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The emerging situation of pandemic due to COVID-19 has not only influenced the daily life but also the society and travel activities around the world thereby depriving tourists (especially who are already on the move) of facilities and even making them to look for desperate alternatives. Such situation in fact may draw a long-term impact on guest–host relationship while residents’ behavior reflects hostility toward the tourists. Such kind of interactions contributes toward tourists’ perception and experience about the destination and its services thereby affecting their level of acceptance and tolerance for tour and travel activities (Armenski et al., 2011). Moreover, the guest–host relationship has mostly been studied with perspective of and focus on residents/host and not enough on tourists (Skipper, 2009; Vargas-Sánchez et al., 2014). Keeping this in view, this paper aims to analyze the impact of pandemic situation on guest–host relationship and its future impact on travel intentions among the tourists in India.

The study undertakes the help of in-depth interviews and extracting themes to understand the guest–host relationship and the perspective of tourists in challenging times like COVID-19 and its impact on the relationship. The secondary sources have been adopted to retrieve the data related to current status of travel industry in India. In-depth interviews were conducted online to gather data for the qualitative analysis regarding the research. Further, the data has been analyzed for retrieving a dimensional approach to subject area.

The data from participant observation showed that the hosts displayed panic, mistrust and irresponsible behavior toward the guests, and this clearly indicates that the pandemic situation has a highly negative impact on the image of the community and the destination. This ultimately affects the guest–hosts relationships in the long term. Most of the tourists showed that they were okay with following the rules and respect local culture but were expecting support from local community during distress. It was found that there were two female tourists who were asked to vacate the accommodation, which can be considered as an inappropriate and extreme behavior. Thus, COVID-19 is not only causing a threat to the tourism presently but will have a prolonged influence on guest–host relationship as negative interaction or experiences are supposed to be frequently radiated by the tourists (de Albuquerque and McElroy, 2001).

There is no dearth of studies focusing on travel behavior dimensions, whereas the linkage of residents’ behavior toward it still requires much consideration and analyzing simultaneously. The study looks into the area of guest–host relationship and tries to explore it from the perspective and significance of tourist (guest) rather than the much read and researched resident (host) perception at the center. The findings of the study could be helpful in drawing the strategic framework for the industry to handle and sustain the guest–host relation so as to safeguard the future of tourism and sustain potential travel market reiterating the significance of tourists/guests and their perspective about the hosts, in developing and growing the tourism of a destination.

This study aims to provide a fresh perspective toward understanding the forces that exist in the guest-host dynamic and thereby contribute to the guest–host relationship literature.

This study examines guest–host relationship via the philosophical lens of convivialism.

This study conceptualizes conviviality in the guest–host relationship. A convivial guest–host relationship is characterized by well-being mutuality and hospitality mutuality. Such a relation can be built when the guest and the host form a tri-party of coalitions, namely, economic, experience and hospitality. While an economic coalition represents the pragmatic value in a guest–host relationship, an experience coalition represents an experiential value in a guest–host relationship. A hospitality coalition then represents the spiritual alliance in such a relationship.

This paper suggests that tourism development should be guided by a conviviality vision. Health and well-being of both the visitors and the destination community should be a goal priority. This paper suggests that the starting point of experience planning is the residents, not the visitors. The critical role of hospitality in formulating market communication strategies is emphasized.

This study contributes to the larger conversation of diversity and sustainability.

This study proposes a convivial tourism model – a form of tourism that is oriented toward mutuality of hospitality and well-being of both visitors and destination communities.

The aim of this study is to explore the host–guest relationship at a macro level, investigating the sociopsychological relationship between a destination and its markets.

This study adopted netnography to fulfill the research purpose. Data were collected from Sina Microblog, the predominant social media platform in China, focused on bloggers responses to a fatal conflict between a tour participant and the guide during a shopping tour.

Bloggers' attributional discussions help to understand the nature of the host–guest relations. Responses from Chinese and Hong Kong bloggers showcased criticism toward the other community and criticism of one's own community. These were reflected in three themes: concerns with the place of conflict or the identities of the perpetrators, hospitableness or discrimination and the Chinese and Hong Kong cultures.

The major limitation is that the subject of this study (young bloggers) does not represent a complete cross section of the residents of China and Hong Kong. This study suggests a need for a broader theoretical perspective of the host–guest encounter. The study results have practical implications for destinations receiving Chinese group package tours.

The study results have practical implications for destinations receiving Chinese group package tours.

On-site interaction has been the focus of previous studies of the host–guest relationship, and off-site interactions were seldom explored. This study bridges the gap and extends the discourse on the host–guest relationship to a wider temporal (by taking a post event view) and spatial (by assessing the issue off-site) scale.

This paper aims to examine the role of technology in shaping the interplay between intimate and economic relations in collaborative consumer networks (CCNs).

This research is based on a three-year participatory netnographic and ethnographic field study of hosts, guests and community members within the Airbnb home-sharing network in New Zealand. The data consist of interviews, online and offline participant observations and brief discussions onsite (large-scale Airbnb events, host meetups and during Airbnb stays).

The findings reveal how technologies shape the relational work of home-sharing between intimate and economic institutions through grooming, bundling, brokerage, buffering and social edgework. This paper proposes a framework of triadic relational work enacted by network actors, involving complex exchange structures.

This study focusses on a single context – a market-mediated home-sharing platform. The findings may not apply to other contexts of economic and social exchanges.

The study reveals that the construction of specific relational packages by Airbnb hosts using their digital technologies pave a path for home-sharing to skirt the norms of the home as a place of intimacy and the market as a place for economics. This allows these two spheres to flourish with little controversy.

By augmenting Zelizer’s relational work, this study produces theoretical insights into the agentic role of technology in creating and stabilising a CCN.

This paper aims to examine the social interactions between Filipino immigrant-hosts residing in New Zealand and their visiting relatives (VRs) or guests from the Philippines using social exchange theory to understand their experiences.

This qualitative, multi-sited study used in-depth interviews to examine social interactions between Filipino immigrant-host families in New Zealand and their respective visiting relatives from the Philippines.

Hosting VRs reflects aspects of social exchange theory, and the interdependence and familial obligations related to VR travel demonstrate mutual relations of care. Maintaining relations of care within the family is an ongoing process involving intergenerational relationships that bind together immigrant-host families and their VRs.

The conceptualization of the social interactions between immigrants-hosts and VRs is not generalizable owing to the small sample size and lack of representativeness. However, despite a small sample, this qualitative inquiry uncovered a series of personal meanings and understandings attached to the maintenance of familial bonds.

As immigrant-receiving countries become more culturally diverse through migration, research about other cultures will assist tourism planners in understanding the values and actions of a more varied array of residents. A better understanding of travel experiences and interactions between immigrants and their guests may provide marketers with insights into host-guest dynamics within a VR context, thus potentially enabling tourism marketers to create better marketing campaigns.

Future studies may be undertaken from non-Western and Western perspectives that examine the social interactions between hosts and guests in the context of VR travel. Very little research has been conducted that addresses the meanings and understandings attached to these interactions from the perspectives of both hosting and visiting groups. This research highlights the importance of families in tourism, a contrast with the relative blindness of tourism scholarship toward relations of domesticity and sociality.

What separates the social interactions between family members in the context of visiting friends and relatives travel from the traditional host-guest paradigm is that it does not involve strangers. This study uses social exchange theory to examine social interactions between hosts and guests who are familiar with each other.

To promote the success of peer-to-peer accommodation, this study examines the effects of online host–guest interaction as well as the interaction's boundary conditions of listing price and reputation on listing popularity.

Using 330,686 data collected from Airbnb in the United States of America, the authors provide empirical evidence to answer whether social-oriented self-presentation and response rate influence listing popularity from the perspective of social exchange theory (SET). In addition, the authors investigate how these two kinds of online host–guest interactions work with listing price and reputation to influence listing popularity.

The results reveal the positive association between online host–guest interaction and listing popularity. Notably, the authors find that listing price strengthens but listing reputation weakens the positive effects of online host–guest interactions on listing popularity in peer-to-peer accommodation.

This study is the first attempt to adopt SET to explain the importance of online host–guest interactions in influencing listing popularity as well as examine the moderating role of listing price and reputation on the above relationship.

This study aims to focus on peer-to-peer accommodation services in the sharing economy. Adopting construal level theory as the theoretical foundation, this study investigates the main and interaction effects of social and spatial distances on guest loyalty toward peer-to-peer accommodation.

This study uses a secondary source of online observational data archived on Xiaozhu, a leading peer-to-peer accommodation sharing platform in China. It consists of 2,612 observations of 1,304 unique travelers who stayed at 559 listings managed by 281 hosts in four major metropolitan areas of China over four years from August 2012 to August 2016. Non-linear binary choice panel models of probability regressions were used to estimate the effects of psychological distances (social and spatial) between hosts and guests on the likelihood of repeat purchase. The software used for the econometric analyses is STATA 14.

The results indicate that social distance negatively affects guest loyalty toward the listing hosts, while spatial distance has a positive influence on guest loyalty. The results also show significant interactions between the two psychological distance dimensions in influencing loyalty. The findings provide important insight into the influences of psychological distances on travelers’ repeat purchase behavior toward peer-to-peer accommodation providers.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that supports the importance of psychological distances in forming a loyal relationship between hosts and guests in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector of the sharing economy.

This paper aims to address three research questions (1) Who is the main stakeholder that shapes Airbnb experience, (2) Does Airbnb offers an authentic travel experience? and (3) What should be the future research trends in Airbnb?

This paper uses the systematic literature review (SLR) with a well-defined protocol, research strategy and methods to answer the research questions.

The review revealed that while Airbnb plays a significant role as the platform provider, the stakeholders influencing the experiences are multifaceted. Hosts, guests, local communities and even regulatory bodies all contribute to shaping the overall Airbnb Experience ecosystem. Hosts, in particular, have a crucial role in curating and delivering unique experiences, which significantly impacts the quality and authenticity of the offerings. On the question of whether Airbnb offers an authentic travel experience, the review uncovered mixed findings. For examples, some studies emphasized the potential for Airbnb to provide authentic and local experiences, allowing travelers to engage with the community and cultural aspects of a destination. However, other studies raised concerns about the commodification and standardization of experiences, leading to a potential loss of authenticity.

This paper is different from previous SLR where previous research systematically reviewed; motivations to use and choose Airbnb, institutionalization of Airbnb, stakeholders of Airbnb. This paper addresses authentic experience as a factor that influences activity participation.

This paper aims to analyse the conceptual bases of the related terms of “host” and “guest” in Chinese and reveal essential, though overlooked, cultural differences that relate to “hospitality” in Western and Chinese cultural contexts.

A presupposition of this conceptual investigation is that culture manifests itself linguistically. The analytic approach used here is textual analysis. Confucian classical texts are the main source of evidence for examining the conceptual commitments of the Chinese characters 主 and 客 and their corresponding practical expressions.

Cross-cultural comparison reveals asymmetries between the term “hospitality” and its Chinese translations, etymologically and culturally. This study demonstrates how the Chinese 主–客 paradigm is both hierarchal in nature and centred on the role and interests of the host. It further compares this paradigm with its Western counterpart along five different dimensions.

The specific Chinese norms for the host–guest paradigm synthesized here could prompt both academicians and operators to question the cultural attachments associated with hospitality by participants and the cultural differences in hospitality transactions and management. The cultural sensitivity modelled here is intended to facilitate harmony between a hospitality setting and the culture in which it is embedded.

This conceptual paper is the first in the Anglophone literature to explore the Chinese cultural roots of the concepts “host” and “guest”. The linguistic perspective used in this study allows the concept of “hospitality” to be studied cross-culturally and in an interdisciplinary way, addressing a blind spot in the extant hospitality literature.

The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) introduces new values and meanings to the hospitality experience. Focusing on the diverse dimensions of the tourist experience, the purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the relative importance of the main dimensions of guests’ P2PA experience and its relationships with perception of authenticity, place attachment and loyalty to both the visited destination and the P2PA.

A qualitative netnographic approach with content analysis permitted the analysis of 250 reviews taken from the Airbnb platform, specifically focusing on P2PAs where guests stay with hosts in the same space.

The results of the study suggest that guests’ P2PA experiences are particularly influenced by the experience dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction”, “escape”, “act” and “feel”. P2PA experiences also result in loyalty intentions, to both the visited destination and the particular P2PA. The dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction” and “escape” stand out as most influential in determining perceived authenticity. In turn, place attachment is most influenced by the dimensions “feel” and “relate/social interaction”.

Limitations of this research need to be acknowledged: the P2PA guest experience is explored from the restricted perspective of online reviews using passive netnography. Therefore, some criteria of data collection, for instance, gathering only reviews written in English and with more than 80 words, may be limitative in a more comprehensive assessment of the P2PA experience. Another point is, although P2PA platforms such as Airbnb encourage their guests to review the experience, some people are not inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations.

This study suggests a comprehensive analytical framework for assessing the “holistic multidimensional tourist experience”, integrating Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) and Schmitt’s (1999) approaches, thus deepening the conceptual and methodological debate on the tourist experience. It further contributes to a better understanding of the dimensionality of the tourist experience in the context of shared accommodation. The dimensions under analysis and their association with perceived authenticity, loyalty and place attachment are both of theoretical and practical interest, suggesting approaches to improve the P2PA experience as well as the image and success of the destinations where these units are located.