The Effects of Unfulfilled Preferential Treatment and Review Dispersion on Airbnb Guests’ Attitudes and Behavior

In sharing accommodation business such as Airbnb, while the provision of personalized amenities and services may seem like good business, hosts should be aware of the potential unintended consequences when they are not able to deliver what they promise. The present research examines how expectation gaps created by guest reviews interact with different types of preferential services to subsequently affect consumer behavior in the peer-to-peer accommodation economy. Grounded in attribution theory, this study offers new insights on customer responses to unfulfilled preferential treatment. The results suggest that in the condition of utilitarian services (e.g., airport transportation), participants in the low dispersion condition exhibited more negative attitudes, a lower level of repurchase intention, and a decreased willingness to write an online review. Conversely, in the condition of hedonic services (e.g., perform a talent show), expectation discrepancy did not result in different consumer evaluations across the dispersion conditions.