Abstract
Visitors' Motivation For Staying In Airbnb Accommodation
The Airbnb industry contributes significantly to the broader accommodation sector. With over five hundred thousand guests choosing not to stay in traditional establishments, this has led to the continuous success of Airbnb as an alternative and creative accommodation option. This study explores visitors' motivations for staying in Airbnb accommodations in Hartbeespoort. It is unsurprising, as the prominent phenomenon of tourists staying in rented rooms locally has existed for centuries.
The internet has transformed this practice and escalated it to another level, where a platform is introduced for accommodation-rental purposes. Thus, this study aims to evaluate visitors' motivations for staying in Airbnb accommodations, focusing on; visitors' push and pull factor motivation, exploring the relationship between push and pull factors and the difference between average scores, and gender as a valuable tool in delivering a competitive advantage, COVID-19 health protocols and visitors' comprehensive experience, after staying in Airbnb accommodation.
A quantitative method was used in this study, with a research instrument of 5-15 minutes online survey developed platform, known as All Counted, used to formulate a questionnaire. The survey link was distributed via social media platforms and could only be completed by visitors who are staying/ have stayed at an Airbnb accommodation in Hartbeespoort and was completed by 203 visitors. An SPSS version 28.0 was adapted for analysing data. Hypotheses were formulated, and exploratory factors analysis to show a significant relationship between push and pull factor motivation. Various descriptive and inferential analyses were adapted to analyse the data. The survey outlines 13 push and pull motivation items, with seven pull motivation items further divided into two variables; personal pull factor and distinctive pull factor.
The results revealed that more focus is required on pull factors rather than push factors. There is statistical evidence that all tourists that visit Hartbeespoort or stay in Airbnb accommodations strongly show pull factors more than push factor. However, hypotheses reveal that there is no distinct difference for females as push and pull
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factor is the same. The research outcomes for visitors' motivations were accessibility, convenient location, and affordability. Therefore, with this study's research findings, Airbnb hosts and relevant stakeholders should be able to understand visitors' decision- making processes better. Furthermore, results reveal that males are sensitive to pull factorsthan push factors.While this does not apply with females and the growing gender (non-discriminatory gender) may likely be the LGBTQIA+ community, who are also more attracted to pull factor motivation. More focus for Airbnb needs to be on pull factors than push factors. Thus, emphasis needs to be put in pull factors of motivation, resulting in a great satisfactory rate of visitors staying in Airbnb accommodation and repeat visits.
This study contributes to the body of knowledge by revealing the push and pull factors that motivate visitors to stay at Airbnb’s in Hartbeespoort, as well exploring the relationship between push and pull factors between pull and push factors are valuable tools in delivering a competitive advantage for Airbnb’s, deploy different marketing strategies, motivate and deliver services to visitors.