Exploring host-guest interaction on Airbnb

Abstract

This study aims to examine the reviews of guests who had Airbnb experience in Mexico City, Athens, and Tokyo in terms of host-guest interaction. In this way, we intend to interpret guest's experience, satisfaction, recommend and revisit intention phenomenon in terms of depth and breadth of host's sincerity. We adopt an interpretive approach and a mixed method. That is, the study combines topic extracting technic by employing online secondary big data and explicating emerging themes and patterns. The paper highlights firstly sincerity of communication in sentences with host name emphasized. On the other hand, the host's responsive and communicative nature improves friendliness over time, which affects experience, satisfaction, recommend and revisit. Finally, Airbnb hosts are intermediator of local culture. In our research, a lexicon specific to our research topic (guest-host communication) was created by using topic extraction, Tf*Idf and named entity extraction techniques. The created lexicon can be used in other studies in this field. Furthermore, we conclude that using hosts’ name in reviews by guest an important attribute of interaction. Findings from this study provides important managerial implications for hospitality industry and Airbnb hosts who attempt to interact with guest accurately. Thence the study suggests a communication should enclose diverse and accurate information, host should pay attention to be friendly and communicative, respond as quickly as possible.