Perception Gaps in Homestay Customers’ Unique Consumption Motivations: An Affordance Perspective

ABSTRACTThe development of homestays has brought academic attention to consumer satisfaction on sharing platforms. Three facets of homestays – a home-like feeling, interaction, and authenticity – are the core influencing factors that attract customers. However, little attention has been paid to whether consumers’ motivations are satisfied from the angles of hosts and customers. Based on affordance theory, this study explored perception gaps via text analysis. Regarding a home-like feeling, hosts described household appliances, whereas customers would prefer to know more about room hygiene and facilities. For interaction, hosts typically shared their hobbies; consumers were more interested in the hosts’ character and benefits for customers. In terms of authenticity, in addition to being concerned about the surrounding environment and features of homestays, consumers considered photos’ authenticity. Meanwhile, hosts typically ignored this aspect. This study broadens affordance theory’s scope and offers hosts guidance to attract customers.KEYWORDS: Homestayconsumption motivationsperception gapstext analysisaffordance theory AcknowledgmentsThe authors are grateful to the three anonymous reviewers and the editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of research project for Beijing Philosophy and Social Science Foundation [No.22JCB014], New Faculty of Beijing International Studies University [No.KYQH20A002] and R&D Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission [SM202210031003].Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the The National Social Science Fund of China .