An Assessment of the Sharing Economy: Illustrating the Impact of Airbnb on Society

An Assessment of the Sharing Economy:

Illustrating the Impact of AirBnb on Society

Student name: Lin Shi

Student number: 3196455528

Instructor: Laura Zizka

Class: BOSC2

Date: June 6, 2016

HONOUR CODE

As a student at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, I uphold and defend academic integrity, academic rigor and academic liberty as core values of higher learning. I attest, on my word of honor, that work submitted in my name is my own work, and that any ideas or materials used in support of this work which are not originally my own are cited and referenced accordingly.

Abstract

Out of very humble origins, AirBnb has grown into a $24 billion firm, by actively disrupting the world hotel industry, through the modern employment of a centuries-old idea--- the sharing economy. There are mainly three reasons to support AirBnb. Firstly, AirBnb benefits all of society by reducing resource-use and boosting the economy. Secondly, competition from AirBnb can function to incentivize the hospitality industry to become more competitive itself. Thirdly, AirBnb provides amenities that hotels are not able to do. Yet, a major challenge faced by AirBnb is the issue of providing for the safety of its users. Although cases where users are harmed are very infrequent, they have happened in the past, and are severe enough to panic potential customers. AirBnb is keeping updating policies to minimize the risk. This paper concludes that the advantages of AirBnb’s model outweigh the disadvantages, so people should choose AirBnb. The primary goal of this paper is to shed light on how AirBnb has been proving so successful, while considering the use of so-called “sharing economy” model

Table of contents

Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

Literature review---------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

Discussion-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

        AirBnb as a representative of the sharing economy------------------------------------6

                Resource usage efficiency------------------------------------------------------------6

                Allocative efficiency------------------------------------------------------------------7

        AirBnb in the scope of hospitality industry---------------------------------------------8

        Comparing AirBnb with hotel rooms----------------------------------------------------9

        Safety concerns----------------------------------------------------------------------------11

Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

References---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14