To Share or to Access? Travelers’ Choice on the Types of Accommodation-sharing Services

Accommodation-sharing services have proliferated rapidly. Under the assumption that accommodation-sharing services provide travelers unique social interactions with local hosts or their peer travelers who also visit the destination for a shared stay, this study examines how the likelihood of travelers\u27 choice on the types of accommodation-sharing services, including to share with a host, to share with other travelers, or to share with no others (to access), is affected by a specific type of accommodation of prior stays and their frequency of visits to a destination. A series of analysis using econometric models of multinomial logistic regressions were performed, using the longitudinal data of consumer choice among the three types of accommodation-sharing services collected from a major accommodation-sharing platform in China (xiaozhu.com). Generally, travelers tend to choose the same type of accommodation-sharing services they have used in the past. Additionally, the likelihood for a traveler to choose to share with a host, compared to the other two types of accommodation services, does not diminish but grows as the traveler\u27s frequency of visits to a destination increases. This study adds unique marketing insights to the emerging literature regarding consumer choice on the types of accommodation-sharing services