When Information is Missing: Booking Decisions in Peer-To-Peer Accommodation

ABSTRACT

Given the limited tourist capacity for each listing and the frequent introduction of new properties, booking decisions in peer-to-peer accommodations inherently involve uncertainty due to incomplete information available to tourists. However, the psychological mechanism underlying customers’ booking decisions in such accommodations remains unclear. This study confirms that the presence of inference stimuli can enhance tourists’ booking intentions for a property without essential information. Furthermore, this study finds that tourists’ decision confidence mediates the effect of inference stimuli on booking intention, while customers’ information processing styles moderate the relationship. These results generate new insights to understand customers’ booking decisions under uncertainty in sharing economy services and provide strategies to mitigate uncertainty for listings with incomplete information, ultimately boosting accommodation bookings.

KEYWORDS:

• Peer-to-peer accommodation
• inference making
• heuristic cues
• accommodation booking
• Uncertainty reduction theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).