IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v75y2019icp279-287.html

The evolution of trust in Airbnb: A case of home rental

Author

Listed:
  • Ert, Eyal
  • Fleischer, Aliza

Abstract

Airbnb, a leader of P2P accommodation markets, has acknowledged that “trust is what makes Airbnb work” and has implemented several trust indicators over the years: reputation system, impression formation, and certification. We evaluate the changes in these indicators over time: 1. the modification of the reputation system, 2. the removal of hosts’ photos from the main search screen, and 3. the introduction of the Superhost program. We find that the change of the rating system was associated with a small, yet significant, reduction in ratings, that the removal of the hosts’ photos might have eliminated the price premium of trustworthy images, and that Superhost certification involves a price premium, but does not seem to compensate for established reputation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ert, Eyal & Fleischer, Aliza, 2019. "The evolution of trust in Airbnb: A case of home rental," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 279-287.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:75:y:2019:i:c:p:279-287
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2019.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738319300040
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2019.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ert, Eyal & Fleischer, Aliza & Magen, Nathan, 2016. "Trust and reputation in the sharing economy: The role of personal photos in Airbnb," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 62-73.
    2. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Luca & Dan Svirsky, 2017. "Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 1-22, April.
    3. David Dranove & Ginger Zhe Jin, 2010. "Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 935-963, December.
    4. Liang, Sai & Schuckert, Markus & Law, Rob & Chen, Chih-Chien, 2017. "Be a “Superhost”: The importance of badge systems for peer-to-peer rental accommodations," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 454-465.
    5. Gregory Lewis, 2011. "Asymmetric Information, Adverse Selection and Online Disclosure: The Case of eBay Motors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1535-1546, June.
    6. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Raymond Fisman & Brian McManus, 2015. "Market Structure, Reputation, and the Value of Quality Certification," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 83-108, November.
    7. Gary Bolton & Ben Greiner & Axel Ockenfels, 2013. "Engineering Trust: Reciprocity in the Production of Reputation Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 265-285, January.
    8. Karlsson, Logi & Kemperman, Astrid & Dolnicar, Sara, 2017. "May I sleep in your bed? Getting permission to book," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-12.
    9. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    10. Ginger Zhe Jin & Phillip Leslie, 2003. "The Effect of Information on Product Quality: Evidence from Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 409-451.
    11. Steven Tadelis, 2016. "Reputation and Feedback Systems in Online Platform Markets," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 321-340, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mérel, Pierre & Ortiz-Bobea, Ariel & Paroissien, Emmanuel, 2021. "How big is the “lemons” problem? Historical evidence from French wines," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Xiang Hui & Meng Liu & Raphael Thomadsen, 2022. "Quality Certificates Alleviate Consumer Aversion to Sponsored Search Advertising," CESifo Working Paper Series 9886, CESifo.
    3. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Raymond Fisman & Brian McManus, 2015. "Market Structure, Reputation, and the Value of Quality Certification," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 83-108, November.
    4. Joost Rietveld & Robert Seamans & Katia Meggiorin, 2021. "Market Orchestrators: The Effects of Certification on Platforms and Their Complementors," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(3), pages 244-264, September.
    5. Kas, Judith & Delnoij, Joyce & Corten, Rense & Parigi, Paolo, 2022. "Trust spillovers in the sharing economy: Does international Airbnb experience foster cross‐national trust?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 21(3), pages 509-522.
    6. Xiang Hui & Zekun Liu & Weiqing Zhang, 2023. "From High Bar to Uneven Bars: The Impact of Information Granularity in Quality Certification," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(10), pages 6109-6127, October.
    7. Tobias J. Klein & Christian Lambertz & Konrad O. Stahl, 2016. "Market Transparency, Adverse Selection, and Moral Hazard," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(6), pages 1677-1713.
    8. Britta Hoyer & Dirk van Straaten, 2021. "Anonymity and Self-Expression in Online Rating Systems - An Experimental Analysis," Working Papers Dissertations 70, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    9. Kas, Judith, 2022. "The effect of online reputation systems on intergroup inequality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    10. Timm Teubner & Marc T. P. Adam & Florian Hawlitschek, 2020. "Unlocking Online Reputation," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 62(6), pages 501-513, December.
    11. Inge van den Bijgaart & Davide Cerruti, 2024. "The Effect of Information on Market Activity: Evidence from Vehicle Recalls," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 230-245, January.
    12. Apostolos Filippas & John J. Horton & Joseph M. Golden, 2022. "Reputation Inflation," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 733-745, July.
    13. Kas, Judith & Corten, Rense & van de Rijt, Arnout, 2022. "The role of reputation systems in digital discrimination," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(4), pages 1905-1932.
    14. Coville, Aidan & Graff Zivin, Joshua & Reichert, Arndt & Reitmann, Ann-Kristin, 2025. "Quality signaling and demand for renewable energy technology: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    15. Fesselmeyer, Eric, 2018. "The value of green certification in the Singapore housing market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 36-39.
    16. Benndorf, Volker & Kübler, Dorothea & Normann, Hans-Theo, 2015. "Privacy concerns, voluntary disclosure of information, and unraveling: An experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 43-59.
    17. Luca, Michael & Smith, Jonathan, 2015. "Strategic disclosure: The case of business school rankings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 17-25.
    18. Casalin, Fabrizio & Dia, Enzo, 2019. "Information and reputation mechanisms in auctions of remanufactured goods," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 185-212.
    19. Kas, Judith, 2022. "The effect of online reputation systems on intergroup inequality," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 96, pages 1-1.
    20. Vincze, János, 2010. "Miért és mitől védjük a fogyasztókat?. Aszimmetrikus információ és/vagy korlátozott racionalitás [Asymmetric information and/or bounded rationality: why are consumers protected and from what?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 725-752.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:75:y:2019:i:c:p:279-287. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.