Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks: Pushing the Boundaries Sara Dolnicar (G) Goodfellow Publishers Ltd Published by Goodfellow Publishers Limited, (G) 26 Home Close, Wolvercote, Oxford OX2 8PS http://www.goodfellowpublishers.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: on file. ISBN: 978-1-911396-41-3 Copyright © Sara Dolnicar, 2017 All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher or under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Further details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. 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McBride, www.macbride.org.uk Cover design by Cylinder Contents 1 Unique Features of the Networks 1 Sara Dolnicar 2 The Sharing Economy 15 Stephan Reinhold and Sara Dolnicar 3 The Business Model 27 Stephan Reinhold & Sara Dolnicar 4 How Airbnb Creates Value 39 Stephan Reinhold & Sara Dolnicar 5 How Airbnb Captures and Disseminates Value 54 Stephan Reinhold & Sara Dolnicar 6 Airbnb and its Competitors 63 Homa Hajibaba & Sara Dolnicar 7 Entrepreneurship Opportunities 77 Marianna Sigala & Sara Dolnicar 8 Will Networks Become One-stop Travel Shops? 87 Sarah Gardiner & Sara Dolnicar 9 Flling Infrastructure Gaps 98 Ljubica Knezevic Cvelbar & Sara Dolnicar 10 Facilitating events 109 Sheranne Fairley & Sara Dolnicar 11 Regulatory Reactions Around the World 120 Homa Hajibaba & Sara Dolnicar 12 Drivers of Price in City Destinations: Vienna 137 Bernhard Andreas Hrobath, Friedrich Leisch & Sara Dolnicar iv Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks 13 Networks in China 148 Yixiao Xiang & Sara Dolnicar 14 The Impact on Employment 160 Gabor Forgacs & Sara Dolnicar 15 Types of Network Nembers 169 Anne Hardy & Sara Dolnicar 16 Networks and Hosts – a Love-Hate Relationship 180 Anne Hardy & Sara Dolnicar 17 Socialising New Guests 192 Sara Dolnicar 18 The Multi-Family Travel Market 203 Homa Hajibaba & Sara Dolnicar 19 Do Hosts Discriminate? 213 Homa Hajibaba & Sara Dolnicar 20 Communication-Regulated Social Systems 222 Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow, Anne Hardy and Sara Dolnicar 21 Helping when Disaster Hits 232 Homa Hajibaba & Sara Dolnicar 22 Guests with Disabilities 241 Melanie Randle & Sara Dolnicar 23 Political Activism 251 Homa Hajibaba & Sara Dolnicar 24 Environmental Sustainability 261 Emil Juvan, Homa Hajibaba and Sara Dolnicar Index 273 v Foreword Spending a month at Christmas with my parents-in-law has proven to be challenging over the years. My husband and I have two little children who – like most children – are delightful, but do love to run around, make a mess and scream with excitement. And my in-laws live in a pretty compact house. Wandering along a lovely beachside suburb close by we noticed how many houses were available for holiday rental. We saw a lovely house for sale. We bought it, after having established that we could cover the operating costs by renting it out as a holiday home, although we understood that we would not earn enough to repay the mortgage from rental income. This is how – after 20 years of being a tourism researcher – I became a tourism accommodation provider. It has been a truly fascinating experience because I managed to make every possible mistake, proving to myself that theory is great, but practice is a whole different kettle of fish. Some of my mistakes came at a high price. One day I found ten doonas (duvets) dripping wet on the clothesline. I did not need to know why they were dripping. But I had no option but to throw them away and buy new ones. Some of my mistakes came at a high emotional cost. I accepted a booking by a family with two children. Shortly after check-in, the neighbours had to call the police because the “family” turned out to be a large group of young adults who arrived equipped with a huge stereo. With every mistake I made, my academic fascination grew. Years after we had bought our beach shack, Airbnb entered the market. I signed up, expecting it would be just another website enabling me to find customers at my own risk charging an outrageously high commission. Soon it became obvious that this was not the case. This new website – which I knew absolutely nothing about – allowed me to learn much more about my guests; allowed me to assess the risk of each booking much more effectively; offered me a guarantee; offered my guests a guarantee; and charged a substantially lower commission. It also wanted me to socialise with my guest (which I refused to do) and forced me to make decisions about accepting or rejecting booking requests within 24 hours (which I felt was rather unreasonable, especially when I found myself wrestling the kids for the full 48 hours of a weekend). Through my personal fascination with renting out our beach shack using both conventional booking sites and peer-to-peer accommodation networks, I developed a research interest in the topic. Every additional good and bad experience became scientifically interesting. Every year Airbnb launched new initiatives that further fuelled my fascination. Airbnb started providing pricing vi Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks advice; providing advice on the length of bookings; offering adventures; open- ing spaces to people in need when natural disasters hit; listing entire countries (Sweden); and engaging in political activism such as the wide distribution of the acceptance ring in support of marriage equality. Peer-to-peer networks are not just another accommodation provider, and they are not just another distribution channel, they are a powerful amplifier for business transactions and ideas. The realisation that I was sharing my fascination about peer-to-peer accom- modation networks with many of my colleagues from all over the world and across a range of disciplines led to the idea to write a book which would allow us to present interesting perspectives in a truly collaborative way. Some of my co-authors I knew well, some I have never met. Our collaborative approach to book writing stands in stark contrast to traditional academic writing, just as peer-to-peer accommodation networks stand in stark contrast to the traditional tourist accommodation sector. The process of co-creating this book was a truly enjoyable one which many of us found very liberating in times where journal expectations and reviewer opinions dictate the nature of our research. It also led to many new insights as we all learned from one another and built on each other’s ideas. Our primary aim is to share with readers our fascination with peer-to-peer accommodation networks; to point to the many perspectives on these networks which are rarely discussed; and, most importantly, to inspire others to push the boundaries of research into the phenomenon of peer-to-peer accommodation networks just as the networks are pushing the boundaries of tourism as we know it. Sara Dolnicar, Brisbane, 2017 Contents vii Introduction viii Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks Unique Features of the 1 Networks Sara Dolnicar Peer-to-peer accommodation networks have rocked the established accom- modation sector, dramatically increasing the variety of accommodation options available to people around the world. They have also created a number of societal challenges never expected to result from a short-term accommodation trading platform. Something about peer-to-peer accommodation networks is very differ- ent than anything we have seen before, although they consist of building blocks which are not new at all. This chapter explores some of the unique features of Airbnb – the leading international peer-to-peer accommodation network – and proposes a conceptual model of elements contributing to Airbnb’s success. Airbnb Holiday homes have been available for many decades. But accessing them was not easy in the early years. Online platforms such as Couchsurfing.com have facilitated the sharing of private accommodation since 2003. Yet, neither the traditional holiday home rental market, nor the pioneers of peer-to-peer accommodation have radically changed the short-term accommodation sector. Airbnb has. Airbnb was founded in 2008 and – as of July 2017 – has more than 160,000,000 members in more than 65,000 cities in 190 countries and allows travellers to choose from more than 3,000,000 different spaces (Airbnb, 2017a). At first glance, Airbnb’s proposition (Chapter 3) does not seem so revolu- tionary: ‘ordinary people’ can list unused spaces on a webpage where other ‘ordinary people’ can book them. Yet, peer-to-peer accommodation networks function very differently from established commercial accommodation provid- ers – such as hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts – and established commercial online travel intermediaries – such as Booking.com (Chapter 6). 2 Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks What makes peer-to-peer accommodation networks different stands at the centre of this chapter. The chapter focuses on Airbnb because it is the most successful peer-to-peer accommodation network internationally. A conceptual framework of possible reasons explaining the success of peer-to-peer accom- modation networks is shown in Figure 1.1. Figure 1.1: Success factors of peer-to-peer accommodation network s. The need to attract buyers and seller As opposed to traditional short term accommodation providers, peer-to-peer accommodation networks are existentially dependent on having a sufficient pool of people who are offering accommodation (hosts, sellers, supply) and a sufficient pool of people who wish to purchase short term accommodation (guests, buyers, demand).