Travelers’ loyalty to peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to examine travelers’ attitudinal and behavioral loyalty to the product type of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations (as opposed to a brand).

Design/methodology/approach

P2P accommodations’ hosts provided contact information for their guests from the prior two years who were contacted to participate in the study. Respondents answered questions about their travel party, trip purpose, factors leading to their P2P accommodation stay and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty around P2P lodging.

Findings

Autonomous motivators (dislike of big hotel chains and experience authenticity) and controlled motivators (location and cooking facilities) were positively related to attitudinal loyalty to P2P accommodations. Price predicted behavioral loyalty in the form of repeat purchase behavior and attitudinal loyalty did not.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations of this study include the representativeness and size of the sample, the generalizability of the results, cross-sectional nature of the data and respondents’ recall ability. Despite a favorable attitude toward P2P accommodations, only price accounted for travelers’ repeated choice of P2P accommodations over hotels.

Practical implications

While attitudinal loyalty was explained by the dislike of big hotel chains and experience authenticity in P2P accommodations, it did not translate into repeated purchase behavior. Behavioral loyalty to P2P seems all about price, which begs the question of whether price is the most meaningful competitive lever in the battle between conventional hotels and P2P.

Originality/value

Hotel brand loyalty refers to consumer choice of brand within the conventional hotel product type. This study presents the first effort to understand consumer loyalty to a lodging product type, specifically P2P accommodations, and not a particular brand.

Citation

Young, C.A. and Corsun, D.L. (2021), "Travelers’ loyalty to peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations", International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 494-508. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCTHR-04-2020-0090