The diffusion of Airbnb: a comparative look at earlier adopters, later adopters, and non-adopters

Daniel Guttentag and Stephen L.J. Smith

Current Issues in Tourism, 2022, vol. 25, issue 20, 3225-3244

Abstract: Over the past decade, Airbnb has attracted millions of new guests to begin using its service. Diffusion theory suggests that over time different types of customers will adopt an innovation, yet no research has examined differences between Airbnb guests based on when they first began using the service. Consequently, this study compared earlier adopters, later adopters, and non-adopters of Airbnb according to a variety of behaviours and characteristics. The study is based on innovation diffusion concepts, and entailed an online survey of 1,189 US travellers. Data analysis revealed numerous differences between the adopter categories. Earlier adoption corresponded with less attraction to Airbnb’s hotel-like features, higher expectations and satisfaction with Airbnb, more positive attitudes towards Airbnb, and a greater likelihood of using other non-hotel forms of travel lodging. More recent adoption corresponded with a greater likelihood of using midrange and upscale hotels. As compared to travellers who had used Airbnb, non-adopters exhibited lower novelty-seeking tendencies and innovativeness towards information technology, in addition to lower socio-economic status. Various theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2020.1782855 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rcitxx:v:25:y:2022:i:20:p:3225-3244

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rcit20

DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2020.1782855

Access Statistics for this article

Current Issues in Tourism is currently edited by Jennifer Tunstall

More articles in Current Issues in Tourism from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().