Investigating Airbnb listings' amenities relative to hotels

The purpose of this study is to investigate Airbnb listings' amenities relative to hotels. Social network and Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analyses were used to cluster Airbnb amenities. Seven clusters were identified and compared with hotels including safety, check-in service, public area, pet-friendly, home benefit, accessibility, and other amenities. The key differences in amenities are influenced by the different legal and safety regimes that hotels and Airbnb are subjected to, the flexibility versus standardization of amenities and home-based amenities. The findings indicate that the flexibility of amenities that Airbnb offers is a challenge to common practices in the traditional hotel accommodation sector. The research extends on the growing peer-to-peer accommodation literature by focusing on amenities instead of the more commonly conducted guest surveys. It contributes to debates on whether hotels and Airbnb compete with each other on the same legal and safety playing field.