Running head: THE SHARING ECONOMY AND AIRBNB EXAMPLE 1
The Sharing Economy and Airbnb Example
Manjuta Pe-Aroon, Mantip Pe-Aroon, Pirooz Javaherian and Renata Baronio Gaspar
BU 502 – Applied Business Research and Communication Skills
Fall 2016
Southern States University
THE SHARING ECONOMY AND AIRBNB EXAMPLE 2
Abstract
The way that people are evaluating services and products is slowly changing. The
change is applicable for a niche of people that have been collaborating and participating
through rating those services and products. This is part of a new consumerism’s
concept, the sharing economy. Airbnb, a company pioneer in the sharing economy, is
one of the best examples of the peer-to-peer market.
Airbnb is an accommodation community marketplace that is growing every day since it
has started by 2007, in the city of San Francisco. Not surprising, the hotel industry felt
the impact of this challenging competitor. This essay will approach the impact of the
sharing economy not only in the hotel industry regarding Airbnb, but also in the
traditions firms theretofore established in the market.
The sharing economy is taking place for numerable reasons: it’s an easier way to find
cheaper prices; it’s reliable – since the rate from previous users are available; it prevents
against competitor firms that want to take advantage of the consumer whether through
the lower quality than expected or stipulating unfair fees; it’s easy to use – since the
services can be acquired from mobile devices.
A few years ago there was no proving about the impact of the sharing economy, but
today we have some research verifying that the numbers can radically change the
economy with the peer-to-peer platforms. Since this new platforms seek for fare prices
and personalized products, traditional firms need to rethink about the habit of higher
fixed costs and less personalized products.
Keywords: Airbnb, sharing economy, peer-to-peer, review.
THE SHARING ECONOMY AND AIRBNB EXAMPLE 3
Introduction
Airbed & breakfast has been created in 2008 in the city of San Francisco. This
marketplace was founded by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, students graduated in the
design school. In 2009, the name Airbed&breakfast changed to Airbnb. The company
helps guests to find a place to rent in an easily and faster way. In the very beginning no
one could imagine how big the community would be. Today, more than 191 countries
and 34,000 cities in the world are using Airbnb for their accommodations (Airbnb,
2015).
Around nine million guests have been served by Airbnb between 2013 and 2014,
after the mobile application was developed. By only installing the apps, people can
book, pay and get all the information about the accommodations as well as the hosts.
The Airbnb community has grown rapidly. The main reasons to explain that are
because most people are looking for affordable and reliable options by just one click
and also because Airbnb is bringing to the people a different stereotype of
accommodation, the opposite of what hotels have offering, Airbnb comes with the
appreciable home felling (Samaan, 2015).
Every day, new profiles are created for hosts and their property. Hosts can
choose price, availability of time and post pictures of the accommodation. They also can
accept or not the person who has interest in the accommodation by checking guest’s
profile. Airbnb has conquered trust between guests, hosts neighbors and leaders. They
give the opportunity for hosts make money; give a new use for an underused space and
also give the chance to hosts bring guests from all over around the world to their homes,
connecting people through a unique experience (Samaan, 2015).
THE SHARING ECONOMY AND AIRBNB EXAMPLE 4
Evaluation Method
The growth of Airbnb business impacts hotel and accommodation businesses in
miscellaneous areas. This impact can bring advantages and disadvantages to evaluate.
For this reason, the evaluation method will be applied to analyses the case regarding
Airbnb (Zervas,Proserpio, and Buyers,2016).
Evaluation Criteria
In this analysis, we will be using three factors. The first factor is the economic,
the second one is the industry and the third one is the social factor. From the Industry
factors, we generated the criteria by the types of hotels and use Business SWOT
analysis as a tool.
Proof of the evaluation
