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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Nowadays, the important role of the sharing economy in the tourism sector leads to an increase, day by day, in the
number of people involved as hosts or guests. Such a dynamic provides for tourists from all over the world a feasible
alternative to traditional services, permitting them to customize their trips and to enrich their experiences interacting with
locals. Therefore, important platforms like 9Flats, Fairbnb, Airbnb, or Expedia entered the industry. Of these, Airbnb, a
pioneer in peer-to-peer accommodation, has become since 2008 the most important player at the global level with a
significant influence in the market. The growth of Airbnb platform motivates the present study on the factors influencing the
prices established by hosts for their listings in Porto, Portugal. In 2018, Portugal was one of the countries included in the top
10 countries that faced a direct economic impact from Airbnb, the hosts’ income and estimated guests’ spending were $2.3
billion. This paper aims to build a hedonic price model for Airbnb listings in Cedofeita neighbourhood, the city centre of
Porto, to identify attributes that influence the room price significantly using WLS regression model. The paper analyses the
influence of different categories of factors on the average daily rate (expressed in EUR from a double perspective: before
(2019) and during COVID-19 (2020). The categories of variables taken into consideration highlight the listing’s reputation,
the listing’s characteristics, the listing’s location, the rental policies, and the hosts’ behaviour. The results of our study showed
that Airbnb guests pay more for space, privacy, and quality, the pandemics having no effect on these criteria. The size of the
property decreases in impact because of lower demand, while the guests' focus on safety and security decreases the role of
rental policies (instant book enabled, cancellation policy) and response time. Guests search for guarantees, trust, and good
reputation representing the major criteria used to choose a listing – seniority and superhost status having a higher impact
on price during COVID-19 than previously.
Description
Keywords
Airbnb COVID-19 Hedonic pricing Host characteristics Weighted least squares (WLS)
Citation
Publisher
Academic Conferences and Publishing International