Understanding Airbnb Hosts: Motivations and Experiences in Umeå, Sweden, Lecture notes of Business

Download Understanding Airbnb Hosts: Motivations and Experiences in Umeå, Sweden and more Lecture notes Business in PDF only on Docsity! 1 / 37 MOTIVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF AN AIRBNB HOST: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY IN UMEÅ, SWEDEN Sihan Wang Magister thesis in tourism, 15 ECTS Spring term 2019 Department of Geography and Economic History Supervisor Roger Marjavaara 2 / 37 ABSTRACT In recent years, a new wave power of sharing economy, or known as collaborative consumption has emerged in accommodation, and tourism marketplaces (Guttentag, 2015). Airbnb is one of the most talked-about among the sharing hospitality companies, which is an online marketplace and a platform connecting worldwide travelers with local hosts somewhere. Although Airbnb has two types of users, guests and hosts, in current studies of Airbnb hosts, most researchers focus on the hosts from a business perspective. This study aimed to identify and understand hosts’ motivations to start the Airbnb business, and the benefits and challenges in a host’s experience. The informal interview was the method for the study, and data were processed by thematic analysis. The results find that motivations varied from host to host when sharing nature in common. The benefits overweighed the challenges in each host’s experience since participants could gain economic benefits (extra income), mental health (brain exercise for old hosts) and well-being (cross-cultural social learning) in sharing economy. Worries about security and extra physical work did not bother most hosts, and the effects of a tax on Airbnb hosts were not obvious. KEYWORDS: sharing economy, Airbnb hosts, motivations and experiences, Sweden 5 / 37 5.3.3 Extra physical work………………………………………………………….26 6 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION…………………………………………………26 6.1 Motivations……………………………………………………………………..26 6.2 Benefits………………………………………………………………………....27 6.2.1 Economic benefits………………………………………...…………………27 6.2.2 Socio-psychological needs……………………………….………………….27 6.2.3 Institutional and technical drivers………………………………………...…28 6.3 Challenges…………………………………………………………...…………28 6.4 Limitations and Recommendations…………………………………….…….29 6.4.1 Limitations……………………………………………………………….…..29 6.4.2 Recommendations…………………………………...………………………30 7 CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………………..31 8 REFERENCE………………………………………………...…………………...31 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………….37 6 / 37 TABLE OF TABLES Table 1: Available categories of Airbnb homes in Umeå on the booking page..........17 Table 2: Interviewee’s information……………………………………………….…18 TABLE OF FIGUES Figure 1: Study location by Google Map…………………………………..................16 Figure 2: The distribution of Airbnb homes in Umeå marked on Google map..........17 Figure 3: Deductive coding process.............................................................................18 7 / 37 1 INTRODUCTION In recent years, a new wave power of sharing economy, or known as collaborative consumption has emerged in accommodation and tourism marketplaces (Guttentag, 2015). In short, the development and innovation of information and communication technology (ICT), together with other dynamics, enable this new socio-economic model of online peer-to-peer communities (Tussyadiah and Pesonen, 2018). The increasing connectivity by internet on social network platforms allows access for people to share their products and services among each other. Airbnb is one of the most talked-about among the sharing hospitality companies. Airbnb is an online marketplace and a platform connecting worldwide travelers with local hosts somewhere. At one end, the platform enables suppliers (hosts) to list their available space and earn extra income in the form of a short-term rental. At the other end, Airbnb allows customers to book real homestays from local hosts, saving money on staying and sometimes giving customers a chance to interact with hosts, for example, by chatting and cooking. In the business of linking these two ends, the Airbnb company gains the profit by charging hosts for management fees in each trade (Jungleworks, 2018). The meaningful role Airbnb plays is to serve the excess capacity of housing resource to the travelers that search for a short-time dwelling from all over the world (Airbnb, 2016; Birinci et al., 2017). Making access to various and widespread housing resources is one key point for Airbnb’s growth. Only having ten-year history, Airbnb grows up at high speed in its room listing and registered users (Chafkin and Newcomer, 2016). Offering 4.5 million rooms/homes in 81,000 cities and more than 300 million check-ins, Airbnb has become one of the largest accommodation platforms in the world (Tech. qq., 2018). During 2010 and 2015 in 150 countries summer travel on Airbnb grew 353 times over from 47,000 to 17 million guests who stayed in Airbnb homes (Airbnb, 2015). In 2015 the revenue growth of Airbnb reached 113%, which is much higher than publicly traded hotel companies such as Marriott and Wyndham at a growth rate of 8% and 6% respectively (CB Insights, 2015). With its potential to continue, Airbnb has brought changes to the whole hospitality industry and the stakeholders in this business. Airbnb not only has changed the long-standing models of the hospitality industry but also has reshaped the relationships between suppliers and customers (Belk, 2014; Bostsman and Rogers, 2011). In the traditional hospitality industry, a guest books on a hotel's homepage, by phone or through a service agency. Rooms, facilities and services are constructed or managed under a set of standards, and usually, the ownership and management are separated in operation. The relationship between suppliers (hosts) and customers (guests) on the Airbnb platform is reshaped through peer-to-peer accommodation. From sending a booking email to a host, the interaction between a host and a guest begins. Generally, a host is the owner and manager of his/her Airbnb home. When a guest books a room in a host’s home, the host and the guest will stay under one roof sharing the public spaces, for example, the kitchen, the bathroom and the laundry. The relationship between Airbnb hosts and guests is not as easy as the one between suppliers and customers in the traditional hospitality industry. In the sharing hospitality, the influence of the interaction between hosts and guests is bidirectional, which means 10 / 37 hospitality and tourism industries by facilitating convergences among suppliers and consumers (Tussyadiah and Pesonen, 2018). Internet access has combined the host who desires to share the home with the guest who is seeking for accommodation. Mobile internet is the product of the integration of mobile communication and the internet. By using intelligent wireless terminals (mobile phones, PDA, tablet computers, car- mounted GPS, smartwatches, etc.), users can obtain and process information as freely as they want. Mobile internet and terminals are essential preconditions for human information input and output. The network security system protects the security of personal profiles. Cloud service system supplies safe and real-time storage of trade information and statistics. Using modern ICT, sharing economies such as Airbnb or Uber establishes trust between suppliers and customers through personal profiles and review mechanisms for both parties involved. Due to the developing social media, both the host and customer accounts are verified by multiple methods, such as the real picture ID or a Facebook account (Birinci et al., 2017). Further, enhanced financial flexibility in new ways on digital sharing platforms encouraged freelancing and micro- entrepreneurs to step in to host business (Spencer et al., 2017). 3.1.2 Economic factors The unevenness in the development of capitalist-economy causes the imbalance in ownership of different resources (Coe et al., 2012). In other words, some people own extra resources beyond everyday needs, such as living space and vehicles to monetize. In such, Airbnb is a lodging-industry sharing economy example, which formes such a platform benefiting hosts and guests. Goodman (2016) states that “hosting has been a great boon for individuals to make a little extra money, for neighborhoods to see tourist dollars, and for cities to promote tourism.” According to the Norwegian Renters' Association, there was an increasing number of people buying apartments only to rent them out on Airbnb (Business Insider, 2016). Actually, in 2016, Airbnb launched the project 'experiences' to extend the guest's choices from living to more activities, which again diversifies the approach for the hosts to increase the earning (FORTUNE, 2017). 3.1.3 Environmental factors The pursuit for a more sustainable society is a tendency for decades because many governments and social organizations begin to calculate the cost of environmental impacts into the expense of social-economic development (Coe et al., 2012). Companies and individuals are encouraged to produce and consume resources in an eco-friendly way (Albinsson and Perera, 2012; Gansky, 2010; Luchs et al., 2011). The sharing economy explores the approach of resource redistribution that enhances sustainability by deploying the excess capacity of the resource. Take Uber, for example, when four guests are willing to share a car in the same direction, the emission of carbon dioxide gas is reduced. For Airbnb, it is the housing resource. By reducing the production of new products or the construction of new houses, the sharing economy helps reduce the negative impacts on the local environment especially from the development of tourism (Birinci et al., 2017). Thus, for hosts and customers with the strong sense of green consumption, Airbnb can be considered a manifestation of 11 / 37 environment-friendly behavior and a way to contribute to sustainable living (Luchs et al., 2011). 3.1.4 Societal factors In the standardization of modernization, demanding consumers pursue more freedom of choice and more customization of supply. The vast global social network makes it possible for participants of collaborative consumption to interact directly and share personal experiences. Different types of population mobility (e.g., exchange programs in education, mobile elites and seasonal workers) enhance the cross-cultural communication and understanding among different groups of people which fuels the sharing economy in a global scale. Moreover, and in turn, sharing economy increases the chance to create and maintain more social connections with each other from online to offline. For example, with the launch of Airbnb's new product TRIPS, more stakeholders will be engaged in this co-creation activity. TRIPS may create more extensive material and non-material relationship in the place. Consistent with that, Airbnb promotes itself from "Book unique accommodations around the world" to "Book unique homes and experiences all over the world" which implies its strategy to involve experience from online access to offline products. 3.2 Airbnb as a lodging-industry sharing economy example Researchers have studied Airbnb business from three perspectives: the social economy, suppliers and customers. From a socio-economic perspective, Airbnb is taken to demonstrate how the value is co-created by participants in sharing economy (Zhang et al., 2018), and Airbnb is also related to the discussion on sharing economy’s prospects in tourism research (Heo, 2016). From a supplier’s perspective, Airbnb’s development makes a range of effects on both hotel sales growth (Blal et al., 2018) and local community evolvement (Füller and Michel, 2014). Constructing trust and reputation is one of the critical points in the collaborative economy (Ert et al., 2016). Also, there are experimental factors as determinants to be an attractive host (Gunter, 2018; Liang et al., 2017; Roelofsen and Minca, 2018). From a customer’s perspective, plus and minus are compared between traditional hotels and peer-to-peer accommodation (Birinci et al., 2017), and authenticity is the most value of Airbnb in guests’ eyes (Dogru and Pekin, 2017). In previous studies, some researchers voice Airbnb as a threat to the traditional hospitality industry by applying the theory of disruptive innovation. Because Airbnb is often cheaper (Guttentag, 2015; Haywood et al., 2016; Hockenson, 2013) the horizontal competition causes a decrease in revenues of specific hotels (Zervas et al., 2015). Also, based on the rent gap theory, the higher rents have pushed out the permanent residents who throw a negative effect on the housing function (Dredge et al., 2016; Guttentag, 2015). In the case of Barcelona, the government has banned the spread of Airbnb due to the expanding pressure from the traditional tourist gathering areas into local residential areas (Gutierrez et al., 2017; Molas, 2017). By contrast, Airbnb is welcomed in some areas and countries as a diverse source to develop tourism and increase employment. For example, in Sweden, the number of 12 / 37 accommodations on Airbnb's website increased from 8000 to 13000 between 2015 and 2016 (Jakobsson, 2016). In 2017 a news report caught the eyes by the title “To make this home available for everyone, Sweden has listed the entire country on Airbnb.” (Airbnb, 2017; Visit Sweden, 2017) Although obviously, it was an exaggerated metaphor as a marketing approach, it could also imply an official attitude to the development of Airbnb. 3.3 A host’s perspective-the conceptual framework 3.3.1 Motivations The host type of the hospitality business varied upon what estate resource they have and what business model they select. While a single-room apartment is just right for running a Couchsurfer, a multi-room house enables the host to run a B&B accommodation or a family hotel. Hosts are motivated by diversified factors to enter their business. A Couchsurfer host’s decision was facilitated with social, cultural, self- development, community, reward, reciprocity and other motivative factors in Pietilä’s research (2011). Because Couchsurfer is totally free to guests, hosts have no monetary motivations to accept guests to their homes. Instead, the hosts desired communication, social learning, reputation and reward from sharing experience or contributing to community. A host of a small family hotel or a B&B accommodation had a combination of economic and societal considerations. Either a family hotel or a B&B accommodation is a commercial model rather than sharing behavior, so the hosts pursue economic growth and profits. Ollenburg and Buckley (2007) established that neither economic nor social motivations are uniformly dominant across all the tourism operators. Different operators have different motives, and many individual operators have multiple motives. Airbnb can be positioned between Couchsurfer and small family hotels. Airbnb is based on online sharing platform as the same as couchsurfer, and has a commercial nature shared with a traditional family hotel. So that, according to the motivations above, motivations of the Airbnb hosts can be framed into two types: monetary motivations and non-monetary motivations. -Monetary motivations Monetary motivations refer to a financial incentive that fulfill a host’s needs for extra money from doing the business. -Non-monetary motivations Non-monetary motivations contain social communication, cross-cultural learning, self-development and other factors. 3.3.2 The pros of running the Airbnb business -Economic benefits Airbnb business broadens the income source of the hosts, and it helps the unemployed hosts with self-employment, for example, housewives, students, the retired and freelancers. For the hosts who are employed, the extra money from renting out their homes through Airbnb could help cover the rentals or daily expenses. -Socio-phychological needs 15 / 37 conversationalist while the interviewee takes the role of an expert (Eyles and Smith, 1988; Kitchin, 2000). 'Without allowing people to speak freely, we will never know what their real intentions are, and what the true meaning of their words might be'(Cottle, 1978). An informal interview does not imply that the researcher approaches the task without any framework or assumption. Instead, a semi-structured open-ended interview template of targeted topics is prepared in advance to be covered by the free communication with all the respondents. A semi-structured interview supplies a possibility for interviewees to express themselves freely. For interviewers, it is possible to steer around the research purpose and to compare the answers from different respondents (Edwards and Holland, 2013). The template is formulated based on previous studies on feelings and experience, as well as previous informal conversations with people who run or know of Airbnb business. Interviews also provide the opportunity for the respondents to identify new issues that are of high importance for them beyond the template (Patterson et al., 2012). Both drivers and barriers are included in the research questions in this paper, but for a better ambiance for communication between two strangers (the researcher and the interviewee) or more if any, the interview will start with some relaxing, positive and pleasant questions such as beautiful memory, benefits and harvest, and then gradually transit to some relatively unpleasant issues such as difficulties, loss and embarrassing experiences. The interviewees have priorities to quit at any time during interviews. 4.1.2 Study location The sharing economy has grown fast across the world, but for Sweden, it has been less developed (Spencer et al., 2017). The public sector has pushed the sharing economy, and the policies in Sweden for hosting such ideas are ahead of the curve. The choice of Umeå is considered relevant in this study, and the reason is two- unfolded. Firstly, Umeå is one of Sweden's fastest-growing cities. In 2016 the population in Umeå grew by 1.72% higher than 1.61% in Stockholm (Bergström, 2017). Previous research in Airbnb concentrates on big cities/areas such as Los Angles, Berlin, Barcelona and London (respectively with the population of 10, 3.6, 1.7 and 0.4 million) rather than small cities. Growing small municipalities/cities such as Umeå take a more substantial proportion than big cities in Sweden as well as on the map of Airbnb. In such, a case study in a small city is significant. Secondly, also relevant to tourism, as the capital of Västerbotten County and the largest municipality of Northern Sweden, Umeå owns two universities, branches of international corperates, and the largest hospital of Northern Sweden. A considerable proportion of visitors coming to Umeå are students, business tourists, public sector workers and people for health care. However, both the hospitallity infrastructure and the student accommodation in Umeå are limited and expensive to meet the demands of the visitor flow, which drives guests out of hotels into Airbnb homes. This gap between the supply and demand brings potentials to the Airbnb business in a student and business city like Umeå. Therefore, it makes sense to do this study in Umeå. 16 / 37 Figure 1: Study location by Google Map On Airbnb’s list of Umeå region (Jan 1st, 2019), there were 113 homes, including 53 entire homes, 50 private rooms, and 10 shared rooms (Figure2). 6 entire homes had a label of "family-friendly" which meant the guest's families could own the whole home while the facilities for family-life were in good condition. 8 homes had a label of "business-friendly" which offered an efficient environment for office work such as wireless network and fast self-service check-in/out. The price ranged from SEK105 to SEK3002 per night according to the space attributes with an average price of SEK550 per night within the area. It was possible to check over 2,700 comments made by the previous guests. On average, the homes in Umeå had gained a rating of 4.8 stars (the total being 5 stars), which was a high score. See the detailed categorizing in Table 1 as below. Table 1 shows three avaliable home types including entire place, private room, and shared room. In an＂entire place＂a host rents the entire home to guests with little interaction other than at check in/out. In some cases, if the check in/out is totally automatic, the host has no face-to-face contact with their guests.＂Private room＂and＂ shared room＂are similar types. ＂Private room＂means that a host provides a seperate room to guests while still sharing common spaces and actually hosting the guests. ＂Shared room＂is between a private room and a hostel where differnet guests share the room together. 17 / 37 Figure 2: The distribution of Airbnb homes in Umeå marked on Google map Table 1: Available categories of Airbnb homes in Umeå on the booking page Home type Entire place/ Private room/ Shared room Location Urban area/ Suburban area ‘Super host’ badge Yes/ No Property type House/ Apartment/ Bed & Breakfast/ Cabin/ Cottage/ Guest suite Guesthouse/ Loft/ Townhouse Price Above the average price/ Below the average price Trip type Family trip/ Business trip 4.1.3 Data collection Because of the time limitation and research conditions, around 5 interviews were conducted during the research time. The samples were initially accessed by sending invitation emails to hosts’ email addresses which were available on the booking link of each Airbnb home. Although it was ideal for collecting diversified data from the hosts at a wide range of Airbnb homes in Umeå, because the interview was voluntary, it was difficult to control the samples to cover all the types. In order to get examples of as many types as possible, the sequence of delivery of the invitation emails was based on the Airbnb home’s profile (e.g., home type and location). However, the mailbox and the message box on the booking page were designed only for the booking process. When the first ten emails and messages were sent and left to the potential respondents, no one replied. Even the staff in the backstage of Airbnb warned by email not using the mailbox or message box to do anything else except booking a home. In such, the interviewer had to book different Airbnb homes and 20 / 37 5.1.2 Taking advantages of Airbnb“a global agent” When asked why they chose Airbnb as the agent to rent their homes instead of well- known local agents such as Bostaden, the respondents thought that compared to the traditional housing agent, Airbnb was much easier to join in as a beginner because the registration process was pretty user-friendly. Procedures only included filling necessary personal information, uploading relevant documents and photos of the home, and waiting to pass the manual check by the Airbnb company. When the registration was given, Airbnb business started on its way: “The first two pictures I took of the room, they were not so good. I will see if someone will book it. It was consistently ‘Bing, Bing' on the phone and I got a lot of bookings. And the first three or four were guys, and I said ‘Oh, I want some girls!' and my boyfriend, I told him I was starting an Airbnb.” (Respondent 3). Also, the hosts preferred that Airbnb was able to sell their homes to a much bigger group of guests who may come from around the world than local housing agents. One of the reasons was that The Airbnb has an advanced digital platform both on the website and on APP for smart mobiles to reach global guests/hosts. 5.1.3 Making extra money Four of the five hosts said that gaining extra income was the major to drive the interviewees' decisions to start Airbnb business at the beginning, but no host lived only on this business. Instead, all the respondents had other income from their routine jobs or pension. One of the co-hosts was a freelancer who said that he would not stop freelancing to be a full-time host. Two respondents felt satisfied with the income, which could fitly cover the rent of their homes while the other three thought few profits were better than nothing. 5.1.4 Encouraged by friends However, although all the hosts trusted and used the Airbnb platform, it was not Airbnb itself but the hosts’ friends that pushed them into the business. In their social network, all the hosts knew someone that was running the Airbnb business and advised the business. One host explained that even though she had heard Airbnb for quite a time, she still thought Airbnb was such a new thing and too far from her life, so she hesitated before her friend persuaded her to try the business. It was the brand of mouth by friends that encouraged her to make the decision because she got to know the real experience in running the business and the ‘easy success' in making money from it. "I moved here just a couple of months ago. I am still tidying up everything…Yeah, the room is in a mess. But it's good sometimes you have people here and sometimes not. It's nice, and I like it. My friends are just like ‘Do the Airbnb, do the Airbnb!' I just felt like the room had not fixed. But now I regret I didn't do it at the beginning because it's good to meet a lot of people and the money. It's good, so I get half of the rent." (Respondent 4). In such, two hosts answered in the most straightforward words but a firm tone: "Why not?" Especially one host just tried to explore what Airbnb was when following some 21 / 37 suggestion from others: “It was just…curiosity! Yeah, yeah. I was in a meeting with politicians. And he told me ‘Well, I have a friend who is doing Airbnb.’ I asked, ‘When is it?' It was six years ago, perhaps. And my daughter was moving out. That was her room. I said, ‘Why not? I will try, let me try.' And at first, you know, some few people were coming, but now it is booked full." (Respondent 5). 5.1.5 Other personal reasons One host stated a different particular reason for being a host that she stayed in an Airbnb home for the first time when she was traveling in Thailand. She spent an unforgettable time there because the beach located the home and her host was pretty lovely. So that she was touched to consider to be a host to communicate with guests and offered an enjoyable experience of staying in her own home. One host just would like to meet people: “I like meeting people, or else I wouldn't have this. I just love to meet people from different culture, Yeah. I have had no problem.” (Respondent 5). One host started renting her home for the first time quite casually through social media, not Airbnb. She just saw a message searching for a place in a chatting group: “[…] It’s a girl from the South of Sweden who wrote in an apartment group on [social media] that she was studying and she needed someplace to stay in Umeå for some time. I wrote to her, and she liked my apartment when I had even not moved in. I just sent her pictures of the empty one. She thought it looked nice. At the beginning of September, she came in for the first time. […] I found that she was nice, and it was nice to have her there. And… Mm, Airbnb, I can try that.” (Respondent 3). 5.2 Benefits in the experience of being a host 5.2.1 Economic benefits According to how the hosts decided to start the Airbnb business, extra-economic benefits are the first-place drivers to 3 of 5 hosts. As stated in the section 5.1.3 making money was a significant reason for the hosts to engage in the Airbnb business, and also it was the primary reason to keep the hosts running the business. One host who rent a big apartment said it was too expensive for her to live only on her salary, and she rent such a big apartment for her and her son, but her son decided to study in another city just after she had signed the contract with the landlord. Incomes from the Airbnb business saved her out of the dilemma: "It's a popular room, and I did not think it would be so popular. It's good to have many guests, and to get the money for the rent. Because it's a big apartment in the city center, so it is quite expensive to live in." (Respondent 3). Even though the host had other drivers (e.g., meeting people) to keep her in Airbnb business, the economic need was the top one: "I think it's a bit the both (here means making money and meeting people). It's mixed. Of course, I like meeting people, and I like to socialize with them, but I wouldn't do it for free. If I didn't get a pay […], I think it's fun to meet 22 / 37 people. I wouldn't do it for free because it arranges people that I don't know. My friends can stay here for free if I have a friend who needs a room. (laughed) But it's the people that I don't know, I need to clean, and I need to do the bedding washing.” (Respondent 3). Another host just moved to Umeå to study after she had worked in Stockholm for several years, because she would like to gain the knowledge for her new career plan. She felt that although she had some savings to live on, income from Airbnb was a must to cover the rent of her apartment. 5.2.2 Socio-psychological needs 5.2.2.1 Motivate or diversify the social communication Social and psychological drivers played an essential role in attracting and encouraging the hosts in the Airbnb business. One significant benefit was meeting and communicating with different people from around the world. Before starting Airbnb business, 3 of 5 respondents were introverts who expressed like that “[…] I’m interested in my thoughts, and I don’t usually spend time with others”; “I live a routine life within a small social circle consisted of only colleagues and close friends…it’s enough for me”. Every time the hosts got contacted with a guest from a request for order and then made a judge from the previous reviews in the guest’s profile. Then, they stayed together for a couple of days (at least one night) under the same roof (only for the hosts of shared/private rooms) and got to know a little more about each other. Guests from different countries to their home brought the hosts various ideas or stories and broadened the small social circle to a larger one. All the hosts said that they would like to offer guests check-in service in person with a welcome guide of the home as long as the time allowed. Over time, the hosts became extrovert and considered that it was natural to meet and chat with strangers. Their worries or fear of being together with strangers went away. One host said: "You don't know who you will meet as a guest. For me, when I started it in September here, my father told me that you couldn't do that, you don't know the people. I think it's not the random people who go to Airbnb, and it will be safe. All my guests are grown-up, studying. They are not here in Umeå for parties. They are studying so I feel safe with it." (Respondent 3). Most hosts said that if they didn’t run Airbnb homes, they would not have had any chance to meet so many people, especially to live together with them for at least one night. Since most hosts lived a routine life, talking with not every but a few, guests opened hosts’ eyes and brought something fresh to their mind: “At the beginning, I thought of this and this…Before I didn't have people other than my family in this house. Now I have had 75 persons who have lived here in all. Everyone is so nice. It's a good experience." (Respondent 2). The hosts all stated that guests were so friendly and easy-going no matter where they came from and what background they had. Guests’ good gesture and behavior erased the hosts’ hesitation of doing the business and strengthened the hosts’ confidence in doing the business. Even more, some hosts had a deeper interaction with the guests because of sickness or loneliness. They had never expected the guests who came would 25 / 37 Another technical driver was that the hosts felt free to write any requirement online, for example, no smoking, no pets, no party, no infants, or no alcohol. In this way, the hosts could avoid the troubles or conflicts with guests during staying together. The human service of Airbnb company complemented the techniques by dealing with emergent cases. Staff responded fast and processed the case effectively when hosts encountered some problems. The human service offered the hosts great support and made their experience fluent in being a host. One host gave an example of how the 24/7 staff service had help her out of trouble. When one guest wanted to shorten his stay for two nights after two-night stays, the staff handled the issue fast by returning the prepaid money to the guest quickly and balancing the host’s money with her next order. The host was worried about her oral English at the first, but the staff understood her immediately and had her released from any pressure. Also, when another host called the staff to cancel an order due to the airplane’s delay, the order was fixed within five minutes. 5.3 Challenges in the experience of being a host 5.3.1 Security and trust When the hosts were asked what kind of barriers they had met, they all had encountered different obstacles. These barriers were tangible or intangible and occurred in either starting or running Airbnb business. When considering beginning the Airbnb business, the utmost worry was the security. To be specific, the hosts felt worried about what kind of guests would come and how to stay with a stranger together and share almost everything: “Since Airbnb is an agency, I think I feel it’s safe to rent out. But when I had my first guest of Airbnb, I felt nervous because I didn’t know who he/she was. Everything is unclear. But I got the first girl from (social media). The first time she came, I was nervous. ‘Will we like each other?'" (Respondent 3). If a host ran a home type of ‘private room’ it meant that the host only rent out one or more bedrooms and the host and guests would share the other space of the home. One host said since she had a boyfriend Airbnb business had a little impact on their intimate space: “The thing, of course, my boyfriend is not here in my apartment very often because I have guests very often and he feels a little bit uncomfortable. If we are sitting on the sofa, I have a guest in the room. That's… but I can go since we live so close. If we want to see each other, I can go to him even when I have a guest. He likes people, too, to meet new people. […] But not in this way…I think it's a little strange to him. Most of the guests are Swedish, and they speak Swedish. If we sit here on the sofa and have a talk, the guest listens. It's … So, it's better to go to him." (Respondent 3). One host raised a big dog, and she said that some guests were an allergy to furs, some guests were not used to being together with pets, and some guests just felt scared to dogs. She could not live without her dog but raising a dog had definitely blocked some guests outside and therefore reduced the sales of her home. "Yeah, maybe they think if you have dogs, it's not clean. I don't know. I guess 26 / 37 someone feels sensitive to the smell of dogs. Some people get angry and scared with (dog’s name). I said, sorry…" (Respondent 4). The hosts just had the right to write down their requirements in the profile of the home such like no smoking, no drinking or no infants, but still, some guests broke the rules somehow even though they said yes when making the order: "No, I have written it in my rules. I have no smokers. I had a woman, and she was a smoker. But she went down and smoked outside. And it was OK. You can still smell she has smoked out but it doesn't speak in the warns. I don't like it." (Respondent 3). “…There is one guy. He probably had some drugs. And my son, he was in the city and I called him ‘Hello, can you please come to live with me tonight because he is a little…?’…Yes, he was a guest. But that’s the only one. […] Yeah, I went to bed, locked the door with my son around. But he was a little bit, you know, he was just…going around.” (Respondent 5) 5.3.2 Pressure from the tax policy Although similar barriers can be found among respondents, some respondents mentioned some others. As Swedish governments decided to impose levies on Airbnb hosts, all the respondents already got the information from different channels. Since all the hosts had not reached the threshold, they were not sure about to what extend the tax would impact their income and whether or not the lower income would drive them out of Airbnb business. 5.3.3 Extra physical work When the hosts felt much safer in doing Airbnb business over time, there were other barriers emerging. One host complained that “I hate cleaning but I must do it so just do it.” Especially when she got sick, she described the usual cleaning work as a ‘mountain’ to her. 6 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION In this chapter, the results presented in the last chapter will be analyzed and discussed based on the literature review to answer the research questions. In the section of research questions, three questions were raised. In such, this chapter is structured into four sections: motivations, benefits, challenges, and limitations and recommendations. 6.1 Motivations The results partly echoed the motivations of couchsurfer hosts on non-monetary factors including social communication with guests and cross-cultural learning. The convenience of entering the Airbnb business encouraged most respondents to take a consideration of renting the space in stock to make extra money which was different from the hosts of traditional family hotels. Because family hotel hosts need to run their hotels in a more formal and commercial way for while Airbnb hosts just shared rooms for a little income as they want. The word-of-mouth effect due to Airbnb’s fast development and influential power was a remarkable motive to fuel the hosts’ 27 / 37 confidence and interest in doing the business. All the respondents were pushed into the business somewhat by their friends who were the Airbnb hosts at the moment. Another significant motive was also located in the fact that Airbnb was a global agency by reaching users all over the world which strengthened the hosts’ expectation of the business. 6.2 Benefits 6.2.1 Economic benefits Results evidenced that Airbnb had a house as the primary sharing asset and human relationships as the secondary (Sperling, 2015). For most hosts, making extra money was the primary driver either to start Airbnb business or to continue being a host. Some hosts were actually under stress caused by high rents of their homes. In fact, by doing Airbnb business, the income helped cover at least half of hosts’ rent. Even for one host, the occupancy rate was high in some months, and then the pay was enough to cover the whole rent. Some older hosts in this study who had a good saving or pension for a living still thought it was exciting to have extra income by sharing their homes and doing some easy jobs at home. This finding echoes the statement by Sperling (2015) that the Airbnb platform could make a positive difference in helping families overcome income stagnation. Results showed that all the hosts happened to own extra space to share for various reasons before they started Airbnb business. No respondent in this study bought or rent a house/flat/apartment on purpose of doing Airbnb business. 6.2.2 Socio-psychological needs Word of mouth was a primary dynamic for the host to start the business. Although the Airbnb company launched advertisement in mainstream social media to attract more hosts and guests as Airbnb users, all the respondents considered being a host because of their friends' suggestions. Some of these friends were hosts themselves, and some just reported the stories of other hosts who they knew. It seemed that experience told by friends or acquaintances was reliable and appealing to the potential hosts. Even though one host had stayed in an Airbnb home before and had a wonderful time there, she still decided due to her friend's suggestion. Furthermore, when being a host, the respondents had extra stories to share with their friends The hosts had not expected as much as social communication with guests before they tried the business. Even most hosts expressed they felt nervous and a little fearful for the first guest to their homes. But after that, every host became relaxed in meeting different guests to his/her home. The respondents enjoyed communicating with people who were “intimate strangers” in their couches. Guests from all around the world brought the hosts various culture over free conversations, which increased pleasures and a feeling of freshness to the respondents’ routine life. In one case, the guests helped with some housework when the host was not so mobile after an operation. Little simple help from strangers touched the host a lot and encouraged her to engage in the business. For the old respondent, doing Airbnb business made a positive effect on her physical 30 / 37 to identify different motivations and experiences of the hosts in Umea. The interviews with these respondents were used to develop a deep understanding of the complicated motivational and experiential factors that vary from one respondent to another, instead of portraying an overview of Airbnb host perspectives. On the other hand, the sampled hosts shared common features, a significant one of which is that the respondents mostly (4/5) rented private rooms to their guests instead of renting out the entire homes. So that, the outcome of this study should be limited to interpret the ‘private room’ hosts, and a shared living experience. 6.4.2 Recommendations Since Airbnb is a company as well as a business model of sharing economy, the recommendation for future work is for both further research and the Airbnb company. For academic researchers, the motivational and experiential factors of being an Airbnb host in this case reflected specific natures in Airbnb and the sharing accommodation. The results may be referred to and only be compared to other cities with similar cultural and geographical characteristics and size to Umeå. According to official statistics of Airbnb, the bigger was a place and the more popular was the place as a tourism destination, the more Airbnb hosts and guests there would be. When economic and cultural conditions change, drivers and barriers may increase or decrease and differentiate from place to place. Further, many issues of the sharing economy remain and emerge to be studied because the sharing economy as a contemporary economic system evolves over time. For the Airbnb company, the competence in sharing economy is increasing when similar companies (e.g., Couchsurfing or Xiaozhu.com) have entered the same market to take a share. Research on drivers and barriers of their users, hosts, and guests, is one key to the strategy for sustainable development. Although the Airbnb company invested in analyzing statistics extracted from Airbnb's digital platform, the company didn't pay enough attention to middle and small cities or areas such as Umeå. In comparison to big cities such as London and Shanghai, the alternative activities for tourists in Umea on the Airbnb platform are limited both in number and diversity. Since Umea is a fast- developing city engaged in tourism, Airbnb had dynamics to grow bigger either for the tourism industry or for the local outstripping supply of accommodation. The Airbnb company and tourism policy makers are expected to cooperate and develop more participative projects based on local resources, which may attract more guests to live in Airbnb homes and encourage more interaction between hosts and guests. Also, the hosts can be encouraged to supply business-friendly homes to the underserved market of business visitors. From the results, it is not sufficient to attract guests only on the hosts’ efforts. In this study, the Airbnb platform was the only access to the guests and took market share for the hosts. Based on the hosts' experiences, guests and hosts were likely only to give positive comments which didn't reflect all the facts. If the Airbnb company could encourage users to post both positive and negative experiences as Booking did (Gössling et al., 2018), the comments will be more trustworthy and helpful. 31 / 37 7 CONCLUSIONS This study portraited a picture of the status of Airbnb hosts by identifying and understanding the drivers and barriers of being an Airbnb host in Umea. At the macro level Airbnb, an example of sharing economy, has faced severe problems in terms of public policies related to legal liability, insurance, and taxation, but at the micro-level, motivational and experiential factors of the hosts varied. For example, no one mentioned about legal liability or guarantee, and neither would the hosts consider much about the taxation until they reached the threshold. To summarize from the different responses, the benefits overweighed the challenges in each host’s experience. An encouraging finding reflects that participants could gain economic benefits (extra income), mental health (brain exercise for old hosts), and well- being (cross-cultural social learning) in the sharing economy. The motivations were mixed for each host, both meeting friendly guests and making extra money. To isolate one driver from others may, therefore, seem arbitrary. In comparison to the benefits, challenges varied more from one host to another. It is not clear whether the host will give up the business one day if the local policies change, for example, the tax is too high as a burden. 8 REFERENCE Airbnb. (2015). Airbnb summer travel report:2015. Available at: https://blog.atairbnb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Airbnb-Summer-Travel- Report-1.pdf Airbnb. (2016). About us. Airbnb. Available at: https://www.airbnb.ca/about/about-us Airbnb. (2017). Sweden on Airbnb. Available at: https://sweden.withairbnb.com/ Albinsson, P. A. and Yasanthi Perera, B. (2012). 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International Journal of Hospitality Management. 71: 51-58 37 / 37 APPENDIX Interview Guideline 1 Motivations The alternative questions can be: -How did you decide to be an Airbnb host? -How did you know Airbnb? -What happened at that time? -What did you expect from doing the Airbnb business? Transition questions to open the next section -In general, how do you feel this business as a host? -Is there anything interesting in this experience? -Is there any guest who impressed you most? 2 Benefits The alternative questions can be: -What did you enjoy/like in running the Airbnb business? -What are the advantages of being a host? -What are the benefits of being a host? 3 Challenges The alternative questions can be: -Have you met anything unhappy when you running the business? (What is that?) -Is there any challenge you met as a host? -Did you feel any kind of pressure as a host?