Consumption authenticity in the age of the sharing economy: The key to creating loyal customers who love your brand

Abstract

Airbnb continues to gain popularity as an accommodation alternative to hotels, with the authenticity of the consumption experience being a critical differentiating factor. However, the hospitality literature has not fully explored whether and how brands in the sharing economy as well as traditional hotel brands are facilitating authentictravel experiences and the impact of these experiences on brand love and brand loyalty. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, we develop a model of consumption authenticity in the accommodations industry and identify, operationalize, and measure its components. Second, we examine the impact of consumption authenticity on brand love and brand loyalty in both hotels and Airbnb accommodations. By surveying 1,256 American participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, we found that Airbnb leverages brand, existential, and intra-personal consumption authenticity in creating brand-loving and brand-loyal customers, while hotels utilize only brand authenticity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and areas of future research are identified.