Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Review of literature

۳٫ Methodology

۴٫ Discussion

۵٫ Conclusions and implications

Declarations of interest

Acknowledgements

Data Availability

References

Abstract

Contingency plans and crisis management strategies have been implemented by the short-term rental industry to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the strategies adopted by three key groups of stakeholders: short-term rental platforms (e.g. Airbnb, Booking.com), service providers (represented by property management companies and short-term rental associations) and policymakers/tourism experts. The professional service providers, in particular, constitute a significant share of the short-term rental industry, but have not received much scholarly attention. In this respect, our study fills this gap by bringing attention to unexplored segments of the short-term rental industry. By examining and comparing the responses from these key groups, the paper contributes to the ongoing research about the workings of the short-term rental industry and its responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

۱٫ Introduction

The tourism industry has been affected by a plethora of crises in recent years, including natural disasters (Zhu et al., 2018, Min et al., 2020), terrorism attacks (Benítez-Aurioles, 2019, Chen et al., 2020), socio-political crisis (Benítez-Aurioles, 2019, Türkcan and Erkus-Öztürk, 2019), economic crisis (Alonso-Almeida and Bremser, 2013) and pandemic/disease threats (e.g. Kim et al., 2006; Jayawardena et al., 2008; Kuo et al., 2008). In terms of the short-term rental market sector, Benítez-Aurioles, 2019 study shows that the combined effect of terrorism (a terrorist attack) and political uncertainty (the consultation on independence in Catalonia) in 2017 harmed the demand for short-term rentals in Barcelona. Likewise, by analysing the case of Paris, Chen et al. (2020) confirmed the vulnerability of the short-term rental industry to terrorist attacks and urged those working in this market sector to employ risk assessments and crisis management plans.

Recent research has analysed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality sector (Gursoy and Chi, 2020, Gössling et al., 2021, Hall et al., 2020, Jamal and Budke, 2020, Sigala, 2020), while other scholars have focused on crisis management strategies (Bagnera et al., 2020, Hao et al., 2020, Lai and Wong, 2020). The short-term rental market sector has suffered from abrupt cancellations and falls in reservations (Farmaki et al., 2020, DuBois, 2020), and the subsequent refunds to guests and cost-cutting measures, resulting in laying off the workforce (Carville, 2020, Evans, 2020). However, the short-term rental market sector showed strength and resilience throughout certain types of traditional accommodation (e.g. hotels, hostels) where maintaining social distance is more difficult (AllTheRooms, 2020, DuBois, 2020, Zoğal et al., 2020). Another reason for ‘recovery’ could be explained by the contingency plans and crisis management strategies which have been put in place by the short-term rental industry in order to deal with the crisis, including contacting the hosts, change to cancellation policies to provide full refunds, rescheduling of dates, travel vouchers, help schemes for hosts and providing accommodation for key workers (Airbnb, 2020a, Airbnb, 2020d, Booking.com, 2020, Evans, 2020, VRBO, 2020a, VRBO, 2020b).