1.
Hosting via Airbnb
Motivations and Financial Assurances
in Monetized Network Hospitality
Airi Lampinen
Mobile Life Centre
Stockholm University
Coye Cheshire
School of Information
UC Berkeley

2.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
• Monetary exchange can
act as a gateway to further
social exchange and
interpersonal interaction
• The use of money need
not be a break from the
ideals of ‘sharing’

3.
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Goals of the study
• Examining the role of financial assurance
structures in the economic and non-
monetary interactions that are facilitated
in monetized network hospitality
• Corroborating key findings about
hosts’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations
from a prior study in a different
geographical and cultural setting

4.
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• 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews
with Airbnb hosts in the SF Bay Area, USA
• Hosting status: Current, prior, and aspiring
• Hosting style: Remote and on-site
• Some dual hosts (Airbnb & Couchsurfing)
Research materials

5.
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Key themes
1. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations
2. Money and host–guest interactions
3. The platform as an assurance structure

6.
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Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory
• Money as an initial motivation
• Valued social interaction with guests
• Gratification of being a good host
• Ancillary benefits of hosting

7.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“I had to get all this dental surgery --
It was gonna be about $8,000.00
out of pocket. So then, I was like,
‘Well, I have this empty room
in my house that I never use.
It’s just for my guests to stay
and my friends.’ -- ‘Oh. I should maybe
use Airbnb’ ‘cause some of my friends
had told me they were
making some good money on it.”
Greg
• Money as an initial motivation
• Valued social interaction with guests
• Gratification of being a good host
• Ancillary benefits of hosting
Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory
Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory

8.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“I have brought in people that
I have made connections --
really deep friendships
that otherwise it would not
have happened. -- [O]ne of them
came into my house, the other day,
who just wanted to see me
and see my dog. I’m having dinner
with another one on Thursday. So, yeah,
the friendship is just, it’s amazing.”
Shirley
• Money as an initial motivation
• Valued social interaction with guests
• Gratification of being a good host
• Ancillary benefits of hosting
Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory
Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory

9.
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• Money matters to Airbnb hosts
• Valued social interaction with guests
• Gratification of being a good host
• Ancillary benefits of hosting
“There’s something very nice
about when you show a guest in, and,
not to say that this happens all the time,
but their eyes light up
because I’ve worked so hard
on making this place spotless. --
And it sounds kind of silly to say that
preparing a studio could be
this work of pride, but it is.”
Adam
Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory
Monetary and interpersonal motivations
need not be contradictory

10.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
• Monetary exchange can facilitate
managing expectations
• Monetary exchange can provide flexibility
• Monetary exchange can act as a gateway
to additional exchanges
Monetary exchange can facilitate
sociable host–guest interactions

11.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
Monetary exchange can facilitate
sociable host–guest interactions
“If you got it really cheap,
you might get like students
or something --
If you got it a little higher,
then you figure the people
that are okay to pay that
are maybe not gonna be
as troublesome or something.”
Greg
• Monetary exchange can facilitate
managing expectations
• Monetary exchange can provide flexibility
• Monetary exchange can act as a gateway
to additional exchanges

12.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“With Airbnb, you have a lot of
flexibility. -- And so you have
flexibility to decide how much
money do I want to make?
How often do I want to clean?
How hard do I want to work at it?
But we can always meet our
financial goals as they shift and
change by shifting and changing
who we accept.”
Marissa
Monetary exchange can facilitate
sociable host–guest interactions
• Monetary exchange can facilitate
managing expectations
• Monetary exchange can provide flexibility
• Monetary exchange can act as a gateway
to additional exchanges

13.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“And we’ve had people who
came because in my profile I
said I love opera. -- ‘Cause we
also if people want to use the
discounts that come with our
subscriber status at the opera
and the symphony, I’ll order
tickets for ‘em in advance
if they want me to.”
Marissa
• Monetary exchange can facilitate
managing expectations
• Monetary exchange can provide flexibility
• Monetary exchange can act as a gateway
to additional exchanges
Monetary exchange can facilitate
sociable host–guest interactions

14.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“I think a really good [experience]
was the Swedish woman who
stayed here. She’s gonna host me
this summer. -- She’s more than a
host. She’s like a friend-host.”
Barbara
Monetary exchange can facilitate
sociable host–guest interactions
• Monetary exchange can facilitate
managing expectations
• Monetary exchange can provide flexibility
• Monetary exchange can act as a gateway
to additional exchanges

15.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
Financial assurance structures
reduce risks and uncertainties
• Platforms can facilitate the core peer-to-peer
transactions (e.g. by handling payments)
• Platform companies are called upon to reduce
uncertainties (e.g. to help resolve conflicts
between hosts and guests)

16.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“[I]t could be so awkward.
It’s really not. Because everything
is, the transaction is handled
behind the scenes. When they
show up, they’re fully paid,
and you don’t have to worry
about that. -- I think that
that helps the social interaction
to not be [as] weird as it could be.”
Maria
• Platforms can facilitate the core peer-to-peer
transactions (e.g. by handling payments)
• Platform companies are called upon to reduce
uncertainties (e.g. to help resolve conflicts
between hosts and guests)
Financial assurance structures reduce risksFinancial assurance structures
reduce risks and uncertainties

17.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
“I told him it was only for him.
I came home and there was five
people in my house all super high.
-- He had the key. It was weird.
And then he hit on me the next day.
That made me really uncomfortable.
-- I just stayed at my boyfriend’s
the whole weekend. --
I then emailed Airbnb,
and they took care of it.”
Emily
• Platforms can facilitate the core peer-to-peer
transactions (e.g. by handling payments)
• Platform companies are called upon to reduce
uncertainties (e.g. to help resolve conflicts
between hosts and guests)
Financial assurance structures reduce uncertaintiesFinancial assurance structures
reduce risks and uncertainties

18.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
Future Work
• Different types of hosts, especially
those who manage several listings
on a professional basis
• Guests’ perspectives
• Ancillary commercial activities, such
as concierge and cleaning services
• Asset and labor driven peer-to-peer
exchange

19.
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Implications for Design
• Attracting more cautious participants
by leveraging financial brokering
systems
• Platforms as trusted third parties
assuring non-monetary peer-to-peer
exchanges
• Highlighting and recognising the value
of different types of contributions
in peer-to-peer exchange

20.
Always explore! Always create! Always enjoy!
• Financial transactions need not be a
break from the ideals of ‘sharing’
• From the perspective of hosts in our
study, the concept of ‘sharing’
encompasses social interactions
that are facilitated by the initial
financial exchange
• Financial assurance structures can
encourage decisions to try hosting,
enabling valuable subsequent benefits
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre / VINNOVA
NSF: ACI-VOSS 1322270