Airbnb in Latin America: A literature review from an urban studies perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since its appearance 12 years ago, the digital platform Airbnb has revolutionized the temporary accommodation system worldwide, leading to diverse territorial impacts beyond the tourism and hospitality industries. Despite its distinct presence in Latin America, there is no review of the existing academic literature in the region to date. Against this backdrop, the purpose of the article is to develop a literature review of Airbnb in Latin America from the critical perspective of urban studies. To do so, exploratory-descriptive research was carried out based on the review of scientific publications that addressed the topic of Airbnb, up to and including 2020, in four international academic journal databases: Scopus, Dialnet, Scielo and Redalyc. The main results show that the existing literature on Airbnb in urban studies in Latin America is still at an early stage, with little development compared to that of other world regions, where the tourism and business model approaches seem to occlude other facets of the phenomenon. These results made it possible to outline a future research agenda on temporary accommodation in the region.