, which enables hosts “to connect with other hosts, share stories, ask for advice, and get updates from the Airbnb team” (Airbnb Help Center, “What is the Community Center?,” 116
accessed August 13, 2018). In addition, I collected 118 videos from Airbnb’s YouTube channel, which include content such as advertisements and community stories.
Netnography. To understand the experiences of Airbnb hosts, I conducted a netnography in the “Airhostsforum” (http://airhostsforum.com), an independent online forum used by Airbnb hosts. Data collection lasted about three years, from May 2015 to May 2018, and followed established guidelines (Kozinets 2015). The data set from this fieldwork accumulated to more than 5000 single-spaced pages of text.
Interviews. I also collected 11 in-depth interviews with Airbnb hosts following established guidelines (Arsel 2017). The interviews were conducted in informants’ homes (4), at university (4), and over Skype (3) between January 2015 and November 2018. The informants had varying levels of experience: while the informant with the most experience has hosted several hundreds of guests, the informant with the least experience hosted about 30 guests.
Interviews lasted between 55 and 107 minutes, were taped and transcribed and resulted in 206 single-spaced pages of text.
Data Analysis
All data were coded in view to the research question following conventional guidelines
(Belk et al. 2013). Specifically, data analysis involved iterating back and forth between analyzing the actions of Airbnb and the experiences of service providers, as well as comparing and contrasting emerging findings with existing literature (Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). I also coded salient risks associated with different tactics used by Airbnb to attract and retain service providers. Next, I will present the findings of this analysis. 117
Findings
My analysis indicates that Airbnb attracts and retains service providers through branding, by shaping role performances, and by supporting service providers in a number of ways.
Branding
Airbnb’s success indicates the value of branding to attract and retain service providers.
Airbnb invests considerably in its brand (Safian 2017), and also draws on branding to attract and retain hosts. Airbnb’s branding approach can be classified as emotional branding strategy (Gobe
2009) – “a consumer-centric, relational, and story-driven approach to forging deep and enduring affective bonds between consumers and brands” (Thompson et al. 2006, 50). Three characteristics of emotional branding are especially salient. First, Airbnb produces emotional and story-driven advertisements. Second, Airbnb tries to establish a relationship with their providers, which is based on trust, mutual respect and strong emotional bonds. Last, Airbnb articulates a compelling mission. Next, I will illustrate each characteristic with concrete examples from
Airbnb’s emotional branding efforts. Then, I will elaborate what risks are associated with adopting an emotional branding approach.
Advertising. Airbnb produces emotional and story-driven advertisements, which indicate
“a genuine understanding of consumers’ lifestyles, dreams, and goals and compellingly represent how the brand can enrich their lives” (Thompson et al. 2006, 51). Specifically, Airbnb advertises that it can help people to make the extra income they need to pursue important life projects, like 118
raising their children, traveling, getting married, or a career they are passionate about. The following “Living a Richer Life” ad is especially illustrative:
People all over the world are renting their space on Airbnb. We are some of them to share
their reasons for hosting in their own words. [Rachael & Paul:] The extra income allows
us to follow careers we’re more passionate about. [Casey & Leo:] We’re saving up
money for our wedding. […] [Agri & Roger:] This year we have helped over 400 people.
[…] [Agnes:] I like to host because it helps me practice my English. […] [Grace:] One
amazing thing is that I get to help people live their dreams […]. (Airbnb YouTube
Channel, March 6, 2012, “Living a Richer Life | Airbnb Hosts | Airbnb”)
Airbnb also produced a “Meet the host” campaign featuring dozens of actual Airbnb hosts, who describe how Airbnb helps them to pursue their life projects in more detail (see Table 1, “Meet the Hosts”).
In addition, Airbnb promises providers that hosting can be a wonderful, transformative, and life-enriching experience that enables them to meet interesting and delightful people from all over the world. Airbnb’s advertisements also indicate that the people staying with them will perform the role the guest. Consider the following advertisement:
[…] I met really great people from Airbnb, people from all over the world […]. One
couple comes back every month and they have become friends of mine. I was always
taught growing up that you always have to walk into somebody’s house with a gift. But I
was never taught that when you leave their house you give them a gift, too. But basically,
my guests leave me gifts when they leave. […] It’s been a great experience and I had no
idea that so much of my personal life would change along with it. (Airbnb YouTube
Channel, October 11, 2010, “Host Scott Shares His Experience | Airbnb”) 119
Next to more blatant ads like this, Airbnb produced a campaign called “host stories,” in which hosts describe the non-financial rewards they receive from being hosts more poetically (see
Table 1, “Airbnb Host Stories”). Consistent with an emotional branding approach, which aims at giving viewers a positive feeling about the advertised product, service or experience, all Airbnb commercials show happy hosts engaging in hosting routines and interacting with guests to inspiring background music.
--- Insert Table 1 about here ---
Relationship building. Consistent with the tenets of emotional branding (Gobe 2009),
Airbnb also tries to establish a relationship with their providers, which is based on trust, mutual respect and strong emotional bonds. Sometimes, Airbnb literally communicates that the relationship to is hosts based on trust and mutual respect:
[…] Our connection with you all isn’t a series of transactions. It’s a relationship built on
trust, communication, and mutual respect. While you have a transaction with a customer
or client, you have a relationship with a partner. […] (Chip Conley, November 25, 2014,
Airbnb Blog, “Airbnb Open: What I learned from you”)
In addition, Airbnb uses a relational and intimate language. For example, the platform signs emails with “Sent with ♥ from Airbnb.” Surprisingly, Airbnb even occasionally calls individual hosts. It seems as if such ostensibly profane forms of relationship management have the capacity to leave a lasting impression on providers, as the following interview quote from a
Swiss host indicates.
They also did a few things which I found really surprising. One time, I think this was
during our […] really successful first year [as hosts], they called me around Christmas
and were like: “Hey, how is it going with Airbnb? And thanks for your being a host and 120
your engagement.” And [I was like:] “Wow, okay.” (Christian, interview, January 2015,
translated from German)
Airbnb also reinforces the notion that it sees hosts as partners, by asking them regularly for feedback on new platform features and by informing hosts about new developments through its blog. Since 2017, Airbnb additionally organizes several live “Host Q&A” sessions per year, in which the leadership of the platform addresses pressing concerns of hosts. To that end, hosts can submit questions online and the most upvoted questions are addressed during the Q&A session. In addition, Airbnb also announced giving hosts more influence on the company by establishing a “host advisory council,” which provides feedback to Airbnb’s leadership and by inviting some hosts to the company’s board meetings (Airbnb YouTube Channel, March 7, 2017,
“Celebrating our Community | Airbnb”).
Articulating the brand’s mission. Consistent with Benoit et al. (2017), I find that Airbnb’s founders articulate a compelling mission to attract service providers and consumers alike. After its foundation, Airbnb aligned itself with the idea that peer-to-peer exchange can enable a more social and sustainable way of consumption, which is commonly subsumed under the banner of
“collaborative consumption” (Botsman and Rogers 2011) or the “sharing economy” (Sacks
2011). Airbnb’s cofounder and chief executive even gave a conference talk on the sharing economy, in which he told the audience that Airbnb is a protagonist which “can help making the sharing economy happen” (DLDconference 2012).
A few years later, Airbnb officially announced its mission, namely, to use technology to bring people together and to create a community where everybody feels like they can belong
(Brian Chesky, Airbnb Blog, July 16, 2014, “Belong Anywhere”). According to Airbnb’s chief executive, “hosts are heroes,” because they share their homes with strangers, take care of them, 121
and make them feel like they belong in the process (Airbnb YouTube Channel, November 13,
2015, ““Hosts are Heroes” - Brian Chesky | Airbnb Open 2016 | Airbnb”). The valorization of hosts and their work presumably also helps to attract and retain hosts. This form of valorizing is especially salient in a video, in which Airbnb expresses its gratitude to hosts for their work on the occasion of the platform’s 10-year anniversary, parts of which read as follows:
And whenever the world needed a place to stay, you opened your doors, and your hearts,
and about a million bottles of wine. Over a decade of hosting, you’ve created a new kind
of community […]. So, thank you. Here’s to the next ten years. (Airbnb YouTube
Channel, February 24, 2018, “Thank You to Airbnb Hosts | Airbnb).
Risks of emotional branding. While Airbnb’s success indicates that emotional branding can help platforms to attract and retain service providers, there are also several risks associated with this branding strategy. First, emotional branding is conducive to the emergence of doppelgänger brand images – “disparaging images and stories about a brand that are circulated in popular culture by a loosely organized network of consumers, brand activists, bloggers, and opinion leaders in the news and entertainment media” (Thompson et al. 2006, 50). Similarly,
Airbnb’s emotional branding has also triggered the emergence of doppelgänger brand images.
Table 2 provides an illustrative example in which brand activists mock one of Airbnb’s especially aspirational advertisement.
--- Insert Table 2 about here ---
Second, Airbnb’s emotional advertising appears to animate people to sign up as hosts without thinking rationally through all of the consequences. This, in turn, leaves many hosts ill- prepared for the job. Consider the following interview quote from one of my informants who signed up on Airbnb on a whim: 122
I think, I think one objection I have to Airbnb is they make it so easy. And they really sell
it all like ‘we are the world,’ you know it is this great, um, cultural experience, great
exchange, you know we watched their video on the website, it's people who are happy to
see each other and having a good time. And I think that they should […] make sure that
people understand about the insurance and taxes. Because we got into it not thinking
about any of those things. […] and then I found that our […] home insurance policy
wouldn't cover if something happens cause that's business thing. And so now […]. I am
lying awake fearful that our house burns down for whatever reason, our insurance policy
won't cover it […] So, I feel like a lot of people start and they don't really understand the
full legal implications. […] Or they don’t realize the full rate of that it’s a business […]
and you have to be willing to smile and be gracious. You know, sometimes, I don’t know
whether you ever watched Fawlty Towers [...] It is about this Inn or BnB and everything
is falling apart behind, somebody is waking him up, staff is drunk or whatever and he
goes out to the front desk and says “Hello, Mrs. Smith” [raised voice] as if nothing was
wrong.” [Laughs] I feel like that a lot, you know. I had nights where my child was sick all
night and, you know, the toilets were overflowing and appliances were breaking and I just
go up and say “Hey, how are you?” [raised voice]. They don’t need my problems they are
on vacation. (Betty, interview, March 2016)
Attracted by Airbnb’s emotional advertisements, Betty neither considered issues like insurance and taxes, nor realized how much emotional labor (Hochschild 1979) is ultimately associated with being an Airbnb host. Similarly, my netnography indicates that many new Airbnb hosts are surprised when they realize how much work is associated with being an Airbnb host. Many hosts 123
seem also unprepared for the fact that being a hospitality provider will inevitably occasionally mean dealing with difficult guests and negative reviews.
Third, my netnography indicates that hosts often show strong emotional responses when
Airbnb makes changes to the platform which contradict the notion that Airbnb’s leaders see hosts as partners and have their best interest at heart. Consider the following forum post in response to a change of the cancellation policies that made it easier for guests to cancel bookings and incents hosts to adopt flexible cancellation policies:
Yes, another example of how AirBnB shows it does not care about the hosts. Imagine
having your calendar blocked for half a year by a guest, and then canceled 31 days before
booking, because the guest found a slightly cheaper option. AirBnB does not care, they
have had the guests money for 6 months making big profit with it on the financial market.
[…] The only one that is getting hurt is the host, as usual. […] (Chris, September 22,
2016, reply to “New Cancellation Policies And Increased Host Fees,” Airhostsforum)
Further posts in the forum conversation indicate that hosts like Chris are especially frustrated about such changes in light of Airbnb’s emotional branding:
[…] Why do so many posters here think Airbnb is evil for maximizing profit? […]
(EllenN, September 22, 2016, reply to “New Cancellation Policies And Increased Host
Fees,” Airhostsforum)
Because AirBnB claims they are not in it for the money. They are about "sharing", not
making money, they want to help people make ends meet. They want want people to
meet, interact etc etc bla bla bla. Nobody has a problem with them making money, but
most host have a problem with their lies, and how they treat hosts. (Chris, September 22,
2016, reply to “New Cancellation Policies And Increased Host Fees,” Airhostsforum) 124
Shaping Role Performances
It is arguably easier as platform to attract and retain service providers when the providers enjoy their work and feel appreciated for their effort. The behavior of the customers can play an important role in this regard: not only is the service interaction a substantial part of the “co- production experience” (Dellaert 2019), but the customers are also providers’ main source of feedback. In general, service interactions can be conceptualized as performances in which both service providers and consumers perform their roles (Fisk and Grove 1996; Grove and Fisk
1983). Platform leaders can influence the service interaction by shaping roles performances that enhance the experience of both.
Airbnb is an excellent example in this regard. Airbnb has shaped the role of the Airbnb host and the Airbnb guest and equips users with concrete ideas and tools to enact these roles. For instance, Airbnb teaches hosts to treat their guests hospitably and generously, and recommends hosts to pick their guests up from the airport and showing them the city, while Airbnb teaches guests to bring hosts gifts and hosts to behave as if they were staying with friends. At the same time, the platform’s tools – from the profiles and listings, over the fact that hosts accept booking requests, to the fact that guests pay online before the trip – facilitate the enactment of these roles
(Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019).
Airbnb’s users use these ideas and tools and zealously perform their roles (Von
Richthofen and Fischer 2019). In the case of hosts, this involves that hosts welcome their guests in person, offer a drink (e.g. a cup of tea), socialize a bit, and recommend activities and places to eat. During the stay, many hosts check in with their guests and some even spend time with their guests and invite them for dinner (Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). The role performances of 125
guests involve that they conform to the norms of hospitality (c.f. Darke and Gurney 2000); write polite booking inquiries; arrive at the agreed upon time; tidy up the rental space before they leave; show appreciation for their host’s hospitality by bringing small gifts, leaving thank-you notes and writing friendly reviews; and that guests display the appropriate “personal front”
(Goffman 1959), for example by smiling whenever they interact with their hosts (Ikkala and
Lampinen 2015; Roelofsen 2018; Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019). Overall, my fieldwork indicates that the role performances shaped by Airbnb (1) increase hosts’ enjoyment of the service interaction, (2) help to make hosts feel appreciated and valued and to experience their work as meaningful, and (3) lower the efforts associated with hosting. I will consider each aspect in turn.
First, I find that the role performances shaped by Airbnb generally enhance the host experience, as comment like the following illustrates: “Yes! I love hosting. All my guests to date have been excellent! […]” (jacquo, July 21, 2016, reply to “Diary of a Happy Host?,”
Airhostsforum). Consistent with prior research (Hellwig et al. 2015), I find that many Airbnb hosts enjoy socializing with their guests. Consider the following interview quote for example:
I love the meeting, you know, and being like “why are you here?” And this window into
their life, this is quick blink, you know this quick kind of vision of someone who has a
totally different life from you and it's very... It's freeing, you know, it takes me out of my
day, out of my own worries […] So, I like this sort of, this kind of quick relationship
building. I really, the kind of communication stuff I like […] “can you tell us about great
restaurants?”. I really like doing that. […] Like I sort of enjoy that sort of level of helping
people, it feels like I'm helping people […] people are really happy with that interaction. 126
It doesn't take much, but you just, you need to be really responsive and cheerful and
helpful and treat people like you'd wanted to be treated. (Sophie, interview, May 2016)
Note that Sophie’s statement indicates that she also perceives her works as meaningful, as she feels like she is helping people, which leads us to the second way how the role performances shaped by Airbnb help to attract and retain service providers.
Encouraged and enabled by Airbnb, guests give hosts positive feedback in person, through handwritten thank-you notes, and through reviews (Ikkala and Lampinen 2015; Von
Richthofen and Fischer 2019). The following quotes indicate that the positive feedback from guests increases hosts’ enjoyment of the experience, makes them feel appreciated, valued, and helps them to experience their work as meaningful.
[…] She was very gracious and kind without a single complaint or criticism and gave us
all 5 stars in the review. She made me value being a host. Her praise carried a lot of
weight. […] (TuMo, November 4, 2018, “Appreciative guests,” Airhostsforum)
I’ve had a few small gifts over the years […] But honestly, the notes of appreciation are
just as meaningful. […] (CatskillsGrrl, November 5, 2018, “Appreciative guests,”
Airhostsforum)
[T]he small things make sometimes the host experience very nice. […] People leave me
notes, even presents, sometimes they leave me chocolate. Even though I don’t see them, it
makes me happy, just little notes, it’s very nice, apart from the financial money aspect.
(Katy, interview, September 2015)
Some Airbnb hosts derive considerable value from the positive feedback they receive through hosting, especially when they do not get a lot of positive feedback in their main occupation, as the following interview quote nicely illustrates: 127
I think the […] main motivation wasn’t money, it was getting to know the people and
also, I think you get to a period in your PhD when, you know, you don’t get a lot praise,
you know in your PhD process, you know, you just, you get praise once a year, or once
every two years and having a very good customer feedback like after a guest comes to
stay with you is really motivating in life, in general. (Jennifer, interview, October 2017)
Third, the role performances of Airbnb guests also lower the effort associated with hosting. For example, hosts save effort and time when guests communicate well, strive to arrive and leave at the agreed upon time. Similarly, hosts save also time and energy when guests leave the space moderately clean and tidy. It is not uncommon that Airbnb guests clean their room themselves during the stay, as the following forum comment illustrates: “When I told her to let me know when she needed her room cleaned she said that she would clean her room. […]
(EllenN, July 21, 2016, reply to “Diary of a Happy Host?,” Airhostsforum).
The effectiveness of shaping role performances that are conducive to the provider experience is indicated by forum posts, in which Airbnb hosts describe their experiences on other platforms that are less focused on shaping role performances which sustain the semblance of hospitality:
Here’s my experience with Booking.com: I listed my place, promptly got a booking for 2
months in advance - a gentleman who would be traveling with his girlfriend and daugher.
Over the next 8 weeks he sent me approximately 25 emails with questions that were
answered in the description, called me twice before arriving, upon arrival they turned
their nose up at my place and when they left they left multiple “surprises” in the toilet for
me, that would no longer flush. So I unregistered. Granted, I got a bad guest, but it kinda 128
put me off. Airbnb all the way now. (Julie, March 21, 2016, reply to “Newly listed on
Booking,” Airhostsforum)
Note, however, that even though the majority of Airbnb guests may perform their roles effectively (Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019), there are also cases in which Airbnb guests fail to enact their roles. My netnographic work indicates that some hosts, especially those have deeply internalized their roles, struggle to cope with instances, in which guests commit performance lapses. For example, such host tend to perceive critical or negative reviews from guests as a hurtful and personal form of complaint – which is taboo according to the norms of hospitality (Darke and Gurney 2000). The Airhostsforum is full of conversations started by hosts who seek emotional support after receiving a negative review, such as “My first guest/review - and it was negative :( I’m gutted” (jeezlouise, July 1, 2016). Similarly, hosts who have deeply internalized their roles also tend to experience considerable tension when guests commit ostensibly minor transgression – which may be completely normal in a hotel context. Consider the following forum post:
First of all, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that 99% of my Airbnb guests are
amazing and a pleasure to host / meet..... but just occasionally there is the odd one whom
I am acutely annoyed by, rarrr!! Basically, 2 girls stayed the other day who seemed nice
on the out-set.. though ended up being idiots - i.e. slamming doors […] Now all this I can
handle […]. But the final straw came on the day of check out when they proceeded to
linger around well past the outlined check out time (11am). I wanted to clean up for the
next guest and pop out - put me in the awkward situation of reminding them that check
out is 11am (it was already 1pm) to which they replied that they knew/were just packing
up/asking me if I had scaled to weigh their luggage/asking me if they could leave their 129
luggage as their flight wasn't later in the day, etc .. Argh! I was so annoyed, haha! […] I
AM NOT LIKING having to ask people to leave, kind of puts a damper on things?? […]
(Kittyp, November 24, 2015, “Totally awkward moment when you have to remind a
guest to leave?,” Airhostsforum)
Kittyp is not only frustrated that her guests break the norms of hospitality by outstaying their welcome, but also because they thereby force her to break an important taboo as a host as well – namely to ask her guests to leave (Darke and Gurney 2000). Her response resonates with foundational sociological research according to which norm breaches lead people to experience embarrassment (Goffman 1956). And yet, the example also indicates that the role expectations shaped by Airbnb set high standards for hosts and guests alike so that users will inevitably occasionally fail to live up them and trigger tensions in turn.
Supporting
Airbnb also attracts and retains service providers by supporting them through platform governance, by providing hosts learning opportunities, tools and services, as well as customer service, and by connecting providers so that providers can support each other. I will consider each form of support in turn.
Platform governance. One way in which platform leaders can attract and retain service providers is by supporting them through provider-friendly policies and rules. Airbnb has designed a number of rights that benefit hosts – especially non-professional hosts who rent rooms in their own home. In particular, Airbnb enables hosts to accept or decline booking requests. Consider how much Airbnb stressed this right from the outset: 130
Airbnb is an online marketplace for peer-to-peer traveling. We enable people to earn
money by renting out extra space, and offer travelers a viable alternative to hotels. How it
works [:] It's simple. Nice folks, folks like you, list their guest rooms, futons, and even
couches on the site and set a price per night. […] [When guests like to book your place,]
You receive a notification to check out their profile, and decide if the guest is appropriate
for your pad. When you accept a guest, contact information is exchanged, itineraries
emailed, and the transaction is completed confirming the reservation. Join the
community! (Airbnb About Us, August 2009)
The following interview quote indicates in turn how much some hosts value this option:
What I really value about Airbnb is simply that I retain the sovereignty over who I accept.
That is, who I accept and when I accept someone. Now there is also this function, this
instant book, where you practically allow that, when someone books a place […] that the
booking is confirmed immediately. But I deliberately didn’t activate that, I don’t want to,
because I still want to be able to say deliberately […] when we don’t want to have guests
then [at these dates] or when I don’t like his face for some reason, and yes, then I can still
decide [not to accept them], yes. So, I found that having this sovereignty is a very
important aspect about Airbnb. (Christian, interview, January 2015, translated from
German)
To give another example: Airbnb gives hosts, relatively to other more generic platforms, considerable freedom in describing their listings. This involves for instance that Airbnb hosts can describe how they like to interact with their guests – which helps to ensure good matches (Von
Richthofen and Fischer 2019). The following forum comment indicates how Airbnb hosts struggle with other platforms that have stricter policies in this regard: 131
My experience with booking.com was very difficult in a beginning. They dont let you
make your own descripton, and because i am only renting 2 rooms in my house, the
confusion was just overwhelming. People thought that its a house they are renting only
[…] to discover that its just a room, and on top of that we are living there. […] (Yana,
March 22, 2016, reply to “Newly listed on Booking,” Airhostsforum)
Note, however, that granting wide-ranging rights to attract providers can also have drawbacks when the platform leadership later wants to amend or change these rules to please other stakeholders like customers or policy-makers. In Airbnb’s case, the ability of service providers to arbitrarily reject booking requests opened the door to discrimination (Ravenelle
2016). Ever since an incident became public in which a black man was evidently not accepted because of his skin color (Gilkes 2016), Airbnb increasingly urges hosts to activate instant book, a tool which enables guests to book their accommodations without hosts’ prior approval (Airbnb
Blog, September 8, 2016, “Fighting discrimination and creating a world where anyone can belong anywhere”). The push towards instant book, however, is met with resistance from hosts who value having control over who they host, as forum comments like the following indicate: “It totally defeats the purpose of trusting people with your home and turns Air BnB into a hotel with which you have little control over who comes” (fluorescent, June 15, 2016, reply to “I cannot find where to turn OFF "Instant Booking",” Airhostsforum). Some hosts even consider leaving
Airbnb in case instant book becomes mandatory for all hosts:
“If BnB makes IB mandatory for all hosts, I will leave BnB. This is my home and I
wanted to talk to guests in advance to make sure there is a good fit before accepting
bookings.Not everything can be included in guest rules. (Helsi, August 11 2016, reply to
“Instant Booking: Mandatory in the future?,” Airhostsforum) 132
Providing learning opportunities. Another way in which Airbnb supports hosts is by providing learning opportunities (Dellaert 2019). In the beginning, the platform used its blog and website to spread know-how. Airbnb “Help Center,” for example, provides users concise information about different elements of the platform. In 2016, the platform additionally created a
“Toolkits” website, where hosts can learn about everything from basic information on the platform, over setting up listings (including more complicated matters such as pricing), to best practices which can help hosts to create good guest experiences and earn good reviews. Airbnb also uses some of these tutorials to sensitize hosts for some of the issues hosts tend struggle with as well as to suggest potential solutions. For example, my netnographic fieldwork indicates that some Airbnb hosts struggle with burnout-like feelings (see conversations on the Airhostsforum such as “Diary of a Burned Out Airbnb Host,” “Hosting burnout,” and “Superhost burnout”).
Airbnb, evidently aware of this issue, included a tutorial on its Toolkits website, in which the company teaches hosts to make sure to take care of themselves and suggest ways to make hosting less demanding:
Hosting is rewarding and emotionally fulfilling, but it’s natural that you’ll need a break
sometimes. If you’re a host, you’re likely a giver—a generous person concerned with
other people’s needs. Tending to your own health and happiness is key. You can use the
calendar's "preparation time" feature to automatically reserve up to two days between
bookings. You can also adjust check-in and check-out times to leave yourself more time,
as well as think ahead and block longer periods of time when you need a break from
hosting. Remember, you have complete control over when you host. You might want to
identify how you could make hosting easier for yourself. […] If you’re hosting a lot, you
could: 133
• Plan to take a few days off
• Have a friend help with check-in
• Use a cleaning service
There’s always a solution.
(Airbnb Toolkits, Reserving time for yourself)
Similarly, in another tutorial, Airbnb recommends hosts to get the consent of their landlords and neighbors as well as to inform themselves about local laws (Airbnb Toolkits, Preparing your community).
Providing tools and services. Airbnb provides a number of tools and services to support hosts in their work. For instance, the company provides a user-friendly website and process to signing up and managing listings; mobile phone applications, which enable hosts to communicate with guests on the go; statistics which help them understand their performance
(Airbnb Blog, May 8, 2017, “The Stats You Need to Succeed”); and also takes care of the payment process and thereby frees hosts from the verification of credit cards.
In addition, Airbnb also provides tools for solving more complex matters. Determining the nightly price for an accommodation is likely one of the most complex tasks of being an
Airbnb host. Most hosts will normally neither have the time nor the knowledge and tools to keep track of market prices and my netnography indicates that many hosts struggle with accounting for seasonal changes and special events, as forum conversations such as “How Much Do You
Raise Rates For Holidays, Special Events?” and “Inaugeration Dates & Prices” indicate. Since
January 2016, Airbnb provides a tool to assist hosts with pricing:
Smart Pricing—a new tool that automatically adjusts your price based on hundreds of
factors including travel trends in your area, your listing’s location and amenities, your 134
bookings and reviews, and the number of people who have looked at your listing page”
(Airbnb Blog, November 25, 2015, “New features revealed at Airbnb Open 2015”).
Airbnb also provides a number of services to support hosts. Specifically, Airbnb provides hosts insurance, which – given certain conditions are met – covers damage to a host’s property
(Airbnb, Host Guarantee, accessed March 26, 2019) and personal injuries (Airbnb, Host
Protection Insurance, accessed March 26, 2019). Airbnb also offers hosts to send them professional photographers to take quality pictures of the space, which helps providers to set up an attractive listing (Airbnb, Professional Photography, accessed February 19, 2019). Last but not least, it is worth noting that Airbnb increasingly develops more advanced tools for professional providers such as hotel and property managers, for example, to update information across multiple listings (Professional Hosting with Airbnb, October 22, 2018, “Get to know
Airbnb’s professional tools & features”).
Providing customer service. Airbnb also supports hosts by providing customer service.
This involves a 24/7 customer service through phone, email, and live chat. An important role of the customer service is to mediate, for example, when guests show up with more guests than expected or expect things which were not communicated in the listing. In addition, the following interview quote indicates that customer service can also be an important source of emotional support for Airbnb hosts:
I have gotten really good service from them, when I call them with a problem. And
sometimes, I call them and I don’t really think they can solve the problem, but I just need
to, you know, we had a week, a week long booking from this family from Spain and they
had two little children that just screamed constantly. I don’t think they knew how to
speak, really, and the kid was five and they just screamed […] two hours every morning 135
and another two or three hours every evening, just constant screaming, so […] we
actually just left the house […] I felt they really listened to me and offered solutions and,
so in that respect it has been good […] (Betty, interview, April 2017)
In some cases, Airbnb also provides forms of customer services which may be less taken for granted. One of my informants, for example, received personal help from Airbnb employees when setting up his listing:
I went to this office [of Airbnb in Paris and] […] they were very kind and they give me
some advice to fulfill my page and put it more attractive and stuff like this (Pierre,
interview, November 2018)
Combined, the two quotes indicate that platforms like Airbnb can also retain customers through great customer service, like all businesses (Venetis and Ghauri 2004).
Connecting providers. Airbnb also connects hosts so that hosts can support each other.
Early on, Airbnb organized local meet-ups both in the US and in Europe – and encouraged participation with 50 USD travel credit for the platform (Airbnb Blog, September 24, 2009,
“Airbnb crew goes international: Paris meet up!”). While Airbnb still supports hosts to organize local meet-ups (Airbnb, Meetups, accessed March 26, 2019), the company also created additional initiatives. In 2015, the platform launched both a mentor program and a Community
Center. With its mentor program, Airbnb incents experienced hosts with travel credit to “coach new hosts as they work towards their first booking” (Airbnb, Mentors, accessed March 26,
2019). According to an Airbnb employee, “the role of the mentor is to make sure that there is no silly or small question left on the table” (Airbnb YouTube Channel, December 8, 2015, “Laura
Hughes on Host Mentors | Airbnb Open | Airbnb”). The Community Center is an online forum that Airbnb created for hosts so that they can share stories, support and teach each other. 136
Since we launched Groups in 2013, we’ve seen how important it is for you to be able to
connect with fellow hosts. So much of being a host requires you to be attentive to other
people: your guests. We know you need a place where you and fellow hosts can look out
for one another. Whether it’s to talk about ways to get more bookings, to share stories of
tricky guest arrivals, or to see how travel trends are impacting other hosts in your area,
having a place to share and offer advice can be a big help.
That’s why we’re excited to be launching the Community Center, a new platform for
deeper, more detailed conversations among hosts around the world. (Airbnb Blog,
November 13, 2015, “Community Center: Bringing hosts closer together”)
Airbnb’s Community Center developed into an online community, where members provide each other various forms of social support – from information, over emotional support, to camaraderie
(Nelson and Otnes 2000). Table 3 provides some examples which show how forum members support each other online. While I draw here on examples from the Airhostsforum, identical forms of support are salient on the Community Center. The following forum post exemplifies how much online communities help some hosts to deal with the challenges they face and indicates that online communities may be ultimately conducive to the goal of platform leaders to retain service providers:
[…] If it was not for this forum I would quit a long time ago. Even after 3 years I still
come here for advices and support is incredible. I honestly think that we have the best
people here who are open minded, kind, caring, very smart and very funny. […] (Yana,
December 29, 2017, reply to “Just wanted to say thanks to the community,”
Airhostsforum)
--- Insert Table 3 about here --- 137
Discussion
Contributions to the Platform Management Literature
The article contributes to the emerging marketing literature on platform management
(Benoit et al. 2017; Dellaert 2019; Perren and Kozinets 2018). Specifically, I identify three categories of tactics that platform leaders can use to attract and retain service providers: branding, shaping role performances, and supporting. These categories integrate and develop insights from previous studies in more depth. While the role of supporting providers has been articulated in previous research (Dellaert 2019), this article shows in more depth how platform leaders can support providers. In addition to providing learning opportunities (Dellaert 2019;
Perren and Kozinets 2018), I find that platform leaders can also support providers through platform governance, tools and services, customer service, by connecting providers. Similarly, I show that the articulation of a compelling mission (Benoit et al. 2017) is only one of several branding tactics which platform leaders can use to attract and retain service providers.
This article also indicates how platforms can increase the enjoyment of the co-production experience. While Dellaert (2019) insightfully notes the importance of focusing on the experience of service providers, he does not explain how platform leaders can make the co- production experience more enjoyable. First, my findings show the importance of shaping role performances (Giesler et al. 2018; Perren and Kozinets 2018; Von Richthofen and Fischer 2019).
Not only do Airbnb hosts enjoy the service interaction due to the role performances shaped by
Airbnb, but they also feel appreciated and recognized. While employees may receive feedback both from customers as well as colleagues and supervisors, consumers are the main source of 138
feedback for service providers on platforms. Second, my findings also indicate that platform leaders can increase the enjoyment of the co-production experience by connecting service providers. Especially online forums can serve as source of camaraderie (Nelson and Otnes 2005) and as a backstage for service providers, where they can engage in activities such as criticizing, gossiping about and ridiculing their customers (Goffman 1959). According to Goffman (1959,
171), derogating the audience backstage helps to compensate “the loss of self-respect that may occur when the audience must be accorded accommodative face-to-face treatment.” That is, while Airbnb hosts must maintain expressive control and sustain the semblance of hospitality while they interact with their guests, they can use online communities to give vent to their true feelings.
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
One limitation of this article is that it considers only one platform. Future research could consider other platforms and determine context factors that explain the effectiveness of different tactics. It is notable, for example, that Airbnb thus far does not use benefits and rewards to attract and retain hosts. In contrast, ride-hailing platforms like Lyft and Uber compete by offering drivers everything from cash bonuses, over benefits like health insurance, to paying for education and trainings (“Drivers wanted” 2019). Lyft and Uber are also interesting cases to trace the effectiveness of different branding strategies. Similar to Airbnb, Lyft adopted an emotional branding strategy: the company promotes that it attempts to help building a more affordable and sustainable transport system which makes feel cities feel smaller and more connected and that drivers and riders often end up being friends. The company even organizes community events where it brings drivers and passengers together (Lyft 2013). One ad reads in 139
parts as follows: “What if you discovered a new friend every day and your phone replaced your car. Hi, we are Lyft. Lyft is the idea that people can be brought together through transportation”
(Lyft 2014). While Uber’s branding strategy also blends elements of emotional branding with a more benefit-oriented approach, the company does not promote a mission to attract drivers, or that becoming an Uber driver is a great way of making friends. In contrast to Lyft, Uber never claimed to be a protagonist of the sharing economy (Schor 2016).
One avenue for future research is to consider the role of another significant driver of customer retention – switching costs, that is, “the onetime costs that customers associate with the process of switching from one provider to another” (Burnham et al. 2003, 110). It seems reasonable to assume that service providers, whether these are Airbnb hosts or Uber drivers, are not solely loyal to platforms because they enjoy the service experience and are satisfied with the support they receive, but also due to the costs that they associate with switching to another platform. Not only would service providers need to invest energy and time to familiarize themselves with another platform, but they would also need to build their reputation anew. Note that this does not only involve that service providers lose their ratings and reviews, but also certifications like being a “Superhost” (Airbnb Help Center, What is a Superhost?, accessed
April 5, 2019). Future research could systematically explore the nature and role of switching costs in the platform economy and how platform leaders actively use switching costs as an instrument to retain service providers.
Another avenue for future research is to investigate how platform leaders can navigate the tensions between satisfying both service providers as well as customers and other stakeholders.
The findings of this article indicate that platform leaders sometimes face difficult trade-offs in this regard. In Airbnb’s case, the same policy that helped the platform to attract and retain hosts 140
– namely that hosts have the right to accept or reject booking inquiries – makes the booking process less convenient for customers and opens the door to discrimination (Ravenelle 2016).
Future research could also survey service providers to understand in more depth what factors drive retention on platforms like Airbnb and Uber. It could be worthwhile to consider both marketing concepts like customer satisfaction as well as human resource management concepts like job satisfaction to account for the hybrid character of service providers in platform markets which blurs the boundaries between customer, employee and contractor (Sundararajan
2016).
A final noteworthy development is that a number of platforms, Airbnb and Uber included, have considered to sell providers shares in their companies. In America, private companies can only sell shares to investors and employees. To change regulation in a way that allows Airbnb to sell equity to their most loyal hosts, Airbnb has officially sent a comment letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Kokalitcheva 2018). This development indicates how blurry the lines between customers and employees are in these businesses.
141
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TABLE 1 Examples of Advertisements Targeted at Potential Hosts Meet the Hosts Airbnb is literally allowing me to follow my passion. Designing furniture was just a hobby. It was always construction carpenter I did. […] Now I have extra money to buy materials, more time focus on design, keep doing what I am doing, while meeting guests and meeting new people. Airbnb has always giving me the independence I needed to be a designer, freeing me from the shackles of the construction. […] (Airbnb YouTube Channel, November 2, 2015, “Rónán | Meet the Hosts | Airbnb”)
Airbnb has given me the freedom to pursue my art. I have been able to go to art classes and life drawing and to buy materials […]. That’s given me a means of enjoying life. It makes me feel more secure. This probably made me more confident with people as well. That’s made me much happier. (Airbnb YouTube Channel, December 9, 2015, “Brigid | Meet the Hosts | Airbnb”)
[…] We can expand our horizons, do the kind of things we love doing, like hiking and cycling and swimming. This year we’ve been to Seoul. In the summer, we went to Tel Aviv. […] This is all using the money that we received from hosting. Hosting through Airbnb definitely let us live more and not have to say no to anything. (Airbnb YouTube Channel, December 9, 2015, “Clive and Darren | Meet the Hosts | Airbnb”)
Airbnb Host Stories I was at a dinner party and someone just happened to mention they were supplementing their mortgage payments by hosting people. What captured my attention was, she had all these great stories of travelers and experiences, and how she was learning and doing all these fun things in the city that she wouldn’t have even figured out for herself had she not have the motivation of a guest, you know. That all really intrigued me. I’ve met a family that was travelling from Australia. […] We related on so many levels. […] It gave me faith in humanity to be honest, and that was major for me. Being a host is more than just putting your property up online allowing guests to come stay with you. You give them that feeling, that emotional experience of being not just someone in a new place but actually belonging in that place. That is something that you carry on with you through life. (Airbnb YouTube Channel, July 16, 2014, Jason | Airbnb Host Stories | Airbnb)
I remember an old saying in Sanskrit. It says ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, which translates to “the world is your family.” I started to understand the profoundness of this philosophy after being Airbnb host. After hosting hundreds of guests, I realize that how I’m connected to these different people, who belong from a different culture, different country and different background. But there’s a common human bond which connects us and that feeling is extremely overwhelming. Being an Airbnb host is being a part of a global community. […] And that experience is much more enriching. And a kind of a very liberating feeling that you belong to anywhere. (Airbnb YouTube Channel, July 16, 2014, Nalin | Airbnb Host Stories | Airbnb)
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And then they open the door and then they can look down the walkway and suddenly, they are happy. And I just think that kind of mystery and surprise, makes it a really special moment for them. And for me, when I see how happy they are. […] It’s a very personal experience for all of us. […](Airbnb YouTube Channel, July 16, 2014, “Kepa | Airbnb Host Stories | Airbnb”
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TABLE 2 Airbnb’s Emotional Advertising and Parody by Brand Activists Airbnb Ad: Is Is man kind? man kind? Are we good? Go see. Go look through their windows, so you can understand their views. Sit at their tables, so you can share their tastes. Sleep in their beds, so you may know their dreams. Go see. And find out just how kind the hes and the shes of this mankind are. [Tagline:] Belong Anywhere
Parody: Is Is man kind? Man … Are we good? Kind? No. We are … creepy, like this man. He left pubic hair in your bed. He found your panties and tried them on. He watched porn in your kitchen. And that rash he has, you’ll have it by next week. Oh. See. It doesn’t matter what kind you are [Tagline:] It’s His House Now.
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TABLE 3 Peer-to-Peer Support on the Airhostsforum Type of Support Examples Emotional support [...] I. Am. Gobsmacked. Absolutely gutted by what he wrote. […] An overall three-star review. [...] (jeezlouise, July 1, 2016, “My first guest/review – and it was negative I’m gutted,” Airhostsforum)
How agonizing. I totally relate to getting smacked by a guest and having it mess with your head. First of all Jeez, your house is not a scary movie. Your guest is. He’s a nasty vicious creep who has no manners or couth. […] [H]ere’s what I would do. Call Airbnb and ask them to please remove both the review and response. Plead ignorance. […] I feel for you and remember it is not you, it is HIM. Hang in there!!! […] (konacoconutz, July 1, 2016, reply to “My first guest/review – and it was negative I’m gutted,” Airhostsforum)
Teaching strategies to Introvert hermit female here! […] I work from home too. […] make hosting more It really helped me to read posts on here on how to set strict enjoyable rules and deal with expectations, and so I found that it all comes down to writing a good listing that clearly outlines how much + how you will interact. I decided to overcome my discomfort by being very welcoming and aim for 'deep' chats with my guest, and avoid the small talk. So far it's been great […] (eyeborg, July 10, 2016, reply to “Can someone who is not very outgoing be a succesful host?,” Airhostsforum)
Teaching strategies to […] I’ve been reading a few posts from hosts who are getting cope with negative burned out and are feeling unhappy. I know many hosts say that experiences they host because they want to meet people, experience different cultures, etc. But let’s face it, hosting is a business, and as any business or job it’s important not to take everything to heart. It’s important to distance yourself emotionally […]. Sure, everyone should be be gracious hosts, charming and engaging, but you will not change your guests’ attitudes by baking, cooking, driving them around, etc. […] (MissMiami, May 27, 2016, reply to “Maintaining superhost status - don’t fall for it!,” Airhostsforum)
Problem solving My best strategy is to have suitcase stands, so people do not need to put their suitcases on the bed. This is, statistically the most likely way that bedbugs will move from guest to room. Do not put the stands over a rug, but a easy to wash surface like wood or tile. I understand that asking people not to wear their 150
shoes inside can help, but if they are wearing the same socks that they wore in the infected space, that doesn't really help at all! […] (smtucker, September 1, 2016, reply to “Bed bugs a lot of work,” Airhostsforum)
Venting “This is a place to vent and problem solve. […] I’ve had a lot of bookings that have gone wonderfully. Those aren’t the ones that drive me here.” (happylittlehost, November 23, 2016, reply to “I love my guests!,” Airhostsforum).
[…] [A]round here we're able to vent, kick off our superhost shoes, and know that our mates will cut us some slack for not being perfect ... […] (Malagachica, September 12, 2017, reply to “Hardest part of hosting?,” Airhostsforum)