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With the rapid development of sharing economy, travelers are facing choices between conventional hotels and the peer-to-peer sharing accommodation in urban tourism. The purpose of this study is to examine how travelers form their preferences in such choice situations and whether/how their preference formation mode would change with the COVID-19 pandemic.

A relative preference model was constructed and estimated for both domestic and outbound tourists, based on two waves of survey data collected before and after the COVID-19. The results of this study were compared to derive the evolution of preference formation patterns.

A set of 15 key value attributes and personal traits was identified, together with their differential effects with the pandemic. Their divergent effects between domestic and outbound trips were also delineated. Based on these findings, the competitive edges and advantageous market profiles were depicted for both hotel and sharing accommodation sectors.

This study contributes to the knowledge of tourists’ preference between accommodation types and adds empirical evidences to the impact of the pandemic on tourist behavior patterns. Both hotel and sharing accommodation practitioners can benefit from the findings to enhance their competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a short-term renters’ preference profile for peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation selection in the housing market in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The emergence of P2P accommodation was initiated by the concept of a sharing economy, allowing the peer provider to share personal properties with the peer end-users. As the housing market has become more competitive, understanding the preference profile among short-term renters is advantageous to offer a matching marketing mix to the targeted customers.

This study uses qualitative method associated with thematic analysis. A total of 10,509 reviews on Airbnb were gathered from 377 properties in Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory from 2013 to 2017. Thematic analysis assisted by NVivo software was applied to analyse the empirical data. In total, 14 attributes were identified which could be categorised into 5Ps. The concept of 5Ps adopted from modern marketing is commonly used to categorise the strategies in the marketing process. In the current context, 5Ps is used to categorise the preference of the short-term renter in their selection of P2P accommodation including product, price, promotion, process and people.

This paper has developed a preference profile for P2P accommodation selection in Malaysia’s housing market. In total, 14 attributes were identified and categorised into the 5Ps of marketing mix. The results showed that the majority of short-term renters were concerned mostly with product (73.2 per cent), followed by people (14.5 per cent), process (10.1 per cent), price (2.0 per cent) and promotion (0.2 per cent).

This study contributes to existing literature with a novel case in Malaysia’s housing market by identifying the short-term renter’s preference in the P2P accommodation selection in the Malaysian housing market, specifically in Kuala Lumpur. The preference profile provides guidance for property owners and developers in the housing market to offer the right product in enhancing the marketability and rentability of the property.

Images and caption descriptions serve as important visual stimuli that influence consumer preferences; therefore, the current study focuses on property images and captions illustrated on the home pages of accommodation-sharing platforms. Specifically, this study investigates the relative importance of hue, brightness and saturation of a property image and caption description styles on potential consumers’ preferences.

A mixed-method approach was used, and a total of 293 valid responses were collected through a discrete choice experiment approach. Interviews were conducted for additional analyses to explore the detailed explanations.

The utility model demonstrated that the image’s saturation was the most critical attribute perceived by the respondents, followed by caption description style, hue and brightness.

This is one of the first studies to investigate the display of attributes on a digital accommodation platform by exploring potential customers’ stated preferences. This study focuses explicitly on images and captions illustrated on the home page of an accommodation booking platform. Detailed image investigation is also a new research area in sharing economy-related research.

This study aims to explore the use of time series analyses to examine changes in travelers’ preferences in accommodation features by disentangling seasonal, trend and the COVID-19 pandemic’s once-off disruptive effects.

Longitudinal data are retrieved by online traveler reviews (n = 519,200) from the Canary Islands, Spain, over a period of seven years (2015 to 2022). A time series analysis decomposes the seasonal, trend and disruptive effects of six prominent accommodation features (view, terrace, pool, shop, location and room).

Single accommodation features reveal different seasonal patterns. Trend analyses indicate long-term trend effects and short-term disruption effects caused by Covid-19. In contrast, no long-term effect of the pandemic was found.

The findings stress the need to address seasonality at the single accommodation feature level. Beyond targeting specific features at different guest groups, new approaches could allow dynamic price optimization. Real-time insight can be used for the targeted marketing of platform providers and accommodation owners.

A novel application of a time series perspective reveals trends and seasonal changes in travelers’ accommodation feature preferences. The findings help better address travelers’ needs in P2P offerings.

The purpose of this study was to investigate travelers’ preferences for peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations or hotels when traveling for leisure or business purposes given the rise of P2P accommodations in the form of Airbnb, Vacation Rentals by Owners (VRBO) One Fine Stay, etc.

VRBO hosts in Denver, Colorado, USA provided contact information for 788 travelers who stayed with them over the prior three years. These travelers received an email survey and the opportunity to be entered in a drawing for one of three US$250 gift cards.

P2P usage was driven by leisure travel. The most influential factors in the choice of P2P over hotel were price, location, party size, dwelling size and trip length. When choosing a hotel for business travel, the influential factors were location, safety and security, price and knowing what one will receive in the way of facility and services.

The external validity of the findings is limited as the study was conducted in one US city using travelers of only one P2P accommodations platform.

Hotels may want to leverage their loyalty programs and stress the importance of safety and security when traveling as a means of competing with P2P accommodations.

Given limited empirical research on P2P accommodations, this study provides an informative first look at the preferences and behaviors of travelers using P2P accommodations and points to a growing loyalty to P2P accommodations versus hotels in the leisure segment.

This paper aims to provide insights into Arabic-Australian community attitudes regarding social innovation of a new shared model of accommodation for the 65+ age group to facilitate independent behavior within a shared living environment.

A survey of 520 people of whom 65 per cent were Arabic speakers either by mother or second language. Survey responses were filtered to Arabic speakers and further analyzed to identify groups characterized by the latent attitudes underlying responses.

The results confirmed the presence of two small groups representing in aggregate 13 per cent of sample variance who have positive attitudes toward 65+ age group shared accommodation for either themselves or their parents. These respondents focused on companionship and cultural factors rather than potential financial or medical benefits from the new model.

The application of an empirical Bayes methodology to the limited data in this research implicitly restricts the interpretation of the results to the Australian-Arabic community that was investigated.

The results of this research provide a sound basis for private sector interest in exploring differentiated architectures and business models that will facilitate choices of shared accommodation by the Australian-Arabic 65+ year age group.

This finding aligns with increasing health and mobility more widely among the rapidly growing 65+ year old segment of the Australian population and with recent Australian Government restructuring of age care to introduce greater personal accountability for self-care.

This research is original and important in setting future directions for expanding the richness of choice in Australian-Arabic community retirement living.

Where tourism research related to families holidaying with young children in coastal mass tourism destination is scant, this paper aims to explore accommodation constraints and needs of European parents who holiday with young children.

Fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with parents of young children who have just completed their family vacation in the island of Sardinia, Italy by positioning the interviewer at the boarding area of the Olbia Costa Smeralda airport.

The analysis returned five key themes: location of accommodation, quality of interactions, child-friendly amenities, safety and family-oriented programmes.

Within these five themes, seven new attributes were identified and contribute to the current literature on accommodation preferences of parents travelling with young children. The findings also suggest that this is a distinct segment within family tourism and should not be treated homogeneously with families with older or adult children. Finally, the data highlight the distinctions between Asian and Western parents in terms of their accommodation needs.

This paper aims to examine the causal models that predict disabled tourists’ behavioral intentions to use peer-to-peer (p2p) accommodations. This study also explores the causal models through complex combinations of demographic factors, host attributes and the levels of perceived charm, convenience and other service features of the accommodations as a means of describing disabled tourists’ behavioral outcomes.

A questionnaire was administrated to measure the study variables. Using the convenience sampling technique, the questionnaires were distributed among disabled individuals with orthopedic disorders who reside in North Cyprus in May 2016. The five respondents were later interviewed about their needs and expectations from p2p accommodations. A set of preliminary tests (for both reliability and validity) was conducted, and descriptive statistics were used based on the scale items. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to test the proposed research model, which revealed sufficient and consistent conditions leading to behavioral intentions of disabled tourists in their use of p2p accommodations. The predictive validity of the model was then tested. Finally, the results of the fsQCA were evaluated based on the key tenets of complexity theory.

The findings reveal under which conditions disabled tourists tend to use p2p accommodations. This empirical study has relied upon the use of causal models integrating combinations of demographic variables and host and accommodation place attributes (i.e. charm, convenience and service features) which were put forth as sufficient predictive configurations of the behavioral outcomes of disabled tourists within the context of a sharing economy. Ultimately, this study finds that p2p customers are not limited to travelers with low income levels.

The views of people with orthopedic problems in North Cyprus were obtained for testing the configurational model, which means that the results do not necessarily represent a large range of customers’ perspectives. Although this limitation was addressed through the application of a powerful compensatory analytical approach (fsQCA), it is advised that data from tourists with various types of disabilities in other countries be collected for future studies.

The results of this study provide practical implications for hosts on how to combine accommodation place characteristics (e.g. charm, convenience and service) with their own personal attributes (e.g. knowledge and eagerness) to bolster the disabled tourists’ intentions to use p2p accommodations. It is hoped that the results of the fsQCA using the demographic variables presented here will guide businesses toward performing target marketing. This is useful for hosts who wish to attract more disabled tourists, a profitable segment of the market.

This study draws social attention to the disabled tourists as potential customers in the sharing economy. Conducting an empirical study that considers the social inclusion of tourists with disabilities in the emerging version of hospitality business is helpful to both the supply and demand sides.

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical study that investigates the indicators of disabled tourists’ intentions to use p2p accommodations. This study also adds to the current literature by modeling the behavioral intentions of disabled tourists within a sharing economy using a pragmatic and set-theoretic approach (i.e. fsQCA in conjunction with complexity theory).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between two dimensions of servicescape (i.e. substantive and communicative servicescape), health care travelers’ emotions, perceived value and word-of-mouth intentions. It also assesses the moderating effects of accommodation type (i.e. hotel and Airbnb) and interior design styles (i.e. traditional and modern) on the relationship between the two servicescape dimensions and travelers’ emotions.

Using a sample from a survey of 692 health care travelers who stayed at either a peer-to-peer accommodation (i.e. Airbnb) or a hotel, a multi-step structural equation model analysis tested the relationships among variables. It examined the moderating effects of accommodation type and interior design style.

The relationships between servicescape, emotions, perceived value and word-of-mouth were significant. Also, the two moderators affected how servicescape influenced the emotions of health care travelers. For Airbnb guests, communicative servicescape had a more substantial effect on enhancing their positive emotions than hotel guests. For health care travelers who stayed at an accommodation with a traditional interior design style, in addition to enhancing positive emotions of health care travelers, substantive servicescape significantly reduced their negative emotions.

The findings suggest the need for the lodging industry to examine how health care travelers perceive and experience their accommodations with unique interior design characteristics. Also, stakeholders in the lodging industry should leverage the aspects of substantive servicescape in terms of relevant interior design styles, which, in turn, influence health care travelers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions. Given the increase in medical mobility and demand for accommodations by those traveling to receive health care services, understanding the lodging environment and how it affects travelers in this segment is essential.

This research develops a comprehensive servicescape model with a focus on the communicative dimension. Moreover, this study significantly contributes to the hospitality literature regarding how the core experience and various interior design styles influence a rapidly growing segment of health care travelers. Health care travelers’ emotions are essential to consider given the propensity to experience stress related to travel situational health factors.

Recent years have witnessed significant increases in the number of undergraduate students entering UK higher education. This increase is a result of the removal of the sector-wide cap on student numbers in England and Wales, along with a growth in overseas students attracted by the reputation of UK universities and the weakening of the value of Sterling. Adopting a corporate real estate perspective, the aim of this paper is to understand how the UK student residence market is structured and financed, and to identify the motivations that are driving the strategies adopted by the universities, private sector providers and investors in this market. In doing so, this research seeks to test the appropriateness of the Gibler and Lindholm (2012) model of corporate real estate strategy in the UK higher education sector.

Data was gathered from a survey of UK university secretaries, combined with interviews of private sector providers, bank lenders and the analysis of secondary data on investment flows into purpose built residential accommodation (PBSA).

UK university real estate strategy is mainly one of outsourcing student accommodation to reduce costs as well as employing modern purpose-built student housing as a marketing tool and brand enhancer. This strategy is also used as a risk mitigatory tool enabling universities to adjust to changing student demands. Revisions to the Gibler and Lindholm (2012) model are proposed to reflect the reality of the real estate strategy adopted by the universities. Private sector providers view the sector favourably and are set to be the main providers of new supply over the next decade, entering into strong partnerships with the universities. While there is evidence of some oversupply of bed spaces in certain cities, well-located developments are viewed as an attractive lending opportunity. Since 2013 there has been significant growth in institutional investment into UK student accommodation, albeit sentiment is currently tempered by political uncertainty.

The role of PBSA designed to meet modern student requirements is playing a critical role not only in attracting, recruiting and retaining students but also enhancing the overall higher education experience promoting student welfare and well-being.

The corporate real estate strategy adopted by the UK higher education sector is an under researched area. This paper focuses on the strategy surrounding student accommodation provision and reports on the findings of an extensive survey of the key players in this sector. The results are of value to all stakeholders including government and regulators, at a time when higher education is facing substantial challenges. The evidence of a growing partnership between universities and the private sector is viewed as a logical solution, both for the present and the foreseeable future.