Determinants of a Residential Real Estate Tenant's Satisfaction (Based on Airbnb Data)

The concept of consumer satisfaction has been attracting the attention of marketing researchers for several decades. A survey of satisfaction allows to estimate the process of consumption as well as the quality of the product or service. The growing popularity of companies that represent the P2P business and lack of empirical research in the area determines the relevance of the current paper. Airbnb, a vivid example of the business, has produced a real revolution in the field of tourism and hospitality. The purpose of the paper is to identify the determinants of tenants’ satisfaction for Airbnb users and to evaluate the impact of various determinants on overall accommodation satisfaction. The study is divided into theoretical and practical part. In the first part we discuss the process of services consumption, the determinants of consumer satisfaction in hospitality, Airbnb characteristics. In the practical part, the determinants of satisfaction are detected based on Airbnb reviews, the significance of determinants for overall rating is estimated, and the tendencies for reviews on the platform are elucidated. To test the significance of determinants, an economic model was developed. Some of the hypotheses were proven, and some limitations of the study were found. In addition to the determinants that are specific for traditional hotels, three new determinants of satisfaction were identified: the relationship with the host, the sense of belonging, the exceeding of expectations. Relations with the host is not only the most mentioned and significant determinant, but also represents a serious obstacle to the placement of objective and truthful reviews on the platform. The result of this paper is three blocks of recommendations: for hosts on the Airbnb, for the platform developers, and for researchers who are going to continue to study this topic.