An empathy lens into peer service providers: Personal versus commercial hosts

The focus of the peer-to-peer in tourism (Airbnb) has shifted recently from personal peer providers (i.e., individuals that rent a room) to commercial peer providers (i.e., companies that manage several Airbnb lodgings). While prior research encourages peer service providers (Airbnb hosts) to focus on social interactions, there is scant research on how consumers respond to the social dimension across the two peer provider types (personal vs. commercial provider). Two experimental studies (N = 600) reveal that consumers exhibit higher loyalty towards personal (vs. commercial) providers when they focus on communal norms, and this effect is driven via empathy. Study 2 examines the moderating effect of perceived warmth and demonstrates that low perceived warmth has a detrimental effect on loyalty among personal (vs. commercial) peer providers.