What makes the ideal Airbnb host? We studied guest experiences to find out

By Nektarios Tzempelikos, Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Intelligent Supply Chains, School of Management, Anglia Ruskin University
Pantea Foroudi, Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of Research, Department of Business Analytics and Marketing, Brunel University of London

A selling point of hotels has traditionally been the standardised service offered by their trained staff. In contrast, “peer-to-peer” accommodation – of which Airbnb is the most popular host platform – is usually run more informally by individual hosts who have little if any formal hospitality training.

What they offer instead is personal interaction, a sense of authenticity, and local knowledge about the area. And our multi-year research shows that this is often rated much more highly by visiting guests.

Our study (with colleagues), recently published in the

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