Complaints and resolutions in a peer-to-peer business model

This study aimed to examine the complaint and resolution process in a peer-to-peer (P2P) business model, in the case of Airbnb, and to uncover the underlying attributions of responsibility in the process. A total of 52 complaint episodes posted by hosts and guests of Airbnb were retrieved from a third-party website and analyzed using content analysis. The findings reveal the dynamic involvement patterns among multiple parties at dyadic, triadic, and quadratic levels in the P2P context. The findings also show when managing complaints between hosts and guests, the platform provider follows some prescriptive mechanisms that emphasize resolution over recovery, a drastic departure from that in the conventional business-to-customer (B2C) context. Paradoxically, responsibility is attributed to the platform provider not only when it directly causes the complaints (commission) but also when it is indirectly related to them (association). The platform, particularly, holds diffused responsibilities for consequential negative events.