Understanding the impact of host facial characteristics on Airbnb pricing: Integrating facial image analytics into tourism research

TY - JOUR

T1 - Understanding the impact of host facial characteristics on Airbnb pricing

T2 - Integrating facial image analytics into tourism research

AU - Barnes, Stuart J.

AU - Kirshner, Samuel Nathan

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - People rapidly and subconsciously process information from facial images. On sharing economy platforms, facial cues can provide a useful supplement to other information provided by reputation systems. Previous small-scale, rater-informed studies examining trust and attractiveness based on facial features on Airbnb found mixed support for impacts on pricing. We re-examine their impact using deep learning to classify host faces for an extensive data set of Airbnb accommodation in 10 US cities (n = 78,215). Together, trust and attractiveness contribute to almost a 5% increase in prices for Airbnb accommodation. We also test Gray's theory of motivation via the examination of pricing for different types of accommodation, finding that trust is more important in situations of smaller accommodation shared with strangers. The paper concludes with limitations and implications for research and practice.

AB - People rapidly and subconsciously process information from facial images. On sharing economy platforms, facial cues can provide a useful supplement to other information provided by reputation systems. Previous small-scale, rater-informed studies examining trust and attractiveness based on facial features on Airbnb found mixed support for impacts on pricing. We re-examine their impact using deep learning to classify host faces for an extensive data set of Airbnb accommodation in 10 US cities (n = 78,215). Together, trust and attractiveness contribute to almost a 5% increase in prices for Airbnb accommodation. We also test Gray's theory of motivation via the examination of pricing for different types of accommodation, finding that trust is more important in situations of smaller accommodation shared with strangers. The paper concludes with limitations and implications for research and practice.

KW - Attractiveness

KW - Convolutional neural network

KW - Deep learning

KW - Face

KW - Host

KW - Image analytics

KW - Price

KW - Trust

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091648059&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104235

DO - 10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104235

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85091648059

SN - 0261-5177

VL - 83

JO - TOURISM MANAGEMENT

JF - TOURISM MANAGEMENT

M1 - 104235

ER -