This study aimed to examine the complaint and resolution process in a peer-to-peer (P2P) business model, in the case of Airbnb, and to uncover the underlying attributions of responsibility in the process. A total of 52 complaint episodes posted by hosts and guests of Airbnb were retrieved from a third-party website and analyzed using content analysis. The findings reveal the dynamic involvement patterns among multiple parties at dyadic, triadic, and quadratic levels in the P2P context. The findings also show when managing complaints between hosts and guests, the platform provider follows some prescriptive mechanisms that emphasize resolution over recovery, a drastic departure from that in the conventional business-to-customer (B2C) context. Paradoxically, responsibility is attributed to the platform provider not only when it directly causes the complaints (commission) but also when it is indirectly related to them (association). The platform, particularly, holds diffused responsibilities for consequential negative events.

Introduction

Customer complaints and complaint resolutions have been some of the issues most central to hospitality research and practice. The received wisdom in customer complaints and complaint resolutions that currently informs hospitality research and practice has been developed almost entirely based on a business-to-customer (B2C) model (Kumar and Kumar, 2016; Tax et al., 1998). However, the emergence of peer-topeer (P2P) business models such as Airbnb is considered a disruptive force in the conventional hospitality industry. Airbnb has been rapidly growing on an annual basis with a higher demanding rate (120%) compared to that of traditional hotels (1%) (Lane, 2016). In 2018, it also values up to $38 billion in the market (Trefis Team, 2018). The phenomenal rise of a P2P model in the past few years has brought changes in the traditional B2C model. A case of Airbnb is considered as a platform provider that facilitates individual-to-individual transactions rather than as a typical service provider in a B2C model (Zervas et al., 2017), in which the traditional boundary between the roles of an employee and a customer is blurred in a P2P model. Peers can voluntarily choose the role of a service provider, a customer, or both depending on their needs and resources when participating in P2P transactions. Peers who play a role as a host or a guest in Airbnb are exposed to multiple points of encounters throughout the transactions, such as through online profiles (e.g., self-introduction and accommodation information) and online and face-to-face communications, which are critical for influencing their satisfaction (Moon et al., 2019). The multi-faceted interactions between peers (hosts or guests) and the distinctive nature of P2P businesses can possibly cause more complaints and resolutions between them. P2P transactions via online platforms in diverse contexts (e.g., lodging and dining) further raise legislative issues directly related to peers’ lives such as tax payment (Hardiman, 2017; Malhotra and Van Alstyne, 2014) and food safety regulations (Pitts, 2015). In such a distinctive business environment, there is a higher likelihood of complaints and resolutions taking place in a more complex manner compared to a conventional B2C model. Taking into account the characteristics of a P2P business environment, this research recognizes a need to disentangle the complexities of complaints and resolutions in a P2P context.