Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development
3. Methodology
4. Data analysis and results
5. Discussions and implications
Appendix A. Descriptive statistics and normality tests of the constructs in the model
References
Abstract
The theoretical understanding of peer-to-peer accommodation has received much attention over the years; however, relatively little attention has been directed towards trust in the context of peer-to-peer accommodation. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to develop and empirically test a model to clarify the antecedents and consequences of guests’ trust in peer-to-peer accommodation in the Egyptian context. Data collected from 793 respondents were analysed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (WarpPLS-SEM) to test the proposed model. The findings indicate that our unified framework includes a satisfactory level of prediction power for guests’ intention to use peer-to-peer accommodation and their actual booking. Finally, overall trust leads to greater intention to book among males and older guests. This study contributes to the existing theory and practice by providing useful insights about the drivers and outcomes of guests’ trust in peer-to-peer accommodation.
Introduction
The rapid development of peer-to-peer accommodation business has led to the great development of the hospitality and tourism industry (eMarketer, 2017; Fortune, 2017; Skift, 2017; Tussyadiah and Pesonen, 2018; Garau-Vadell et al., 2018) and hence, it is considered one of the top concerns for practitioners and researchers in the area (Heo, 2016; Karlsson and Dolnicar, 2016; Cheng, 2016a, b; Tussyadiah, 2016; Tussyadiah and Park, 2018; Abrate and Viglia, 2017). In the context of peer-to-peer accommodation, guests and hosts find each other online through platforms such as Airbnb and then meet face to face during the delivery of the service. To make a proper decision regarding the reservation process, guests must resolve certain issues related not only to the attribute of the property, but also to the host’s characteristics (Tussyadiah and Park, 2018). Since trading in a peer-to-peer marketplace is conducted between strangers, both parties consumers and hosts face information asymmetry as well as various risks, including economic and security risks (Ert et al., 2016; Lyu et al., 2019). More importantly, the sharing economy often involves multi-stage interactions that occur not only online, but also offline, as opposed to typical retail websites where consumers simply communicate with sellers online in single stage interactions (Ellison and Hancock, 2013; Moon et al., 2019). Therefore, trust is considered a unique feature of the sharing system and, thus, is vital in peer-to-peer accommodation research (Wu et al., 2017; MartinFuentes et al., 2018). Indeed, connecting people and creating trust are considered the fundamental components in shaping a reliable environment of collaboration (Mazzella et al., 2016).