Does Airbnb offer hedonic or utilitarian products? An experimental analysis of motivations to use Airbnb

Jonas Volz and Michael Volgger

Current Issues in Tourism, 2022, vol. 25, issue 22, 3591-3606

Abstract: There has been an ongoing debate regarding motivations to book Airbnb accommodations. One position highlights the role of experiences and an alternative position emphasizes the equal relevance of costs and practical amenities. This experimental research indirectly examines these motivations by analysing the impact of affective and cognitive advertising on attitude and behavioural intentions to book with Airbnb. It also compares it with the advertising effectiveness in a strongly hedonic accommodation product such as boutique hotels. A randomized online experiment assigned 525 participants to one out of four text ads and analysed their responses using 2-way ANOVA. Study findings show no significant differences in effectiveness between emotional and rational ads in the case of Airbnb. This contrasts with the control group of boutique hotels where results confirm emotional appeals to be more effective. These findings indicate that Airbnb is chosen for a hybrid mix of utilitarian and hedonic consumption motivations disconfirming purely experiential interpretations.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2022.2041564 (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:22:p:3591-3606

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

DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2041564

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 ().