Political Activism

This chapter explores the engagement of peer-to-peer accommodation networks in activities not aligning directly with their corporate mission, including corporate social responsibility and activism. While corporate social responsibility aligns with societal values, activism often seeks to change them, thus potentially alienating customers. Yet Airbnb – the internationally leading commercial peer-to-peer accommodation network – is very proactively engaged in political activism, including fighting for marriage equality and against the tightening of US immigration law.

Environmental Sustainability

The tourism industry causes significant environmental damage. With demand for peer-to-peer accommodation dramatically increasing and expected to further increase, the question arises whether the provision of accommodation via peer-to-peer networks places a higher burden on the environment or whether it reduces this burden. This question stands at the center of this chapter.

The Impact on Employment

Contingent (just-in-time, or gig) employment is on the rise in tourism and hospitality. People in contingent employment are not offered long-term contracts, but are called upon when needed. This chapter explores whether peer-to-peer accommodation networks are part of the problem or part of the solution. They create new challenges by increasing the competitive pressure on the established commercial sector, which leads to a reduction in jobs and a conversion of full-time to contingent employment. But they also offer new employment opportunities: without entry barriers, people can earn additional income by renting out spare space, and other opportunities – especially for a workforce trained in hospitality – are emerging as listing managers for hosts. These jobs may be particularly suitable to people traditionally struggling with full-time employment arrangements.

Drivers of Price in City Destinations: Vienna

Peer-to-peer accommodation networks have been described as disruptive innovations, as revolutions in tourist accommodation, where demand is driven by new factors such as living like a local, authenticity and meeting new people. If indeed reasons for trading on these networks are so fundamentally different, prices should reflect that. This chapter investigates what drives the price of Airbnb listings in Vienna, and asks whether these price drivers are indeed new, or whether they reflect those in established commercial accommodation.

Facilitating Events

Airbnb was born around an event. The founders of Airbnb offered inflatable mattresses and breakfast to conference attendees in San Francisco who could not find a place to stay. Airbnb launched at the 2008 Democratic National Convention where attendees with unused space in their homes hosted attendees unable to find commercial accommodation. Airbnb was conceived and born around events. This chapter explores the role peer-to-peer accommodation networks can play in the context of both large, international events and small rural and regional events.

Entrepreneurship Opportunities

This chapter explores entrepreneurship opportunities resulting from the emergence of peer-to-peer trading. Opportunities range from high risk – like the establishment of an entirely new peer-to-peer trading platform – to very low risk – like a local window cleaner picking up additional business from peer-to-peer accommodation network hosts. The unusual aspect of those opportunities is that they: (1) mostly represent opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs potentially opening new avenues for earning money to people who have difficulties finding permanent employment (see Chapter 14); and (2) have the potential to strengthen local economies of rural and regional areas.

Airbnb and its Competitors

Airbnb is the peer-to-peer accommodation network that gets most of the attention – positive and negative. But Airbnb is not the only one. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of existing peer-to-peer accommodation networks, explore their characteristics and propose a typology of peer-to-peer accommodation networks and booking sites.

How Airbnb Captures and Disseminates Value

This chapter analyses two of the six vital business model elements, explaining the functioning of peer-to-peer accommodation networks: value capture and dissemination. The other elements are discussed in detail in Chapter 4. We focus on Airbnb because it is the international market leader. Separate business analyses are necessary for other peer-to-peer accommodation networks given that each functions in a slightly different way. In this chapter the business model value capture and value dissemination are discussed in detail for Airbnb.

How Airbnb Creates Value

A business model is like an ultrasound for businesses: it provides – from the outside – detailed insight into six vital elements of a business which explain their functioning (Chapter 3). Each peer-to-peer accommodation network is slightly different and requires an independent business model analysis. Here we analyze the business model of Airbnb because it is the international market leader in commercial peer-to-peer accommodation trading and a model other platforms aspire to. We focus on value proposition, creation, communication, and transfer. The other two elements (value capture and dissemination) are discussed in Chapter 5.

The Business Model

Peer-to-peer accommodation networks in general, and Airbnb in particular, are frequently referred to as part of the sharing economy. This chapter provides an overview of key characteristics of the sharing economy, discusses how these characteristics relate to peer-to-peer accommodation, and positions peer-to-peer accommodation networks within the sharing economy.