Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Networks

Abstract

Not in our wildest dreams would we have imagined, a decade ago, that providers of short-term accommodation would regularly refuse to sell rooms to tourists despite having a vacancy; that thousands of tourists and residents displaced due to a cyclone or an earthquake would be offered emergency accommodation in people’s homes at no cost, with one click of a button; that tourist accommodation would compete with residential rental properties to the point of pushing residents out of their own cities; or that facilitators of online trading platforms would use their direct access to millions of people around the globe to push for societal changes, such as marriage equality. The effects of peer-to-peer accommodation networks entering the hospitality sector have surpassed our wildest dreams. Peer-to-peer accommodation networks are pushing boundaries we did not even know existed.