ArticlePDF Available

You never know what you will get in an Airbnb: Poor communication destroys value for guests

DOI:10.1080/13683500.2018.1475469
Authors:
Erose Sthapit
Erose Sthapit
Erose Sthapit
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Jano Jiménez Barreto at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Jano Jiménez Barreto
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

This study explores the antecedents of value co-destruction in the context of a new form of accommodation, Airbnb. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews from people who had stayed in Airbnb accommodations during the previous 12 months. A total of 21 interviews were conducted, of people representing five nationalities. Using the grounded theory approach, the findings indicate that poor communication between the guest and host was one of the main reasons contributing to value co-destruction during the Airbnb accommodation experience. From the guest perspective, value co-destruction due to poor communication resulted in unexpected resource losses, including time and money. One interviewee also regretted the lost experience. Although the majority of the interviewees did not have negative Airbnb accommodation experiences, some did not experience a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship.
Content uploaded by Erose Sthapit
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Erose Sthapit on May 16, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcit20
Current Issues in Tourism
ISSN: 1368-3500 (Print) 1747-7603 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcit20
You never know what you will get in an Airbnb:
poor communication destroys value for guests
Erose Sthapit & Jano Jiménez-Barreto
To cite this article: Erose Sthapit & Jano Jiménez-Barreto (2018): You never know what you will
get in an Airbnb: poor communication destroys value for guests, Current Issues in Tourism, DOI:
10.1080/13683500.2018.1475469
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1475469
Published online: 15 May 2018.
Submit your article to this journal
View related articles
View Crossmark data
RESEARCH LETTER
You never know what you will get in an Airbnb: poor
communication destroys value for guests
Erose Sthapit
a
and Jano Jiménez-Barreto
b
a
Department of Marketing, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland;
b
Department of Finance and Marketing Research,
Business Studies, College of Economics and Business Administration, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT
This study explores the antecedents of value co-destruction in the context
of a new form of accommodation, Airbnb. Data were gathered using semi-
structured interviews from people who had stayed in Airbnb
accommodations during the previous 12 months. A total of 21
interviews were conducted, of people representing five nationalities.
Using the grounded theory approach, the findings indicate that poor
communication between the guest and host was one of the main
reasons contributing to value co-destruction during the Airbnb
accommodation experience. From the guest perspective, value co-
destruction due to poor communication resulted in unexpected resource
losses, including time and money. One interviewee also regretted the
lost experience. Although the majority of the interviewees did not have
negative Airbnb accommodation experiences, some did not experience
a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 26 February 2018
Accepted 8 May 2018
KEYWORDS
Value co-destruction; sharing
economy; Airbnb; poor
communication; well-being
Introduction
The concept of value co-creation has been increasingly applied to the tourism and hospitality indus-
try (Chathoth, Ungson, Harrington, & Chan, 2016). However, the concept of value co-destruction does
not follow this trend and still requires more research (Plé, 2017). In addition, few studies have focused
on the antecedents of value co-destruction (Prior & Marcos-Cuevas, 2016). Value co-destruction is
defined as ‘an interaction process between service systems that results in a decline in at least one
of the system’s wellbeing’(Plé & Cáceres, 2010, p. 431). In other words, either the service provider
or customer experiences frustration or lost resources (Prior & Marcos-Cuevas, 2016).
The current study focuses on accommodation because, today, more accommodation service-
providers have shifted their focus from service-delivery to experience co-creation (Chathoth et al.,
2016). While research in the experience and value co-creation field has examined service-provi-
der–customer relationships (Chathoth et al., 2016), few have focused on host–guest interactions
(Smaliukiene, Chi-Shiun, & Sizovaite, 2015). Experience co-creation also applies to a new form of
accommodation, Airbnb, which is a successful models of the sharing economy that enables hosts
to list and rent out their available accommodations, usually at cheaper rates that save guests
money (Varma, Jukic, Pestek, Shultz, & Nestorov, 2016). Recent studies on the sharing economy
have investigated its benefits in hospitality and other sectors (Smaliukiene et al., 2015), while
Airbnb-specific studies have mostly focused on its commercial aspects (Guttentag, 2015). Given
that value is determined individually by a concerned actor (Vargo & Lusch, 2008) and that in, an
accommodation-service environment, the host predefines both product and service bundles,
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
CONTACT Erose Sthapit erose.sthapit@uva.fi, esthapit@mail.uwasa.fi
CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1475469
which is contrary to value co-creation (Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009), little is known about the value
co-destruction practices that occur when guests and hosts interact. This poses an interesting and
largely unexplored question: What are the antecedents of value co-destruction in the context of
Airbnb from a guest’s perspective?
Method
Data collection and analysis
The goal of this study is to explore the antecedents of value co-destruction in the context of
Airbnb. The methodological design includes qualitative data collected through semi-structured
interviews. The interviews were conducted in Spain and Finland as part of a larger study. All
the interviews were conducted in Spanish and English during September and October 2017,
and lasted 50–60 min. The sampling criterion for the selection of interviewees was limited to
people who had stayed in Airbnb accommodations during the previous 12 months. The first infor-
mants were recruited using a personal contact who fulfilled the sampling criterion. Given that
potential interviewees were hard to locate for data collection, once interviewed, the interviewees
were asked whether they knew of anyone else with the required characteristics who could be
recruited for an interview. Such snowball sampling relies on referrals from the initial subjects
to identify additional subjects (Breakwell, Hammond, & Fife-Schaw, 2000).
The current study initially recruited eight interviewees for individual, semi-structured pilot inter-
views in September 2017. The pilot interviews lasted 50–60 min and aimed to identify key themes
and issues related to their Airbnb accommodation experiences. These pilot interviews led to the
development of an interview guide for subsequent interviews.
The final semi-structured interviews consisted of open-ended questions in three sections. The first
section focused on demographics, while the second section included six questions about the inter-
viewees’Airbnb accommodation experiences. One question specifically dealt with negative Airbnb
accommodation experiences and their causes. The third section included one question about the
interviewees’positive memories of their Airbnb accommodation experiences. The interviewees
were instructed to avoid dichotomous answers and to provide detailed narratives about their
experiences.
Theoretical saturation was achieved with the 21st interviewee, given that no new codes occurred
in the data and repeated codes did not generate any new emergent themes. Marshall (1996)
suggested that researchers should be flexible in their approach to sampling and that an adequate
sample size is one that sufficiently answers the research question (Kvale, 1996). Grounded theory
research design (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used for data analysis. The study employed three
types of coding: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). For
grounded theory, Creswell (1998) suggested 20–30 interviews, with 15 being the smallest acceptable
sample for qualitative studies (Bertaux, 1981).
Findings
The findings are reported based on a subset of the data, in particular, negative Airbnb accommo-
dation experiences and their causes. Among 21 interviewees, 15 were female and six were male.
Their ages ranged from 23 to 46 years. The interviewees’occupations were diverse, as were their
household structures, which included both single and married individuals. The interviewees rep-
resented five nationalities: Spanish (13), German (3), Mexican (2), Finnish (1) and French (2).
Among the 21 interviewees, nine had negative Airbnb accommodation experiences. Using the
grounded theory approach, the findings identified poor communication between the guest and
host as a source of value co-destruction during the Airbnb accommodation experience. Table 1
2E. STHAPIT AND J. JIMÉNEZ-BARRETO
illustrates the interpretive codes around the significance of poor communication contributing to
negative Airbnb accommodation experiences.
The interviewees’use of words such as ‘disappointing’,‘weren’t happy’,‘we could have had better
memories’,‘limitation’,‘frustrated’,‘stressed’,‘very frustrated’and ‘angry’were linked to negative
emotions, dissatisfaction and loss of well-being (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). This is further
highlighted by the responses of three interviewees who had negative Airbnb accommodation
experiences:
We had some communication problem[s] with our host. During our stay, our shower was broken. We notified the
host via WhatsApp, but he said we had to wait a day to solve the situation. The next day, the host did not appear,
so in the end, the shower problem remained during our whole stay. In addition, [on the] last day, the host wrote
us to say that we had to leave the apartment at a specific hour. (Anne, female, German)
‘A bad memory was the host communication, especially because the first day we couldn’tfind him
at the specific hour of arrival. Finally, he came one hour later to give us the keys to the flat. We were
disappointed’(Ana, female, Spanish).
On the day of check-in, my host did not come or answer my messages and calls. I felt very frustrated. I stayed in a
hostel that night. The next day, he sent me a message saying he was sorry, and we agreed to meet at 1 pm that
day. I went there and waited and waited. No answer. He was three hours late …You never know what you will
experience in an Airbnb. I will prefer to stay in a hotel next time. (Claire, female, French)
Hosting on Airbnb involves communicating with guests, and when the interviewees’felt that their
hosts were incommunicative, they experienced some degree of service failure and being devalued as
a customer. Besides appealing to guests physically, emotionally and intellectually, on-site accommo-
dation experiences also contain a social component, as they foster interpersonal interaction (Preben-
sen & Foss, 2011). In this context, poor service in terms of communication can easily lead to negative
experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). Moreover, communication can establish trust between the host
and guest and minimize uncertainty (Guttentag, 2015).
Conclusion
The study contributes to previous work on value co-destruction (Plé, 2017; Smaliukiene et al., 2015)
and the sharing economy (Guttentag, 2015) by revealing that the core Airbnb notion of value
co-creation through a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship (Vargo, Maglio, & Akaka,
2008) does not always hold true. Poor communication between the Airbnb guest and host leads
to value co-destruction. Value co-destruction, from the Airbnb guest’s perspective, results in unex-
pected resource losses, in time, money and experience. Some Airbnb guests continued their
efforts (by telephone or email) to reclaim lost resources, incurring additional losses of energy (i.e.
in time, money, and physical and emotional effort). Five interviewees complained about waiting
for the host.
This study calls for a shift in the Airbnb host’s role, from cheap rental accommodation providers to
active value co-creators. The findings suggest that hosts should actively interact with the guests,
check them in, answer questions and deal with problems that are linked to the accommodation to
Table 1. The coding process in practice.
Open coding (line-by-line coding)
Subthemes (axial
coding) Main themes (selective coding)
‘communication problem’,‘cold welcome’,‘something wrong
with his instructions’,‘host did not respond to our request’,
‘couldn’t find him at the specific hour of arrival’,‘language barrier
with host’,‘we received no reply’,‘my host did not come and
answer my messages and calls’,‘had to call the host four to five
times’,‘received no reply’,‘no answer, ‘language problem’
Poor communication Poor communication is an
antecedent of value co-
destruction
CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 3
make their stays worthwhile. Communication should be considered as a value dimension and an
operant resource (skill) to co-create value. Lastly, those who are poor communicators should not
host on Airbnb.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This work of Erose Sthapit was supported by Etelä-Pohjanmaan Rahasto [Grant Number 2017]; The work of Jano
Jiménez Barreto was supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness: [Grant Number
ECO2015-69103-R].
ORCID
Erose Sthapit http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1650-3900
Jano Jiménez-Barreto http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1953-6863
References
Bertaux, D. (1981). Biography and society: The life history approach in the social sciences. London: Sage.
Binkhorst, E., & Den Dekker, T. (2009). Agenda for co-creation tourism experience research. Journal of Hospitality
Marketing and Management,18(2–3), 311–327.
Breakwell, G. M., Hammond, S., & Fife-Schaw, C. (2000). Research methods in psychology. London: Sage.
Chathoth, P., Ungson, G., Harrington, R., & Chan, E. (2016). Co-creation and higher order customer engagement in hos-
pitality and tourism services. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,28(2), 222–245.
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological
Bulletin,125(2), 276–302.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Guttentag, D. (2015). Airbnb: Disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism accommodation sector. Current
Issues in Tourism,18(12), 1192–1217.
Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Marshall, M. (1996). Sampling for qualitative research. Family Practice,13(6), 522–526.
Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (1998). Welcome to the experiences economy. Harvard Business Review,97–107.
Plé, L. (2017). Why do we need research on value co-destruction? Journal of Creating Value,3(2), 162–169.
Plé, L., & Cáceres, R. C. (2010). Not always co-creation: Introducing interactional co-destruction of value in service-
dominant logic. Journal of Services Marketing,24(6), 430–437.
Prebensen, N., & Foss, L. (2011). Coping and co-creating in tourist experiences. International Journal of Tourism Research,
13(1), 54–67. doi:10.1002/jtr.799
Prior, D. D., & Marcos-Cuevas, J. (2016). Value co-destruction in interfirm relationships: The impact of actor engagement
styles. Marketing Theory,16(4), 533–552.
Smaliukiene, R., Chi-Shiun, L., & Sizovaite, I. (2015). Consumer value co-creation in online business: The case of global
travel services. Journal of Business Economics and Management,16(2), 325–339.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park:
Sage.
Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2008). Service-dominant logic: Continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science,36(1), 1–10.
Vargo, S. L., Maglio, P. P., & Akaka, M. A. (2008). On value and value co-creation: A service systems and service logic per-
spective. European Management Journal,26(3), 145–152.
Varma, A., Jukic, N., Pestek, A., Shultz, C. J., & Nestorov, S. (2016). Airbnb: Exciting innovation or passing fad? Tourism
Management Perspectives,20, 228–223.
4E. STHAPIT AND J. JIMÉNEZ-BARRETO
... These opinions are reviews to which the firm can usually reply, and the other users can indicate whether the reviews were valuable (e.g., TripAdvisor) (Ho-Dac et al. 2013). Other social media also allow businesses to write reviews about their customers, thus allowing a peer consumer-firm interaction process among the users (Sthapit and Jiménez-Barreto 2018). Also, social media allows real interaction among firms and customers. ...
... It occurs when users negatively contribute to community advising against firms' posts, e.g., clicking on the "angry" emoji (Xue 2019). Another driver of VCD is the firms' lack of emotions, such as empathy, expressed by poor customer service ( Sthapit and Jiménez-Barreto 2018). This shortcoming destroys customer value in terms of losses of their resources (e.g., time and money) (Sthapit and Jiménez-Barreto 2018), while companies find their value destroyed by the customers' misbehavior in terms of tangible and intangible resources (e.g., company reputation). ...
... Another driver of VCD is the firms' lack of emotions, such as empathy, expressed by poor customer service ( Sthapit and Jiménez-Barreto 2018). This shortcoming destroys customer value in terms of losses of their resources (e.g., time and money) (Sthapit and Jiménez-Barreto 2018), while companies find their value destroyed by the customers' misbehavior in terms of tangible and intangible resources (e.g., company reputation). ...
Value Co-creation or Value Co-destruction? the Role of Negative Emotions in Consumer-Firm Interaction in the Social Media Platform
Chapter
  • Jan 2023
Companies use social media as a medium of interaction to advertise and sell their products and services, while customers use the medium to seek information before buying. However, despite the proliferation of social media platforms, there is scant research on how customers sharing negative emotional messages in online brand communities can destroy value. To address the disadvantages of the previous approaches, this chapter (1) detects the negative comments; (2) pinpoints the periods characterized by significant peaks of negative comments; (3) clusters the identified periods by topics; and (4) characterizes each topic with emotions. These points allow the portrayal of customers’ negative emotions (such as anger, dissatisfaction, disgust, fear, and sadness) and detect their value co-destructing effects in the customer-firm interaction. The chapter concludes that value co-destruction in the social media context can be understood as an exchange of negative comments. Customers’ mix of emotions and the firm's responses determine the magnitude of value destruction.KeywordsValue co-destructionNegative emotionsProblematic interactionSocial mediaUser-generated content; Data mining algorithm
View
... Recent studies conducted on Airbnb indicate that courteous hosts and quick customer service are highly valued by customers and that good communication on the digital rental platform benefits the customer (Sthapit, 2019). In the same vein, communication should be considered an operant resource for the co-creation of value (Sthapit & Jiménez Barreto, 2019). ...
... Value cocreation involves resource integration, in which communication facilitates the exchange of resources between actors in a way that permits joint value creation (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). In relation to this, recent studies have stressed the importance of communication in value co-creation (Sthapit & Jiménez Barreto, 2019;Zhang, 2019). Conversely, poor communication between an Airbnb guest and host leads to value co-destruction (Sthapit & Jiménez Barreto, 2019), which was highly evident during the pandemic. ...
... In relation to this, recent studies have stressed the importance of communication in value co-creation (Sthapit & Jiménez Barreto, 2019;Zhang, 2019). Conversely, poor communication between an Airbnb guest and host leads to value co-destruction (Sthapit & Jiménez Barreto, 2019), which was highly evident during the pandemic. The following interpretive codes highlight the host's unpleasant actions: 'host was slow to respond,' 'host did not respond,' 'host would not respond to my messages' and 'tried to reach my host on several occasions but to no avail.' ...
Sources of Value co-creation, co-destruction and co-recovery at Airbnb in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Article
Full-text available
This study explored the sources of value co-creation, co-destruction and co-recovery amid the COVID-19 outbreak using 415 online reviews of guests’ experiences with Airbnb. Data analysis using the grounded theory approach identified two main sources: Airbnb’s customer service and hosts’ conduct. Four sub-themes (quality of interactions with customer service representatives, difficulties in achieving resolution, dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the resolution offered and costs incurred by the consumer) comprised the main theme of Airbnb’s customer service. Two sub-themes (the role of the host’s communication in service recovery and perceived unethical actions by the host) comprised the main theme of hosts’ conduct. The findings indicate that collaborative engagement in the restoration of service failure by actors results in value co-recovery.
View
... As the second step to identify online communities that are relevant to intelligent servicescapes in hospitality services, we followed Kozinets's (2010) six criteria, that is, "relevant, active, interactive, substantial, heterogeneous, and data rich", and chose Ctrip.com, the largest online travel community in China. To obtain more contextual information, we gathered short videos from TikTok, Quick-hand, and Bilibili; these platforms include rich interactive information and are heterogeneous from Ctrip.com (Canavan, 2020;Papathanassis & Knolle, 2011;Sthapit & Jiménez-Barreto, 2018). ...
... When service failure occurs, frontline hotel staff bear the brunt of customer anger and frustration because employees and intelligent agents constitute the "symbiotes" that interact with customers to provide them with hotel services (Keyser et al., 2019). When hospitality services fail, polite communication and timely and effective assistance from employees are vital for service recovery and mistake correction (Sthapit & Jiménez-Barreto, 2018), which may affect the establishment of trust between customers and robot agents (Huang & Philp, 2021;Simon et al., 2020). To some extent, these findings also support the rationality of the "employee assistance" dimension proposed in this study. ...
When the servicescape becomes intelligent: Conceptualization, assessment, and implications for hospitableness
Article
Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has become widely used in the hospitality industry and has gradually been extended to the notion of the servicescape. However, how servicescapes have become "intelligent" has received little academic attention. Moreover, how intelligent servicescapes influence service outcomes, such as hospita-bleness, has not been discussed. In this study, we fill this gap by conceptualizing and modeling the intelligent servicescape to analyze its potential influence on service hospitableness. Netnography and constructivist grounded theory are adopted to collect and analyze data from online reviews and short videos. Our results suggest that the intelligent servicescape is understood through four subcategories: servicescape atmosphere, technology attributes, customer-technology interactions, and employee assistance. Additionally, the intelligent servicescape can lead to hospitableness through enhanced user-friendliness; opportunities for relaxation and immersion; and rapport among employees, customers, and technology. Our findings therefore extend service-scape theory and improve the understanding of hospitableness in the AI application context. Their practical implications can also be used to design better servicescapes and improve hospitableness.
View
... These factors can undermine consumer engagement by reducing the amount of information available to consumers for decision making, reducing interaction with consumers and reducing the access of consumers to transformational channels. Sthapit and Jiménez-Barreto (2018) in their study on antecedents of value co-destruction identified improper communication between guests and hosts on Airbnb as one of the factors responsible for negative experiences. Whilst proper communication was identified as a factor which could help build trust and minimize uncertainty, consumers emphasised how the 'lack of', or improper, communication leads to service failure and a feeling of being devalued as a consumer. ...
Co-destruction of Value – A Stakeholder Conceptual Review
Article
  • Dec 2022
Co-destruction of value has been highlighted as a possible outcome of every interaction between firms and consumers. Despite the likelihood of its occurrence, the concept is not adequately defined or understood, while little is known about how and where it occurs. This paper reviews the literature on co-destruction to provide insights into what co-destruction is, and it identifies where co-destruction occurs and how it occurs through resource mis-integration and in practice. The review takes a stakeholder approach, highlighting how value can be co-destroyed by stakeholders both within the dyad of the firm and its consumers and beyond this dyad during multiparty interactions and in virtual communities. The analysis suggests that value can only be co-destroyed when the expectations of the beneficiary are higher than the level of service offered by the provider. The paper proposes a new definition for co-destruction and highlights pressing research gaps within the co-destruction literature.
View
“¡Nunca volveré a este hotel!”: Investigando causas de la Value Co-Destruction (VCD) en comentarios de huéspedes y la perspectiva de directivos de hoteles
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2022
A partir de la noción de Formación Interactiva de Valor en la Service Dominant Logic, este estudio analiza las causas de la value co-destruction (VCD) entre clientes y hoteles, y también qué perciben los directivos sobre esas causas que llevan a sus huéspedes a una evaluación negativa de los servicios El estudio de casos, cualitativo, exploratorio y descriptivo, se desarrolló en dos etapas. En la primera, se analizan 125 comentarios en la web de huéspedes de 5 hoteles. En la segunda etapa, se profundiza la discusión desde la perspectiva de los directivos. Los datos fueron analizados con análisis textual y de contenido. Los resultados demostraron que las causas de la VCD ratifican lo que se produjo en la fase actual de expansión de los estudios (2016 a 2020), en la cual se mantiene el enfoque de la VCD como la desalineación en el uso de recursos, pero, la visión ampliada que trajo los directores en el sector de hospitalidad, señala que se está caminando hacia una perspectiva Emocional-Cognitiva. El cliente de un hotel busca objetivamente recursos que están al alcance de la dirección del hotel, tales como: infraestructura, servicios y recursos que funcionen adecuadamente. Por su parte, los gerentes perciben desafíos relacionales y subjetivos. Empíricamente, se ratifica de modo cualitativo-exploratorio, las causas para la VCD a partir de la realidad española, invitando a que más investigaciones sobre causas, formas de ocurrencia, actitudes de las empresas frente a la VCD ingresen en la agenda de los estudios sobre marketing y hospitalidad.
View
Negative Airbnb reviews: an aspect-based sentiment analysis approach
Article
  • Jun 2022
Purpose The current paper aims at exploring negative aspects in reviews about Airbnb listings in Athens, Greece. Design/methodology/approach The aspect-based sentiment approach (ABSA), a subset of sentiment analysis, is used. The study analyzed 8,200 reviews, which had at least one negative aspect. Based on dependency parsing, noun phrases were extracted, and the underlying grammar relationships were used to identify aspect and sentiment terms. Findings The extracted aspect terms were classified into three broad categories, i.e. the location, the amenities and the host. To each of them the associated sentiment was assigned. Based on the results, Airbnb properties could focus on certain aspects related to negative sentiments in order to minimize negative reviews and increase customer satisfaction. Originality/value The study employs the ABSA, which offers more advantages in order to identify multiple conflicting sentiments in Airbnb comments, which is the limitation of the traditional sentiment analysis method.
View
When Service Customization in Tourism Backfires: Exploring the Value Restoration Mechanism to Prevent Value Codestruction
Article
Although service customization is widely adopted in the tourism industry to cater to the heterogeneous needs of customers, the high interaction in customization often results in a value decrease for the service provider and tourists (i.e., value codestruction). However, the literature has not fully explored the restoration process when value codestruction occurs during the consumption stage of customized tourism. Based on conservation of resources theory, this study identified a systematic value restoration framework by investigating the factors of codestruction situation, restoration approach, and customer characteristics. Our experiments indicate that value can only be restored effectively when the restoration approach is congruent with the value reducer type. Moreover, customers with low self-efficacy rely more on such a congruency effect. The findings provide managers and tourists with insights into how to optimize tourism experiences by displaying flexibility in dealing with value codestruction in customized tourism.
View
Scale development of value co-destruction behavior in tourism
Article
  • Oct 2020
Value co-destruction has received widespread attention from the tourism academic community. This article uses the employees and customers of tourism service providers as the main research objects and employs interviews and questionnaires to develop an employee-customer perspective measurement scale of value co-destruction behavior in tourism. The reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation model testing results show that the measurement scale of value co-destruction behavior in tourism consists of 5 dimensions (bad interpersonal communication behavior, bad information interaction behavior, irresponsible customer behavior, employee contract violation behavior, and irresponsible employee behavior) and a total of 29 items with high reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity, which can be used to evaluate the extent to which a subject abuses his or her own resources or the resources of others in tourism interactions, resulting in tourism value reduction or destruction. Finally, the research results and future research are discussed.
View
Airbnb phenomenon: a review of literature and future research directions
Article
  • Oct 2022
Purpose The paper intends to review academic research on peer to peer (P2P) accommodation sharing, notably Airbnb, for 2010–2022 and to identify the knowledge gaps for future research directions. Design/methodology/approach Numerous databases were searched using keywords. Based on the central theme of the research papers, the papers were divided into eight segments—consumer behavior, host behavior, host–guest relationship (HGR), trust in Airbnb, dominant theories in Airbnb, Airbnb regulation, Airbnb and hotels and macro impacts of Airbnb. In-depth content analysis resulted in the final 101 papers for inclusion. Findings The review advances comprehension of the Airbnb phenomenon by enriching the literature with new and most recent studies. Most existing Airbnb research has been conducted in Europe, USA/Canada, followed by Asian countries like China, Singapore, S. Korea and India. Future studies should include South America, Africa and other developing nations. More cross-cultural studies are required to understand consumer and host behavior in different cultural settings. Numerous proposals to fulfill the research gaps identified by the paper are discussed. Practical implications The study will give better insights into the spiraling P2P accommodation economy. The study will be useful to researchers, scholars, Airbnb, the hotel industry, vacation rental players and destination marketing organizations by relating the study findings to practical competition analysis. The study provides deeper insights into the decision-making process of both guests and hosts by examining the relevant motivators and constraints. It will also assist the Airbnb platform in identifying its strength over the traditional hotel industry and other vacation rentals. The findings will also assist policymakers in better controlling the Airbnb phenomena by providing a comprehensive view of the micro and macro environment. Originality/value The paper includes the most recent studies from Asian countries like India, Singapore, China, Korea and Taiwan, not covered by earlier reviews. Prior studies mainly focused on European and American countries. Also, the paper tried to cover the macro impacts of Airbnb in-depth and the effects of COVID-19.
View
VGLM proportional odds model to infer hosts’ Airbnb performance
Article
Full-text available
We investigated aspects of host activities that influence and enhance host performance in an effort to achieve best results in terms of the occupancy rate and the overall rating. The occupancy rate measures the percentage of reserved days with respect to available days. The overall rating identifies the satisfaction level of guests that booked an Airbnb accommodation. We used the proportional odds model to estimate the impact of the managerial variables and the characteristics of the accommodation on host performance. Five different levels of the occupancy and the overall rating were investigated to understand which features impact them and support the effort to move from the lowest to the highest level. The analysis was carried out for Italy’s most visited cities: Rome, Milan, Venice, and Florence. We focused on the year 2016. Moreover, we investigated different impact levels in terms of the overall rating during the COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate possible differences. Our findings show the relevance of some variables, such as the number of reviews, services, and typology of the rented accommodation. Moreover, the results show differences among cities and in time for the relevant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
View
Consumer value co-creation in online business: the case of global travel services
Article
Full-text available
This paper aims to examine the application of value co-creation approach in online travel service based on service-dominant logic. Drawing on recent works, the research indicates travellers as co-creators of value and emphasizes the development of customer–supplier interaction. The paper presents three case studies to analyse global travel service suppliers’ (service providers) behaviour: CouchSurfing International, Inc.; TripAdvisor LLC, AirBnbINc. Case studies analysis is followed by netnographic research of 22 different discussions (1243 records) in online forums related to selected service suppliers. The research findings suggest that value co-creation approach can be effectively used to analyse processes in global online travel service section. The originality of the paper lies in exploring the contribution of co-creation approach which allowed to identify the patterns of actions and behaviour of the online travel service providers and their consumers. As an additional value of the research, it was found that the online travel service providers integrate customer-to-customer interactions as a value co-creation in their platforms using consumers’ resources such as time, knowledge and experience.
View
Service-Dominant Logic” Continuing the Evolution
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2008
Since the introductory article for what has become known as the “service-dominant (S-D) logic of marketing,” “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing,” was published in the Journal of Marketing (Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004a)), there has been considerable discussion and elaboration of its specifics. This article highlights and clarifies the salient issues associated with S-D logic and updates the original foundational premises (FPs) and adds an FP. Directions for future work are also discussed. KeywordsService-dominant logic-New-dominant logic-Service
View
Airbnb: Disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism accommodation sector
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2013
This article explores the emergence of Airbnb, a company whose website permits ordinary people to rent out their residences as tourist accommodation. The company was just recently established, but it has grown extremely rapidly and is now selling many millions of room nights annually. This rise is examined through the lens of disruptive innovation theory, which describes how products that lack in traditionally favoured attributes but offer alternative benefits can, over time, transform a market and capture mainstream consumers. The concepts of disruptive innovation are used to consider Airbnb's novel business model, which is built around modern internet technologies, and Airbnb's distinct appeal, which centres on cost-savings, household amenities, and the potential for more authentic local experiences. Despite Airbnb's growing popularity, many Airbnb rentals are actually illegal due to short-term rental regulations. These legality issues and their corresponding tax concerns are discussed, with an overview of the current state of regulatory flux and a possible path for resolution. Thereafter, the article considers Airbnb's potential to significantly disrupt the traditional accommodation sector, and the positive and negative impacts Airbnb may have on destinations. Finally, numerous questions for future research are proposed.
View
Why Do We Need Research on Value Co-destruction?
Article
  • Sep 2017
Because of the etymology of the word ‘value’, this article argues that value co-creation research and practice have been biased from their early days. Value co-destruction appears then as a concept that enables to keep some distance from this bias, and to have a better and more realistic understanding of value processes. More research on this topic is thus needed, especially in the rapidly growing context of ecosystems that make the analysis of value co-creation and value co-destruction even more complex. Finally, the article contends that research on co-destruction is a necessary, but not sufficient, step to depart from the etymological bias on value. To that end, it calls for a renewed value-related terminology to make it more encompassing, less biased and closer to real business life.
View
View
Airbnb: Exciting innovation or passing fad?
Article
  • Oct 2016
In this paper we investigate the Airbnb phenomenon from the dual perspective of their customers and competitors. We use two different methods to collect data: an online survey administered to customers of Airbnb and traditional hotels, and in-depth interviews with hotel executives. Our survey findings suggest that there are significant differences between the type and motivation of customers that book Airbnb compared to those that book traditional hotels. Further, the interviews with hotel executives indicate that Airbnb is not considered to be a significant disruptor and/or competitor by the major players in the hospitality industry, though the smaller and mid-range hotels are contemplating adjustments and interventions in anticipation of increased competition from Airbnb. We discuss these findings as well as implications for practice and policy and offer suggestions for future research.
View
Value co-destruction in interfirm relationships: The impact of actor engagement styles
Article
Value co-destruction is emerging as an important way to conceptualize non-positive outcomes from actor-to-actor interactions. However, current research in this area neither offers a clear way to understand how value co-destruction manifests nor does it consider the role of actor engagement behaviors. Drawing on a case study in the aerospace industry, the present study begins by identifying and describing two ways in which actor perceptions of value co-destruction form: goal prevention and net deficits. Next, the study identifies and describes nine actor engagement behaviors that moderate actor experiences of value co-destruction. The study also unpacks these concepts at both the actor-to-actor and service ecosystem levels. The article concludes with implications for marketing theory and practice.
View
View
Co-creation and higher order customer engagement in hospitality and tourism services
Article
Purpose – This paper aims to present a review of the literature associated with co-creation and higher-order customer engagement concepts and poses critical questions related to the current state of research. Additionally, the paper presents a framework for customer engagement and co-creation with relevance to hospitality transactions. Design/methodology/approach – Earlier research on co-production, co-creation, consumer engagement and service-dominant logic are discussed and synthesized. Based on this synthesis, links and contrasts of these varying research streams are presented providing an articulation of key characteristics of each and how these might be applied within a hospitality context. Findings – Modalities in service transactions vary among traditional production, co-production and co-creation based on changes in attitudes, enabling technologies and the logic or ideology supporting the change. Transaction characteristics vary among manufacturing, quasi-manufacturing and services based on several key categories including differences in boundary conditions, enablers, success requirements, sustainability requirements, the dominant logic used and key barriers/vulnerabilities. When creating experiential value for consumers, firms should consider several aspects ex-ante, in-situ and ex-post of the change and during the change process. Research limitations/implications – Firms need to move toward higher-order customer engagement using co-creative modalities to enhance value creation. Current practices in the hotel industry may not in their entirety support this notion. Ex-ante, in-situ and ex-post considerations for creating experiential value need to be used as part of a checklist of questions for firms to pose in order to move toward managing customer experiences using the service-dominant logic as part of the firm’s orientation toward its market. This would give it the required thrust to create superior engagement platforms that use co-creative modalities while addressing the barriers to higher-order customer engagement as identified in the literature. Originality/value – The hospitality and tourism literature on co-creation and higher-order customer engagement is still in its infancy. A synthesis of these early studies provides support for the need for future research on co-creation that more clearly articulates the modality firms could use to move toward co-creation. This paper develops a dynamic framework using characteristics of co-creation that integrate the various stages of value creation (i.e. input, throughput and output).
View
View