In our current society, we often get overwhelmed by the endless amount of offers and choices when it comes to buying literally anything. This includes booking a place to stay during our vacations. However, finding the best quality-price ratio is no longer our only challenge when looking for an accommodation. In addition, all the places we stay at now have to look “instagrammable”. In order to find a place that we deem worthy to put on our Instagram, it has to be either very authentic or unique. I would even argue that the uniqueness of an apartment or room is nowadays the most important factor for most tourists trying to find a place to stay.
In line with this, Airbnb advertises with the slogan: “Book unique homes and experiences” (Airbnb, 2018). The uniqueness of accommodations is also the main reason why a lot of tourists nowadays choose to book their accommodation via Airbnb rather than with a hotel (Lee & Kim, 2018, p. 41). Airbnb is one of the world’s fastest growing accommodation sharing website (Davis, 2016, p. 2) that provides a platform for tourist’s to browse the most unique and authentic places to stay at.
However, this quest for uniqueness and authenticity also has a downside. As a lot of people booking via Airbnb will either end up going to the exact same places or places that all have the same aesthetics, you can simply no longer call them unique. Unique is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else” (Merriam Webster, 2018). Therefore, I want to argue that — in this day and age — Airbnb accommodations are no longer unique nor authentic.
Sharing Economy
Airbnb is one of the leading companies that operates in the sharing economy. The sharing economy is also known as the “hippie economy” (Das, 2018, p. 15) and emerged as a new trend in the field of economics during the past few years. In contrast to the traditional model, which is based on the idea of ownership, this new economic model is based on the concept of sharing goods and services rather than owning them (Puschmann, 2016, p. 93). Das, who is a former banker, describes the core of this new economic model by saying that: “In essence, the sharing economy is a broking service which matches users and providers of these services and goods. The industrial logic is that of monetised exchanges using commercial peer-to-peer systems” (Das, 2018, p. 14).
Platforms, such as Airbnb, create a virtual marketplace where these monetised exchanges can take place by connecting users and providers. Among media scholars, those platforms are commonly referred to as so-called “lean platforms” (Srnicek, 2017, p. 39). A lean platform operates on a business model of minimal asset ownership (Srnicek, 2017, p. 40). This means that Airbnb has no production itself, rather, it has control over the platform that connects two or more parties. In the case of Airbnb, those two parties are home owners providing an accommodation and tourists looking for a place to stay. While facilitating a place to negotiate for those two parties, Airbnb makes use of the data that already exists and collects its own data from users of the platform (Marr, 2017, p. 163).
Varma et al. attribute the success of Airbnb to three different factors. Firstly, the platform addressed a problem that was globally pervasive (Varma, Jukic, Pestek, Shultz & Nestorov, 2016, p. 228). I would interpret this as a reference to the minimal waste movement. In an essay on the rise of the sharing economy, Zervas et al. state that: “The sharing economy has enabled people to collaboratively make use of under-utilised inventory through fee-based sharing” (Zervas, Proserphio & Byers, 2013, p. 687). Das adds to this explanation by saying that: “The use of existing surplus assets is environmentally desirable, reducing unnecessary production and consumption” (Das, 2018, p. 14).
The second factor that contributed to the massive growth of Airbnb, according to Varma et al., is that the service enabled its users to act entrepreneurially (Varma et al., 2016, p. 228). They provide an example of this by saying that: “Airbnb enables rental hosts to act in an entrepreneurial manner, whereby rental hosts list their available accommodations on Airbnb and earn profits by renting them, usually at rates cheaper than comparable hotels, leading to savings for traveler’s” (Varma et al., 2016, p. 228). Many economists argue that the sharing economy has partly developed as a consequence of the recent economic depression. Das elaborates on this claim by saying that: “Workers unable to find work or needing supplemental income use these platforms to earn additional income from their labour and assets” (Das, 2018, p. 15).
The last reason for Airbnb’s success would be that it provides an innovative web-based service (Varma et al., 2016, p. 228). Zervas et al. expanded on this idea in their article by describing how “technology innovations have streamlined the process of market entry for suppliers, facilitated searchable listings for consumers and kept transaction overheads low” (Zervas et al., 2013, p. 687). Exactly because of the fact that sharing economy platforms are using the ubiquitous internet, there is a relatively low threshold for both home owners and tourists to use services such as Airbnb.
Motivations for Booking with Airbnb
However, the low threshold must not be the only reason why Airbnb has become so popular among tourists. Not much research has been done as to why tourists decide to book with Airbnb rather than more traditional booking websites such as booking.com. Most literature I could find on this topic, pointed to costs as the main reason for choosing an Airbnb accommodation. Users of the service claim to get better value for their money when booking with Airbnb (Mao & Lyu, 2017, p. 2465). The lower prices on Airbnb rooms or apartments in comparison to hotels, is due to the fact that Airbnb has minimal marginal costs (Varma et al., 2016, p. 228). This, in turn, benefits tourists who, as Mody et al. put it: “Travel more often, stay longer and participate in more activities at the destination — much of which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive” (Mody, Suess & Lehto, 2017, p. 2378).
In addition to saving money, the authentic experience of homestays was often mentioned as another reason for booking with Airbnb (Wang, 2007, p. 975). In their essay, Guttentag et al. add to this by specifying that it is particularly the “ability to provide authentic local experiences and facilitate local interaction” (Guttentag, Smith & Havitz, 2017, p. 355). Exactly because of this local interaction that is facilitated by services such as Airbnb, the sharing economy is sometimes referred to as a social movement or even as a so-called “hippie economy” (Das, 2018, p. 15). Das illustrates this statement by explaining that this hippie economy “builds trust and creates inherently more democratic communities. Customers are not getting cheap services, but being helped by new, interesting friends” (Das, 2018, p. 15).
The idea of making new friends while travelling is especially appealing to millennials, which is why they are an important target audience for peer-to-peer rental platforms such as Airbnb. In an article on millennials’ intentions to book on Airbnb, Amaro et al. explain how millennials fit perfectly into the Airbnb demographic, by stating that: “The sharing economy fits well with millennials’ pursuit of authenticity, value for money, flexibility and experiences-over-possessions” (Amaro, Andreu & Huang, 2018, p. 2). They add to this statement by saying: “P2P accommodation offers travellers a more authentic and local experience, since they have the opportunity to develop relations with the local community” (Amaro et al., 2018, p. 3).
The fact that millennials value experiences — such as meeting new people — over money, is not the only reason why Airbnb is specifically targeting millennials. As many studies have shown, millennials are very technology savvy and immersed with online behaviours since they grew up with the Internet (Bilgihan, Peng & Kandampulli, 2014, p. 350). A fully digital booking system is therefore in line with millennials’ needs. In addition, they are very active online and heavy users of social networking sites (Bilgihan et al., 2014, p. 350). Exactly because of millennials’ online presence, they are often concerned with displaying their consumption behaviours on social media (Amaro et al., 2018, p. 4). As a natural consequence, millennials are very sensitive to peer reference, or, as Amaro et al put it: “Social influences regarding the use of sharing accommodation could trigger millennials intentions to book on Airbnb” (Amaro et al., 2018, p. 4).
Case Study I: Instagram Influencer Marketing
On these social media, we often get overwhelmed by an endless amount of beautiful images. People are not only portraying the ‘perfect’ life, but also the ‘perfect’ vacation. A unique accommodation is obviously an essential aspect of that perfect vacation which is why people spend so much time and effort looking for it. After all, you do not want to fall by the wayside while all your friends are going to the most beautiful and unique places abroad. The concept of friends, however, can be seen as a relative term in the digital age. Influencers on platforms such as Instagram can often feel like a close friend to people following them, even though they never actually met. This is due to the fact that those influencers share a lot of personal details about their lives with their followers (Berryman & Kavka, 2017, p. 311). Berryman and Kavka explain that it is “precisely through these mediated images that we come to know of, learn about and relate to online celebrities” (Berryman & Kavka, 2017, p. 310).
This phenomenon becomes most evident on Instagram as this platform revolves around images. Instagram is essentially a database, or a network database to be more specific, as it is a structured collection of data (Paul, 2004, p. 2). The data consists of pictures people upload to the platform. Those pictures then become organised in categories, for example based on hashtags (#) or the location of an image. Furthermore, Instagram images can be found on a person’s profile in chronological order — which is where people have the ability to organise their overall Instagram aesthetic.
Because of its visual aspect, Instagram provides a perfect platform for the advertisement and promotion of Airbnb homes. In addition, it is one of the most popular social networking sites among millennials these days (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016, p. 89), better known as the target group for Airbnb services. The main reason why Instagram influencer marketing is so effective, is because a product or service, in this case an accommodation, is recommended by a trustworthy source — at least, that is how Instagram influencers are often perceived by their followers. To followers, recommendations from influencers come across as an authentic recommendation from a friend (Berryman & Kavka, 2017, p. 314).
These Instagram influencers usually have a very wide reach which means that accommodations they promote will be visible in the news feeds of thousands of people. As a consequence, accommodations that are advertised on social media can become immensely popular overnight, all because of one single post from a macro influencer. This is exactly what happened to Le Riad Yasmine a few years ago. Riads are old traditional Moroccan houses that are nowadays often turned into small hotels or bed and breakfasts. According to Varma et al, “compared to hotels, Airbnb users can better experience the city by living in a local house and exploring the city as a local resident” (Varma et al., 2016, p. 230), even when this ‘local’ house might be a jazzed up version of its original and offers all the comforts of a hotel.
In Marrakech, riads became popular among tourists as they were relatively cheap compared to hotels. Up till today, that is still the case for most riads in Marrakech and surroundings. However, a few of those old Moroccan houses, such as Le Riad Yasmine, can nowadays be found all over the internet. The hype around the small hotel began with a post from Lauren Bullen (@gypsea_lust) and her boyfriend at the pool of Le Riad Yasmine. Ms Bullen has around 2 million people following her Instagram profile — thus an incredibly wide reach among travel enthusiasts and potential customers for the riad. In an interview with Mashable, riad owner Tassery estimated that over 80 percent of her guests booked a room because of pictures they saw on either Instagram or Pinterest (Bogle, 2016, para. 22). “We earned so many followers and new guests after they shared it. It has been a crazy time.” Tassery added (Bogle, 2016, para. 15).
What was once a unique photo by Ms Bullen and her boyfriend has now turned into an Instagram rage with both influencers and ‘normal’ tourists paying a visit to the riad in order to capture the famous pool. I would argue that, due to all the media attention, Le Riad Yasmine has almost turned into a tourist attraction rather than a traditional riad. It is like going to Paris and taking a picture with the Eiffel tower — even though it is a corny thing to do and far from unique, everyone still does it because the Eiffel tower is arguable the most important highlight of the city. By taking a picture with this landmark, you can show your friends and followers on Instagram where you have been and they will instantly recognise this city. Showing that you are a well-traveled person is in line with millennials’ concern to display their consumption behaviours on social media (Amaro et al., 2018, p.4).
Since the aesthetic of Le Riad Jasmine has proven to attract many millennials looking for a unique accommodation, a lot of other riad owners have tried to mimic the design in order to attract more customers as well. Since there are nowadays plenty of riads looking almost identical to Le Riad Yasmine, it can no longer be categorised as unique according to the definition of unique given by the Merriam Webster dictionary, namely “being the only one of its kind” (Merriam Webster, 2018). So in their quest for uniqueness, everyone ends up going to the same (looking) places — partly because they get motivated through Instagram.
Hipster Effect
The quest for uniqueness can be perceived as a response to our individualistic society in which we are continuously haunted by the fear of imitation (Schiermer, 2013, p. 178). This becomes not only apparent when looking at how we try to express ourselves in the ‘real’ world, for example through the way we dress, but also on social media through the pictures we post. Travelling these days is arguable easier and cheaper than ever before, which often makes us feel like we have the whole world at our disposal. Nevertheless, most millennials want to go to unique and authentic places where not many people have been before, due to this fear of imitation. However, as more and more people are traveling and those travels are shared widespread via social media, it becomes increasingly harder to find these unique places — especially since everyone is on the haunt for them.
With the fear of imitation in mind, it makes perfect sense that people all book a ticket as soon as they see a new unique place on Instagram. They want to go there before everybody else does, because when that happens, it will no longer be regarded as unique. As Schiemer puts it: “Uniformity is constantly eroded by individual expression and individual expression is constantly eroded by uniformity” (Schiermer, 2013, p. 178). So when we first discover a new holiday destination, we break out of this uniformity. Yet, once the masses have also discovered and visited this exact same accommodation or place – like what happened to Le Riad Yasmine – the people who first discovered it will become uniform again. It is basically a vicious cycle of people breaking out of uniformity and then getting sucked back in because of their followers — either in real life or on Instagram.
The idea that people all end up doing the same thing and going to the same places, despite their efforts to be different than everyone else, is often referred to as the hipster paradox or the hipster effect. Touboul explains this concept by saying that it is the “non-concerted emergent collective phenomenon of looking alike trying to look different” (Touboul, 2014, p. 1). Thus, Instagram influencers promoting Airbnb accommodations do not only maintain the hipster paradox, they also accelerates the vicious cycle of uniformity.
Case Study II: Experience Economy
The promotion of Airbnb accommodations, however, is not only done by influencers that tag Airbnb’s in their posts when they travel to far away destinations in order to capture the most beautiful places and accommodations, like Ms Bullen. A lot of Airbnb hosts have also discovered Instagram as a new marketing tool in order to promote their homes on social media. By doing this, they basically “brand” themselves using the power of imagery. The most successful example of an Airbnb host generating new guests through Instagram is a beach house owner in California. Tiffany has been posting images of her beach house for about two times a week ever since 2015. Even though she is photographing the exact same house and spaces over and over again, she has managed to keep it interesting as her following base has grown to the impressive amount of 64.2 thousand followers.
Social media thus play a significant role in the growth of Airbnb’s success (Varma et al., 2016, p. 230). Some scholars even go as far as to claim that Airbnb owes its whole existence to social media by saying that: “Social media provides users with useful information, such as videos, photographs, and reviews, guarantees the reliability of both parties and increases the trust between two parties” (Varma et al., 2016, p. 230). This becomes apparent when looking at the vast amount of bookings Tiffany has managed to establish. The Beach Lodge is already fully booked for the summer of 2019. An analysis of some of her Instagram posts will show how exactly she has attained so many bookings.
Why does this post work? Tiffany is intriguing guests by telling them about the beach house and its great location, without showing much of what the surroundings actually look like. Despite that, followers can get a feel of the design of the house and the patio because of the bright coloured paint on the walls and the patterned rug which make the entrance of the house look very inviting. In addition, people will probably associate all the colours, for example on the rug and pillows in the background, with cosiness. After seeing this picture, guests are likely to expect the inside of the house to be just as cosy and might be triggered to book the place in order to find out for themselves.
Why does this post work? In the caption, Tiffany sets a scene for what most people would describe as the perfect beach day by giving a detailed description of how “your eyes will be captured by the water view” and how you will be able to “feel the coolness of the ocean breeze” (Tiffany, 2017). While reading this text, people can probably already picture themselves being at the Beach Lodge. Tiffany then takes her anecdote one step further by emphasising how she wants all her quests’ senses “to be equally captured by the house” (Tiffany, 2017). Followers of her Instagram profile already get a preview of this with the image that shows the different textiles Tiffany is referring to. At the end of her caption, Tiffany stresses how she hopes this dining experience will set her Airbnb apart from other vacation rentals, making it feel exclusive and thus desirable.
Why does this post work? Tiffany understands that a photograph of a perfectly made bed can be boring, even though the room is beautiful in itself. With this picture, she shows how the bedroom can be used for other activities than sleeping, such as reading, relaxing and scrolling through Pinterest. In doing so, she is allowing her viewers to better understand the vibe of the bedroom. By saying that, at the Beach Lodge “it feels like Sunday everyday”, she is, once again, inviting her followers to join the beach life experience by booking her vacation rental.
Why does this post work? This picture adds to the ones that can be found on the Airbnb profile of the Beach Lodge as it shows the surroundings rather than just the house itself. As Varma mentioned: “Social media provides users with useful information” (Varma et al., 2016, p. 230), for example about activities guests could enjoy at a specific time of year. Tiffany thus keeps her (potential) guests updated about what is going on in California, making followers feel like they are being updated by a friend. Because of this connection that is maintained through Instagram, guests that have already visited the Beach Lodge during the winter, might be triggered by this picture to come back during the summer in order to experience the warm weather and go kayaking on the gorgeous blue water that is portrayed in the image.
What becomes clear from these images she posts on her Instagram, is that Tiffany is trying to sell a certain experience — the relaxed beach life. According to scholars, the tourism and hospitality industry nowadays is based on experiences, or, as Mody, Seuss and Lehto put it: “Organizations and destinations are realigning their focus from a product- and service-oriented mindset to one that emphasizes the design of quality experiences” (Mody et al., 2017, p. 2379). Economists Pine & Gilmore elaborate on this statement by saying that: “In today’s service economy, many companies simply wrap experiences around their traditional offerings to make them sell better” (Pine & Gilmore, 2018, p. 101). This is essentially the case for the Beach Lodge. Before the accommodation had its own Instagram account, the product was already there. However, now that it gets promoted as an experience, it has massively gained popularity and bookings. Service providers, such as Airbnb hosts, thus learned how to design, sell and deliver experiences that customers are willing to pay for (Pine & Gilmore, 2018, p. 98). In other words, showing potential guests how they can use the space in order to have the ultimate beach life experience, like Tiffany does.
Case Study III: Airbnb Plus
This phenomenon of selling an experience rather than a product or service is nowadays becoming more and more common. Scholars and economists often refer to it as the “experience economy” (Pine & Gilmore, 2018, p. 97). In the context of the hospitality and tourism industry, “everything tourists go through at a destination can be an experience, be it behavioural or perceptual, cognitive or emotional, or expired or implied” (Oh, Fiore & Jeoung, 2007, p. 120). So in the experience economy, it is the task of the tourism industry to turn all these experiences into a commodity. Pine and Gilmore define the hotel industry as a place where “almost any service can be leveraged to stage a more compelling experience” (Gilmore & Pine, 2002, p. 88).
Not only Airbnb users try to create and promote such a compelling experience, but the platform itself has also adapted the selling of experiences as a marketing strategy. Airbnb namely advertises with the slogan: “Book unique homes and experiences” (Airbnb, 2018). In addition, Airbnb has recently launched a new hotel-like service called Airbnb Plus. In order to obtain the title of an Airbnb Plus home owner, the accommodation has to meet a specific set of requirements. Airbnb Plus homes should be: “thoughtfully designed, comfortable, well-equipped and well-maintained in order to provide guests with the best Airbnb experience” (Airbnb, 2018). Due to this new Airbnb Plus service, more and more Airbnb accommodations will eventually end up looking alike. After all, Airbnb hosts will most likely make adjustments to their houses in order to meet these Airbnb Plus standards. In turn, this will lead to a lot of accommodations on the platform looking exactly the same — resulting in a so-called filter bubble.
Kyle Chayka, who is a freelance writer, touched upon this phenomenon of the filter bubble in his Welcome to Airspace article. In this article, he explains how “digital platforms are producing a harmonisation of tastes across the world” (Chayka, 2016, para. 3). Chayka names this new geography that was created by technology “airspace” (Chayka, 2016, para. 5) and describes it as the “realm of spaces that share the same hallmarks everywhere you go: a profusion of symbols of comfort and quality, at least to a certain conoisseurial mindset” (Chayka, 2016, para. 5). This is exactly in line with what Airbnb is trying to achieve through its Airbnb Plus service — the guarantee of a certain design, comfort and quality that is exactly the same across all Airbnb Plus accommodations.
Chayka describes millennials, Airbnb’s target audience, as “an affluent, self-selecting group of people” that move from one space to another with the help of technology” (Chayka, 2016, para 9). This is all possible because of the fact that millennials are technology savvy and immersed with online behavbious, as I mentioned earlier (Bilgihan et al., 2014, p. 350). Since these spaces millennials travel through are so easily linked by technology, particular sensibilities spread, resulting in accommodations to increasingly resemble one another. Or, as Chayka puts it: “If taste is globalized, then the logical endpoint is a world in which aesthetic diversity decreases” (Chayka, 2016, p. 30)
As the new Airbnb Plus feature shows, the decreasing uniqueness of accommodations is not only the fault of millennials booking these places in droves after seeing it on Instagram. The problem is way more nuanced as Airbnb itself is also regulating its own platform and the accommodations on there. Chayka mentions this in his article, saying that: “Aesthetic homogeneity is a product that users are coming to demand and tech investors are catching on” (Chayka, 2016, para. 26). He continues this argument by describing how “the confluence of style is being accelerated by companies that foster a sense of placelessness, using technology to break down geography” (Chayka, 2016, para 10).
Discussion
The way I see it, this confluence of style is connected to the hipster effect I discussed previously. A global style was accidentally created by millennials who were all trying to be unique. In turn, companies such as Airbnb were able to take advantage of this global style by creating services like Airbnb Plus that perfectly represent the particular aesthetic that is appreciated by almost everyone nowadays. Nevertheless, as a consequence of that marketing strategy, Airbnb is no longer an open-minded sharing service like it used to be, but rather an interactive lifestyle magazine (Chayka, 2016, para. 12). According to Chayka, this is mostly due to the fact that the “airspace aesthetic that Airbnb has contributed to, and the geography it creates, limits experiences of difference in the service of comforting a particular demographic” (Chayka, 2016, para. 35).
In order to appeal to this new demographic Chayka is referring to, Airbnb listings are currently presented as places where people would want to live permanently, rather than as convenient alternatives to an expensive hotel room. Airbnb has a certain aspirational quality that is unique to its service (Chayka, 2016, para 12). However, exactly because of the fact that Airbnb homes are almost too perfect – as they have to live up to certain standards like Airbnb Plus accommodations do – it is almost impossible to believe that a local is usually living there. A lot of personal touches to the design of a house get lost when Airbnb hosts redecorate their house in accordance with the global style millennials are looking for. A former Airbnb host, interviewed by Chayka, stated that Airbnb’s these days are almost like “an extension of Ikea showrooms” (Chayka, 2016, para. 14), with listings that do not even look like real homes. Since Airbnb accommodations are now completely recognisable, a lot of its former authenticity has gotten lost.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Airbnb is no longer really unique nor authentic anymore — it is simply selling a ‘unique’ experience. In doing so, Airbnb users all end up going to the same places and having the exact same experiences. Nonetheless, travellers still believe that Airbnb accommodations are unique and authentic, due to the platform’s branding strategy (Lee & Kim, 2018, p. 42). Social media websites, such as Instagram, heavily contribute to this marketing strategy by constantly promoting the ‘unique’ Airbnb experience. As a consequence, social media’s most active users, millennials, are living in a filter bubble where they are constantly exposed to perfect Airbnb homes. This filter bubble is incredibly hard to break out of and can be compared to the hipster paradox that works like a vicious cycle.
Despite the fact that it takes a lot of effort, seeking out difference still remains important, especially when modern technologies make it so easy to avoid doing so (Chayka, 2016, para. 39). After all, if we continue living in this filter bubble, all accommodations will eventually end up looking exactly the same as a result of the global style that dominates Airbnb and is reinforced by the Airbnb Plus feature. Only once users start demanding truly different styles and authenticity, Airbnb will alter its marketing strategy and we can break out of the accommodation filter bubble that portrays Airbnb as a lifestyle magazine.
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