Sources of Value co-creation, co-destruction and co-recovery at Airbnb in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Figures & data

Table 1. The coding process in practise (main theme: Airbnb’s customer service).

Participants views (extracted from transcripts)	Open coding (line-by-line coding)	Subthemes (axial coding)	Main theme (selective coding)
When needed to cancel booking due to travel restriction from healthcare company in response to COVID-19, Airbnb attended quickly to my call to appeal for refund, asking me to send official document from company. Upon submission of official document, the refund was approved within 24 h. Good customer service throughout the appeal process. Will choose to book via Airbnb again. Excellent customer service terms of problem solving in extraordinary situations like coronavirus. I was able to talk to a person on the phone and one hour later, 100% of the payment for a canceled reservation was given back to me. I can just be thankful for the help in this difficult situation. I will definitely keep on using Airbnb for future trips. Airbnb customer service is amazing. I had to cancel two bookings in Europe due to the coronavirus. Not only did I get all of my money back with zero hassle, I was able to do it myself with a few simple, user-friendly steps online. It was a piece of cake, which was refreshing considering the battle I am in with the airlines right now. Airbnb is a great company and I am a huge fan. Great customer service. Customer service was brilliant and so helpful. The woman we spoke to was very patient and gave us all the help we needed to sort out the changes to our holiday. Highly recommended. Airbnb customer service gave me all my money back for multiple bookings due to COVID-19, which is really nice of them. Extra thanks to Maria at customer support for the additional help. I will continue to use Airbnb as my primary source for bookings. Avoid like the COVID. If I could rate them lower, I would. Everything about their handling of my reservation has been shocking, the customer service the worst I have ever encountered and they have currently robbed me of £150 despite me having a policy that entitles me to that money back. Broken promises, bad internal system, and incompetent staff. Will never use them again AVOID. Customer service is beyond awful. Left Airbnb due to pungent mildew order … and agent would not stop asking for photos. We spoke multiple times and robotically he kept coming back to photos. Wasted hours getting a refund, no fault of my own, absurd run around. Hit and miss experiences. Worst customer service ever. During a Pandemic, Airbnb is stealing the money of their customers. They are forcing the hosts who have the properties to give full refunds, but then Airbnb is keeping their service fees. What service???? Then on top of it, they give you coupons that expires December 2020. No one will be traveling.	good customer service, excellent customer service, excellent customer service from Airbnb, great customer service, customer service is amazing, great customer service during Covid-19 pandemic, great customer, Polite, cheerful, very fast, prompt, very kind, so helpful, quick, knowledgeable, friendly, respectful terrible customer service, bad customer service, horrible customer service, pretty bad customer service, Airbnb customer service real bad, customer service is beyond awful Customer service agent was opinionated, judgmental, appalling, disgraceful, dishonest, unprofessional, heartless, headache, incompetent, did not seem to care, fraud, shockingly bad, not trained, unwilling to help, pretending to provide great service, scripted robots, inflexible, hostile toward customers, absolutely hopeless Cannot get any feedback from Airbnb customer service, no one calls me back, they have not replied once, wasted my time over multiple phone calls, took almost a month to reply, hours long waiting time on the phone, I can never get hold of anyone Such a pain to get money back, they do not give refund, shame that we cannot get refund for a valid cancellation, no offer of compensation, would not refund me after having to cancel because of Covid, ended up only getting half the money as refund Highly disappointed, feel robbed, caused us trauma, added stress, extremely displeased, ruined our holiday, got no opportunity to relax, a painful process, very stressful, trashed my travel, robbed me of £150, I am now £900out of pocket, lost 75% of my holiday charge, they took a $300+ service fee, wasted hours getting a refund, trying for 4 months to get a refund, chatting is 60–90 minute wait, took them almost a month to reply, had been on hold for 2 hours	Interactions with customer service representatives (positive and negative) Difficulties with achieving resolution (negative) Dissatisfaction and satisfaction with resolution offered (negative and positive) Costs incurred by consumers (negative)	Airbnb’s customer service contributed to both value co-recovery and co-destruction

Figure 1. Theoretical framework of sources and resulting value formations (value co-creation, co-destruction and co-recovery) in the context of Airbnb from guest’s perspectives amid COVID-19.