Exploring Airbnb service quality attributes and their asymmetric effects on customer satisfaction

• Published in: International journal of hospitality management 2019-01, Vol.77, p.342-352
• Main Authors: Ju, Yongwook, Back, Ki-Joon, Choi, Youngjoon, Lee, Jin-Soo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Airbnb; Customer satisfaction; Impact asymmetry analysis; Impact range performance analysis; Mixed method; Service quality
• ISSN: 0278-4319; 1873-4693
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.07.014

•A mixed method was used for a holistic understanding of Airbnb service quality.•Airbnb service quality dimension: Host, facility, web responsiveness, and web efficiency•Survey examined the effects of each dimension of Airbnb SQ on CS.•Based on Impact-asymmetry analysis, facility was most significant variable for CS.•The findings provide useful implications to Airbnb operators, hosts, and guests. With the rise of the sharing economy, Airbnb has become the predominant example of the online peer-to-peer accommodation market in the hospitality industry. This study adopts a mixed method approach to systematically and comprehensively capture various service aspects of Airbnb. Two main studies are conducted to identify key service quality (SQ) attributes of Airbnb, verify the dimensionality of the SQ attributes, and examine the effects of these attributes on customer satisfaction (CS). The first qualitative study generated a list of SQ attributes by collecting and analyzing 16,430 online reviews. In the second study, online survey (N = 322) is conducted to identify multiple dimensions of SQ attributes and examine their asymmetric effects on CS using impact-range performance analysis and impact asymmetry analysis. Findings suggest that Airbnb has multiple SQ attributes associated with website, host, and facility that produce distinctive effects on CS.