Negative signals on Peer-to-Peer platforms: The impact of cancellations on host performance across different property types

Scholars investigated the factors enhancing Airbnb hosts' performance; however, less research focused on negative signals, such as host cancellation messages. Cancellations are a negative signal that conspicuously reveals the number of times a host has canceled a pre-existing reservation. Drawing upon signaling theory and product involvement, we argue that cancellation signals have a negative impact on host occupancy, but this impact is moderated by the level of involvement associated with the accommodation type (i.e., private room, shared room, entire apartment). The study used a dataset of 31,778 reviews of 6384 Airbnb listings. The results show that accommodation type moderates the relationship, that is, the impact of cancellations is stronger for higher involvement accommodations (entire apartment) versus low involvement ones (shared rooms). This study ad-vances the literature on negative signals and helps P2P managers understand the impact of cancellations on their revenues.

Automated summary

Scholars have investigated factors that enhance the performance of Airbnb hosts but there is limited research on negative signals like host cancellation messages. This study focuses on the impact of cancellation signals on host occupancy and how it is moderated by the level of involvement associated with the accommodation type. Using a dataset of 31,778 reviews of 6384 Airbnb listings, the results show that cancellations have a stronger impact on higher involvement accommodations (entire apartments) compared to lower involvement ones (shared rooms). This study contributes to the understanding of negative signals and helps P2P managers comprehend the effects of cancellations on their revenues.