Attracted to or Locked In? Explaining Consumer Loyalty toward Airbnb

Byoungsoo Kim,Daekil Kim

doi:10.3390/su12072814

Abstract

In an increasingly complex and dynamic environment, understanding the fundamental mechanisms of customer loyalty toward Airbnb has become very appealing to both researchers and providers in recent years. Most prior studies on Airbnb have focused mainly on dedication-based mechanisms, such as consumer satisfaction or attitude. However, little is currently known about how the theoretical view for adapting dedication-based and constraint-based mechanisms establishes Airbnb consumer loyalty and affects by attributes, such as authentic experience, trust in Airbnb, and social benefits—that is, the vital predictors of affective commitment. It explores social benefits, relative attractiveness, and price fairness as the key antecedents of calculative commitment. This study identifies the relationship using a structural equation modeling method and empirical data collected from 156 Airbnb consumers who use it more than twice. The analysis results show that consumer loyalty toward Airbnb is shaped by dedication- and constraint-based mechanisms. The findings indicate that both affective and calculative commitments significantly affect customer loyalty in the context of Airbnb. Authentic experience, trust in Airbnb, and social benefits significantly affect affective commitment to Airbnb. While both social benefits and relative attractiveness play an important role in enhancing calculative commitment to Airbnb, price fairness is not significantly related to it. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are subsequently discussed.

Highlights

Due to the high popularity of collaborative consumption, the sharing economy has emerged as a mainstream business model [1,2]
The average staying frequency of Airbnb is 2.87, with a standard deviation of 1.74. They spent an average of 102,300 won a year on Airbnb for accommodation
The theoretical model asserts that consumer loyalty regarding Airbnb is determined by both dedication-based and constraint-based mechanisms

Summary

Introduction

Due to the high popularity of collaborative consumption, the sharing economy has emerged as a mainstream business model [1,2]. The sharing economy is based on the sharing of unused or idle resources between peers. Companies have launched a variety of business models in line with the sharing economy’s mode of collaborative consumption. These companies, which include Uber and Airbnb, develop and distribute sharing-economy platforms to encourage individuals who have extra resources to participate in such platforms. Airbnb is the largest hospitality firm in the sharing economy It differentiates itself from traditional hotel chains by providing consumers access to idle resources [3,4]. Understanding the mechanisms by which customer loyalty to Airbnb is formed is a necessary part of succeeding among various accommodation types. This study examines the key determinants of enhanced customer loyalty toward Airbnb

Methods

Results

Conclusion