To Airbnb or not to Airbnb: Does Airbnb feel safer than hotels during a pandemic?

Daniel A Guttentag; Stephen W Litvin; Wayne W Smith

doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103550

To Airbnb or not to Airbnb: Does Airbnb feel safer than hotels during a pandemic?

Int J Hosp Manag. 2023 Sep:114:103550. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103550. Epub 2023 Jun 24.

Authors

Daniel A Guttentag¹, Stephen W Litvin¹, Wayne W Smith²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of Charleston, Beatty Center, 5 Liberty Street, Charleston, SC 29424, USA.
² Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, 575 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C5, Canada.

Abstract

Airbnb was able to recover faster than hotels from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research note examines whether Airbnb's success resulted from tourists feeling safer in Airbnbs due to their greater opportunities for social distancing. Nearly 9500 U.S. adults were surveyed between March 2020 and July 2021, and asked the degree to which they would be concerned about staying in a hotel or Airbnb, within the context of the pandemic. Very similar levels of concern were associated with both lodging types, even as this concern decreased as the pandemic unfolded. The similar levels of concern towards hotels and Airbnbs suggest that other factors better explain Airbnb's comparatively rapid recovery from the pandemic. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Airbnb; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Hotel; Pandemic; Risk.